Ever since visiting Singapore and stopping by the Orchid Show, I have wanted to try growing vanda orchids, especially vanda coerulea hybrids. However, I live in California where humidity is 50% and nights are cold. Even growing grocery store-bought orchids is a challenge for me; their leaves fall off, turning brown, or their roots grow fungus, or they just see I am nearby and decide to end it all. So thinking I could grow vandas was just a dream (or hubris).
Then my son, who was 20 at the time, took a C++ programming class at a local community college, so I wanted to start a project that would get him interested in something hands-on. I also wanted to play around with machine deep learning, transfer and active learning for automatically determining the health of the orchids. I am finding plant biology to be interesting, and vertical farming, and this is a good starter project.
So I embarked on a project to build an environment that would automatically look after orchids for 3 to 4 months, giving them the temperature and humidity they need, light, water, fertilization and air flow. The goal was to have four orchids in this orchidarium, with two blooming at any one time. I also have a brother-in-law Djohaeri Mustafa in Jakarta who is accomplished at growing vanda orchids, and he advised me on the approach taken. It was not going to be easy, since vandas are slow growing and very picky about their growing conditions.
The total cost of parts is US$2,500. The most expensive parts are the table, terrarium and watering system.