New collector with Dracula diabola mounted June 10, '22 - flower spike?

[FL_Orchid_Collector]

(Please see attachment - apparently I can't add inline images yet) I've been caring for orchids for years and started my own collection about a week ago. I mounted this Dracula diabola Friday and it had two new growths in the pot which were pleated like oncidiums which had inconsistent water. It's mounted maybe an inch above water in which mosquitofish, snails, and several aquatic plants reside, and its water is wicked up from there by the wood. It has low pH but high tds. The temp stays between 72 and 76 F unless power goes out. This growth has appeared since Friday and I'm not sure if it's a leaf or a flower spike, and if it's a flower does it mean it loves the setup or does it know it's about to die and it wants to set seed ASAP?

[Roberta]

It looks like a new growth to me, but still a bit soon to tell. Actually, the low temp is a little warm for most Dracs, especially this one is quite high elevation (cloud forest 2200-2600 m) . I put my Dracs in plastic baskets with sphagnum (loosely packed) because they tend to send the flower spikes out the sides or bottom of the basket though the photos that I found of this one, it appears to keep the flowers higher, anyhow mount is fine as long as you can keep it moist. I have found that they can tolerate warmer days if they can cool off at night (shoot for 60-65 deg F overnight)

Some species are more forgiving of warmth than others. You might want to look for species that grow below about 1600-1800 m to have them be a bit more tolerant of your conditions.

[FL_Orchid_Collector]

Hmm.. the humans here are starting to need 71 at night... the new growth is straight that says it likes the moisture level right? And if tds is too high I will see burns like fertilizer salt burns right? Oh man I'm nervous, I was prepared for it to die but not for new growth and nice roots and visions of flower spikes and then it dies haha. I don't have a better environment for it except maybe to remount it further above the water. I have two other orchids in the same terrarium and they look very happy but I put my Dracula in such a shady spot I can't interpret the leaf colors. I looked 20 minutes ago and the visible roots were still green as of then.



---------- Post added at 07:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:58 PM ----------

I understand, and I'm not half surprised you were able to edit my post. It makes sense to go by months, not days or weeks. I guess it's not a slim chance they're just trying to blast some seeds out before the conditions overwhelm them. At least if it happens I'll know what did it and I can't claim I didn't learn anything. Best case scenario I'll find a culture method no one knew before (not bloody likely amirite?)!

[Roberta]

Oops... didn't mean to edit, should Quote. Mods can get into trouble not watching what they are dong. Sorry.

---------- Post added at 04:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:54 PM ----------

Originally Posted by FL_Orchid_Collector

Hmm.. the humans here are starting to need 71 at night... the new growth is straight that says it likes the moisture level right? And if tds is too high I will see burns like fertilizer salt burns right? Oh man I'm nervous, I was prepared for it to die but not for new growth and nice roots and visions of flower spikes and then it dies haha. I don't have a better environment for it except maybe to remount it further above the water. I have two other orchids in the same terrarium and they look very happy but I put my Dracula in such a shady spot I can't interpret the leaf colors. I looked 20 minutes ago and the visible roots were still green as of then.



---------- Post added at 07:46 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:58 PM ----------

I understand, and I'm not half surprised you were able to edit my post. It makes sense to go by months, not days or weeks. I guess it's not a slim chance they're just trying to blast some seeds out before the conditions overwhelm them. At least if it happens I'll know what did it and I can't claim I didn't learn anything. Best case scenario I'll find a culture method no one knew before (not bloody likely amirite?)!

First, when you grow orchids, you need patience... progress or "regress" is likely visible on a time frame of months not days or weeks.

Draculas do need pure water - RO or DI or Distilled. They, and other high-elevation cloud forest plants, have this requirement generally. (My own success rate went up dramatically after I got a RO system, after growing for many years with city water which isn't horrid by southern California standards, but not great.) Most genera of orchids (Cyms, Catts, most Oncidiums, most Dendrobiums but not all) are less picky.

If you're going to get into those cloud forest plants, you likely will be needing to set up a separate environment for them. Check out some of the posts from DirtyCoconuts - he is in the Miami area, ended up with a bunch of cool-growing Pleurothalids when someone flaked on a group purchase, and has had some significant successes. But in general, when you're selecting orchids for your new, expanding collection, don't go just on "I like I want it" . An "easy orchid" is one that grows under conditions that you have without going to a lot of trouble. You can succeed with the difficult ones, but it will take a lot more effort. For species, check out the Internet Orchid Species Photo Encylopedia (IOSPE) My own "rule of thumb" for my southern California conditions (winter nights in low 40's F occasionally down close to freezing and days mostly 60-70 deg F, summer nights high 60's F and days in the 80's F occasionally much warmer) is species that grow in tropical latitudes from about 1300-2500 m, adjusting to lower elevations at higher latitudes. In Florida, you probably want to concentrate on species that grow below around 500-800 m down to sea level, at tropical latitudes for ease of growing, especially outdoors.

But remember, orchids come from every continent except Antarctica, from elevations from sea level to above tree line, from the equator to near the Arctic circle. Clearly, many different environments, 25000-30000 species, nobody can grow everything!

[FL_Orchid_Collector]

Yes, you're right. I picked those three because I wanted to try orchids in that environment and I choose for compact size, low light, constant moisture, high humidity, moderate temps, and upright, epiphytic growth habits. The Bulbophyllum arrived as two separate plants due to a labeling error so one is going to be raised in Florida heat but high humidity and plenty of shade. I'm going to pit them against each other and when one is obviously doing better I'll put the other one in the same environment. I bet there's some readers getting stressed about my plant abuse haha.

---------- Post added at 08:21 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:20 PM ----------

And I've been strongly considering getting an RO unit.

[Roberta]

Depending on how much water you need, there are some small portable RO units that you might try while you are figuring out what you really need - check out Amazon or your friendly hydroponics store. Most of your orchids don't need it. But you'll see which ones are picky. One note... if you use RO water you'll need a fertilizer that includes calcium and magnesium. If you use tap water, the usual fertilizers don't have those "major" minerals since the tap water has them. But just note that fertilizer is the least important of all the cultural factors... orchids need some but think of it as "vitamins" not "food". Deficiencies such as lack of Ca and Mg will take months or a year or so to show up, so these need to be addressed but not on an emergency basis.

[FL_Orchid_Collector]

There's a leaf tip sticking out similar to Catt. or Bulbophyllum. I don't see any blackening leaf tips and the leaf color looks good but the roots aren't happy.

[Roberta]

Looks like you have a new growth on the way. New growth means new roots. But Dracs really, really don't like high TDS. They also don't like much fertilizer. I suspect that the water may have more nitrogen than desirable, from fish poop. I also have my doubts about the constantly-wet mount.

Also... remember that orchids do everything slowly. So you will not be able to come to any useful conclusions in just a few days. You also have the fact that you just got this plant, so it also is adjusting to a new environment as well as recovering from the stress of shipping. But you need to observe it over several months to know whether your environment is good or bad or neither.

[Roberta]

For outdoor growing in Florida, consider Vandas. They love humidity and frequent rain. Most also like heat. Definitely epiphytes, hang them up. Do take a look through this thread DirtyCoconuts presents: The flora and fauna of the Coconuts Compound to get some ideas as to what grows outdoors in the Miami area.

[FL_Orchid_Collector]

Yep, unfortunately rain rarely falls where the orchids are. There are new developments with the Dracula, but I realize it's probably not a beginner's orchid so I'm going to post in the pleurothallids (spelling?) forum.