Habineria: Where are we going wrong?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I forgot to mention. Terrestrial orchids are rather stingy when it comes to growing roots.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Oh, yeah...

Watering for Habenarias should be done seasonally.

They should start to be watered towards the middle of spring. And watering should end when the temperatures either go below 60 F at night or sometime during early to mid fall.



Wow...I keep forgetting to mention other things...


Root tubers are not salvageable unlike stem tubers (potatoes are stem tubers - they have multiple "eyes").

It only has one "eye" for the shoot to grow. Once the tuber rots, it's sayonara baby.

Tuber rot is every Habenaria grower's nightmare.


Here's the clincher...

Your Habenaria medusae may have a certain sensitivity to not being grown terrestrially like it should've been grown.

This is due to the fact that many different species of terrestrial orchids tend to have differing levels of affinity to their symbiotic partners - mycorrhizal fungi.

I suggest you read up about these.


Other than that, without info on how you guys cultivate your plant, I can't help you because I don't know how to guide you into making whatever kinds of adjustments you guys need to make.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I also don't recommend growing any Habenarias in just bark and perlite. Most of them don't even grow that way in the wild.

[billc]

Phillip, Do you know of any sources to buy Habenaria in the US? It's a beautiful flower.

Bill

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

At the moment, I only know of one place that sells them, and it's not up for sale on their website at the moment.

[David1985]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

What are the numerical values for the temperature (please note the night and day temperatures please - not to mention the seasonal temperatures) and humidity?

So far the temperature has been in the mid to high 20s C with high humidity.

What's the watering regimen?

Once a week misting, same as before when it was growing fine.

Were the leaves misted or not? If so, how often was it done?

No.

What kind of pot did you use? Plastic? Terra cotta?

It was in the plastic one it came in.

Did you guys know that this was a terrestrial orchid and not an epiphytical one?

It's growing in what the grower grew it in--this guy

Did you know that this plant goes deciduous and becomes dormant?

He did explain that when we bought it. And it did that and was coming back. The tuber got bigger than what we started with and it was coming up nicely.

They should start to be watered towards the middle of spring. And watering should end when the temperatures either go below 60 F at night or sometime during early to mid fall.

When it gets to be fall, this advice will be helpful. Right now we're fantasizing about going below 60 F. It was moistened slightly during the winter (kept inside) to keep it from drying out, and as I said before it came back quite happily. It's only recently that it decided to start drooping.

[quote]Your Habenaria medusae may have a certain sensitivity to not being grown terrestrially like it should've been grown.

This is due to the fact that many different species of terrestrial orchids tend to have differing levels of affinity to their symbiotic partners - mycorrhizal fungi.[quote]

Define terrestrial.

We're growing it the same way we got it, from a professional grower.

I also don't recommend growing any Habenarias in just bark and perlite. Most of them don't even grow that way in the wild.

Then what do you suggest? As I said, that's how we got it, and the grower has been in the business for 30 years.

EDIT: my mother states that it has whiskers on it and isn't that soft; only on the surface. She describes it as feeling like 'a furry potato.'

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[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

1. I suspected as much...

What is warm for you is actually pretty mild in temperatures for Habenaria medusae. It's currently within the temperature range the plant is used to.

In Indonesia, where it comes from, it can easily get up into the 100's and over in the lowlands. Nighttime temperatures are frequently in the 60's during the warm months.

Humidity is very high in Indo, it's frequently above 70%.

I've often been told that if you were sweating before you took a shower, you'll be sweating again right after you take one.

I'm Chinese-Indonesian btw. I've been to Indo when I was a kid, and I still have relatives there. Because of how uncomfortable it was for me visiting Indo, and being raised in the comfortable good old US of A, I have a difficult time wanting to go back.

2. It isn't being watered enough during growing season. This plant comes from Indonesia and growing season is during the monsoons.

When it rains in Indo, it pours. What's rain for us is drizzle to them.

Let's put it to you a different way. Indo floods easily during rains.

3. Habenaria medusae is a true terrestrial. There are currently no pictures of it in the wild. But from what I'm seeing of pics from the surrounding areas of where it comes from, it's pretty flat. So I'm assuming it doesn't grow on rocks as much as some of the other Habenarias do.

It is also said to be found near a place called Kali Limpung Lanik, well I happen to understand the Indonesian language just a tiny bit enough to know what the word "kali" means. It means "river". So it's most likely found in the ground near seasonal rivers or streams in well drained sandy loam.

If that's the case, the mix as per advised in the link I posted is the way to go.

4. Growing in a plastic pot is better than a terra cotta one for this species as terra cotta pots tend to keep things too cool, especially in a place that's already cool.

5. Just because the company you bought it from has been in business for 30 yrs and is a professional grower doesn't mean diddly squat for this species they sold you.

I've been growing orchid for 15 yrs. I've grown this species before.

I'm currently growing other species of Habenaria and relatives.

I currently have Habenaria carnea growing for 2 seasons already, and these are much trickier to grow.

I used to be the greenhouse manager in training for a well known orchid vendor specializing in Phals here in SoCal. So I understand the business to a certain degree.

The key word being "business".

6. Just because your mom describes it as a hairy potato, (which is everyone's description of it), doesn't mean it's a stem tuber!

I've seen what the tubers look like.

All Habenarias have tuberous roots, and they for the most part look like "hairy potatoes".

[David1985]

6. Just because your mom describes it as a hairy potato, (which is everyone's description of it), doesn't mean it's a stem tuber!

Where did I say that it was?

We have a compost heap outside, but we don't know if it's sterile enough to use.

Thanks for trying.