Can i take a Peek at my Stanhopea?

[Undergrounder]

I got a decent sized Stanhopea Embreei on the cheap at an orchid auction. Its looking pretty healthy and despite my attempts to sizzle its poor little leaves at one stage, it survived and is looking good.

Its coming up to summer and i heard that Stanhopeas flower in the summer.

Anyway i'm really really looking forward to this thing flowering! I just think its the coolest concept. The only problem is, if i dig it up a little and peek under the roots to see if a flower spike is forming will it get annoyed at me and stop flowering or get upset that i messed with its roots or something?

It could be in bud right now and i don't know it! The suspension is killing me.

[isurus79]

I would probably just leave it alone. Orchids can be pretty tempermental and Im pretty sure Ive wrecked atleast a few blooms through impatience!! I think sometimes the hardest part of growing these guys is sitting on your hands!!

[Frdemetr]

I agree with Isurus. Be patient. The spikes (if there are some spikes...cross your fingers!!) will find their way; they ever find (well, the spikes allways will find their way if the Stan is properly growing inside a wooden or wire basket, or something like that, of course!). Good luck!

[smweaver]

Undergrounder, what is your Stanhopea growing in? If it's in moss or a mostly-moss based mix, you can cheat a little by gently pulling the moss away from the base of the pseudobulbs. Take a look at the base of the plant, and if you see either a growing point that looks like it's growing in the wrong direction (pointing downward instead of up), or if you see what looks like a white-colored thick stalk that's penetrating the mix (like a giant taproot), then you're in luck! But as the others said, be careful. Stanhopeas, in my experience, aren't finicky plants that will readily abort their spikes (I've even had the experience of repotting a couple and finding, much to my surprise, a spike or two burrowing its way through the mix--and neither plant aborted the spikes after I very carefully put them back in their old baskets). But still, you probably shouldn't push your luck by manhandling them too much if you can avoid it.

[Undergrounder]

Thanks everyone!

To be honest i'm not sure what its growing in. It actually looks like soil, but it might be just a heavy peat-based mix. I got it from an orchid auction and it's in a wire basket ringed with bark so whatever it is in i think the previous owner knew what they were doing. It's got 3 largish leaves and another 3 bulbs.

I want to put it in fresh mix but as you've suggested, i think i'll wait until it's flowered, if it is going to.

As a follow up question, what mix do stanhopeas like?

[Frdemetr]

Undergrounder,
I my conditions (I guess not so much different than yours in Australia - Capricorn Tropic latitude, ~800m altitude), Stans LOVE tree-fern fiber as media; unfortunately this media is now forbiden in Brazil (due predatory collect in the past, the brazilian tree-fern Dicksonia sellowiana is now a serious endangered species in nature). I still have some old remains of tree-fern fiber, and I'm using it as a 'envelope' (in the bottom, sides and top of the baskets) to preserve humidity, and using a mix of coconut chips, pinus bark, pinus cone, sphagnum moss and carcoal as main media. I'm trying also sphagnum moss in replacement of tree-fern fiber, in same way of use, with reasonable results.

[Undergrounder]

Thanks Frederico, do you mean chopped fiber or mounted on a tree fern fiber board?

I live in Sydney so its a bit more temperate than the tropic of capricorn. The chopped coconut husk, bark and sphagnum sounds like a good mix though!

[Frdemetr]

Hi Under,
I mean chopped tree-fern fiber; a 'stick' made of tree-fern is a very good choice to mounting Stans, due its flowering habits; but these boards or 'sticks' are now almost impossible to find!