Spathoglottis plicata : Care & Tips

[aldrine.einsteen]

Hi Fellas,

Does anyone have experiences with "Spathoglottis plicata"? Their Growing habitat, watering requirements and feeding routine. Any snippets of information are welcome.

Basically i want to know how best i can care for them.

Should the soil be wet all the time, or let it dry up?

Aldrine

[WhiteRabbit]

[Optimist]

Originally Posted by aldrine.einsteen

Hi Fellas,

Does anyone have experiences with "Spathoglottis plicata"? Their Growing habitat, watering requirements and feeding routine. Any snippets of information are welcome.

Basically i want to know how best i can care for them.

Should the soil be wet all the time, or let it dry up?

Aldrine

I have a spath 'grape swirl'. I do not know if it is a plicata, but you can google it under both names. I find it very easy care, though it is a small plant. It needs nearly full sun. Tempratures should be similar to Hawaii, where I have read it grows like a weed. It would be happy with catleya or dendrobium nobile light. It needs fine well draining medum like choir or the mix used for phaphs. Watering is tricky because you can only water with RO water, Distilled, or natural rain water or the leaf tips will burn. Err on the side of dryness, so while the soil may be damp, you should let it go just to the wet side of dry. It also does not like a lot of fertilizer. A tea of decomposed leaves is better than man made fertiliser.

I grow mine in a regular ceramic pot.

[aldrine.einsteen]

My recently bloomed S. Plicata

[aldrine.einsteen]

Is Staking Important... My Spike have started to droop with weight? Should they be staked?

[Optimist]

Staking really does not make much sense to me. I guess it is up to your sence of "presentation". No orchid really needs to be staked. People do it for their own aesthetic reasons. To me, they seem a bit like calla lillies. You would not stake every lilly if you had a clump.

[Ray]

This is how I'm growing them:

Spathoglottis Culture

[AussieVanda]

The things are like weeds here, gown casually in many gardens, hard to kill. Rich soil, leaf litter/mould and mix in stuff like gravel, perlite etc to give some decent drainage. Plicata is an evergreen but still enjoys a quiet period during the dry season or winter.

[Ray]

I have two of them - Spathoglottis unguiculata 'Grapette', and a very complex hybrid that only the commercial name is maintained - Mello Yellow (lousy pictures from our store)

[isurus79]

In Hawaii, they would grow in the wetter parts of the islands, but always in very shallow, rocky soil that drained quickly. They like medium amount of sun and warm temperatures.