Tolumnia-What is happening?

[Luizacft]

Do you know if your plant is drying too fast? I have a tolumnia planted in rocks which i need to water daily. Another one is planted on rocks + bark and I water her every 2 days at the moment. If you're able to find out if your plant is drying fast, you can adjust the watering procedure. I water both of them very thorough (soak the pot in water for about 15 minutes - do not let the leaves itself below water). I considered mounting both, but I'm not in the mood to change their environment and go through the 'i hate you' period after repotting.


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Do. Or do not. There is no try.

[Hansu.nahar]

I live in India (M.P.) as well and manage to grow them happily in the low humidity I have.

As mentioned by so many above, they absolutely have to dry out between waterings.

I would suggest you to remove them from this pot and put them in a small clay pot. Clay keeps the interior extremely airy and the plant dries out faster.

Use the small ones that you get when you order tea. In my region they are called "Kulhar" . I have potted them in Kulhars (with a drainage hole at the bottom, of course) in a coarse mix of lava rock, bark and some LECA.

Put some bark (if you have) or charcoal mixed with a tiny amount of coconut husk (you can skip the coconut husk altogether if your region has high humidity) and put the plant in, in such a way that some of its roots are exposed to the air (Find the photos of my plants attached). Make sure that the medium is extremely airy and in no way packed. Water daily using a hair spray bottle and make sure that you wet all the roots. The plant should dry out completely in about 4 hours.

In about a month, my tolumnias started putting out new roots and one of them is currently in spike! *dance*

I hope you succeed! Good luck!

[mtorchid]

To add to the good advice that has been posted regarding "drying out" between waterings, keep in mind that "dry" in the Caribbean (their native habitat) is at least 50%+ relative humidity when it's not raining.

Tolumnia in pots like to be "root bound" meaning more roots to medium volume, meaning the ability for those roots to take in all of the available moisture quickly before the "dry out" period- not sitting in saturated medium.

They commonly ship in very small, clay pots with very little medium. I mist mine (in such a clay pot) every morning in a bright room with a humidifier keeping the area at 50-60% constant humidity. It's good for me and the orchids!

My Tolumnia is growing out of its 2 inch pot, so at some point I'll put it in a 3 inch pot, but as long as the roots receive daily waterings and "dry out", there's no hurry to re-pot. Hope your Tolumnia survives its transition.

[plantbuddy]

I feel your pain. I've killed more of those Tolumnias than you can imagine.

These days, I water (spray, since they are on bark slabs) every morning and my plants are doing very well. They are in direct air movement and dry out quickly. 26'C during the day and 55% humidity.

Hope this helps