Bulbophyllum mastersianum - culture questions (mounting, light levels)

[Lacie]

Hi All! I currently have a Bulbo. mastersianum on it's way to me. I bought it from Jim Marlow who wrote on the website that it can stand drying a bit between watering and that they like higher light, approaching Cattleya conditions to flower. I don't have any Cattleya, but from what I understand they like higher light than most Phals and Bulbos. Because of this I was hoping to mount it, and put it in a room with higher light levels than my other two Bulbos get (they are on a shaded north windowsill - I've only had them a few months, haven't flowered for me yet).

So my questions are:
I bought the B. mastersianum hoping to mount it on a cedar slat mount which I am planning to cover in (well rinsed!) coco fiber and then a layer of sphagnum for moisture. Do you think it will be happy this way? Also with the sphagnum and the thin little Bulbo roots am I just setting myself up for a nightmare when the sphag breaks down and I need to remount?

As for light, I am planning to place it about 7 feet from a south facing window (shaded by sheer current). The room stays pretty bright all day, and the plant would get filtered "direct" sun (i.e. light falling right on it, but through a curtain) in the late afternoon/early evening. It would also be shaded a bit by another plant, so it would be more like dappled light conditions. Does this sound ok? The room is fairly warm during the day (winter temps probably 70 day, 65 or a bit less at night; summer is always hot and humid because I don't have A/C )

Thanks for any advice!

[malteseproverb]

Following because I also just got a mastersianum. I didn't realize they had different cultural needs than most bulbos, though I noticed that it has long roots where most bulbos have very shallow roots.

I already have a bulbo, which is mounted to treefern with sphagnum on top, and I give it more light than what you are proposing for your mastersianum. I keep it less than a foot away from a southeast window with no curtain. In the summer, I leave it outside facing north against a wall where it gets a great deal of reflected light from my concrete yard as well as some direct sun. I'm growing the mastersianum under lights right now.

[Lacie]

hm, interesting to hear your bulbo can stand so much light! Can I ask what kind it is? I have two so far (a Wilmar Galaxy Star, and a Fascinator). I just stuck them both with my Phals since all I knew was they preferred lower light, and they've been doing ok (the Fascinator put out a new growth recently, though other than that they've mostly just been making roots).
About how much light does the mastersianum get from the lights? I don't know anything about grow lights...

[malteseproverb]

It's a bulbo longiflorum. It put out 6 growths and bloomed last growing season. It's putting out new growths and roots right now. I could probably give it less light and it would do fine, but I hang all of my mounts on a clothes rack by a southeast window. I just think 7 feet away from a window is excessive, even if it's a room full of windows, unless it's the height of summer. And for cattleyas I keep them in an east bay window year round, no curtains, up front, to give them as much light as possible. They always bloom.

I'm new to lights, just got some for my basement this month, so I don't have any proven results with them and bulbos. I have one panel of high output T5 with 6 lights, and I keep the bulbo in question about a foot below the lights. I'll probably move it a bit closer now though. Mine is pretty small, and I just repotted it. I inherited it and a bunch of other orchids plus the lights.

[SaraJean]

I don’t grow this species but I do have about 30 or so bulbos so I’ll try to help out and hopefully someone else will jump in
Looking at where this species grows, warm-hot temps will be good (especially with no A/C). If you are running a heater or have central heat, I would be concerned that the air would be too dry for a mounted bulbo. If you are dead set on mounting it: If you can provide high humidity year round, great, but it would still need to be watered heavily every day. Don’t just wet the moss or coco fiber with a spray bottle. If that sounds like too much work, I would stick to a basket or even a plastic pot that has some packing peanuts in the bottom of it to take up space. I recently switched some of my bulbos to baskets with sphagnum moss and have had some really great results because they are staying more evenly moist yet airy. My growing conditions are outdoors in a sub-tropical area that gets super high temps in the summer and 60%-98% humidity almost year round. I still water my bulbos in baskets and pots every day in the spring-fall and every 2-3 days in the winter, depending on the temperatures. Mounted ones still get watered every day in the winter and at least once a day in the rest of the year. Even though you were told this can grow dryer than other bulbos, I would suspect that means “dryer, for a bulbo”, that it still needs significantly more water than most other orchids. Do you grow any other bulbophyllums?

As far as light levels go, I definitely grow them bright. Estacion Seca and CambriaWhat, have some great threads on this and after reading them I bumped up my light levels to where they are now growing with my dendrobiums and cattleyas. Most are getting 5-6+ hours of sun filtered through a 50% shade cloth, most of them also get a couple of hours of direct sun at some point throughout the day. I had always read that they liked shadier, phal conditions, this doesn’t seem to be the case for any of mine. All of them have responded extremely well after I increased the light: larger leaves and p-bulbs, much more vigorous growing, and they are blooming ( finally!). It doesn’t sound like yours would be getting enough bright light for a long enough duration of time. You can always try to increase in gradually and watch for burning. I would still be wary of unfiltered afternoon sun, but through a curtain could be ok depending on how much light it filters.

If you want to know more about growing under lights, there is a section on this forum for that topic specifically. I don’t use grow lights but there seems to be a lot of factors involved! Good luck

[Lacie]

Thanks so much SaraJean and malteseproverb for your responses! Thinking over it more I've decided I won't mount it. I'll probably see how it's growing when it arrives and work from there, but thinking of basket and sphag. My other two Bulbos are both in bark and sphag mixes since I have been having a love/hate relationship with sphag recently.

As for the light, hearing from you and reading some other posts on here I'm thinking I should start adjusting all my Bulbos to higher light! It seems most people have had better luck with blooms in higher light. Now I just need to figure out where to put everything...

---------- Post added at 08:22 PM ---------- Previous post was at 08:18 PM ----------

Oh, and yes SaraJean, I figured the directions about it standing drying a bit just meant “dryer, for a bulbo” (specifically he wrote it didn't like to dry out but also not to stay wet). I'm currently watering my other two daily to every other day depending on how they look/feel, plus a good misting daily (to twice daily), I figured for the mastersianum Marlow's directions might mean every other day to every three days depending on the weather. I guess I'll just feel it out!

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[Lacie]

It arrived today! I haven't repotted it yet, just stuck it in a wooden vanda basket because the little plastic basket it is in isn't very stable, thinking I'll probably just pot it in the basket since it looks so nice

Also, nice surprise that the little Sedirea japonica that I ordered with it came in spike!

[Lacie]

Just thought I would post an update as my little mastersianum recently started putting out a new growth! I ended up potting it in a vanda basket and it has been pretty happy there. I water every to every other day (sometimes every three if I forget, and it doesn't seem to mind). I currently have it hanging in a north facing window. I would like to move it and my other bulbos to higher light levels since I still have not had any blooms on any, but unfortunately I just don't know where to put them in my little apartment so I may just need to settle for new ps-bulbs for now (I have recently been bringing them into my bedroom for a few hours during the day to get some brighter light, but I can't keep them strewn all over my desk/floor...). Anyway, I'm glad it is happy and growing!

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by Lacie

...I would like to move it and my other bulbos to higher light levels since I still have not had any blooms on any, but unfortunately I just don't know where to put them in my little apartment so I may just need to settle for new ps-bulbs for now (I have recently been bringing them into my bedroom for a few hours during the day to get some brighter light, but I can't keep them strewn all over my desk/floor...)

The brighter light can help a bit.

You may also want to consider putting them in an area where they get at least a 5 degree Fahrenheit temperature change between day and night, and a slight seasonal change that the Bulbos are comfortable in.

If the Bulbos have at least 5 mature pseudobulbs, you could see some blooms.

[nzadro]

Originally Posted by Lacie

Just thought I would post an update as my little mastersianum recently started putting out a new growth! I ended up potting it in a vanda basket and it has been pretty happy there. I water every to every other day (sometimes every three if I forget, and it doesn't seem to mind). I currently have it hanging in a north facing window. I would like to move it and my other bulbos to higher light levels since I still have not had any blooms on any, but unfortunately I just don't know where to put them in my little apartment so I may just need to settle for new ps-bulbs for now (I have recently been bringing them into my bedroom for a few hours during the day to get some brighter light, but I can't keep them strewn all over my desk/floor...). Anyway, I'm glad it is happy and growing!

Lacie, how is your mastersianum doing? I just got one as a birthday present and sort of wondering what window to place it in - southwest vs northwest. Since we are both in NYC, we have similar environments (down to the apartment size ) All the best! Thanks!