Chiloschista lunifera, help needed

[CROrchid]

Hi everyone,

Some two weeks ago I got a chiloshista lunifera orchid (the leafless orchid). The plant came "mounted" on a plastic mesh, had two small leaves and the roots seem to be covered by a thin layer of dark green powder (which can be swabbed away by cotton swabs) which I suppose are algae?

So during the following week, the leaves have fallen off (which I suppose is normal), but the roots have started to dry out rapidly. At first I watered the orchid once every two days, then once every day and now I do it twice a day, by soaking it in distilled water for 10mins. When the orchid was in open air, it seemed to dry out in almost an hour. Since a few days ago, I have moved it into a small terrarium (40x30x30cm), placed the hydroton balls on the floor (which I soak in water previously) of the terrarium and fog it (using ultrasonic humidifier) twice a day. This seemed to have allowed the roots to be moist for hours (I don't know if it's a good thing?). I also tried placing a fan inside the terrarium to blow gently in the direction of the orchid, but this makes the roots dry out rapidly.

The terrarium is placed on the southern window, but never receives direct sunlight.

So my questions are,
1. Am I doing something wrong? I don't really see it getting better.
2. Does it need to dry out completely between soakings and, if so, how long to wait after it has dried out before next watering? The humidity in the terrarium seems to be rather high now, judging by the glass fogging.
3. Is a fan inside a good or bad thing, how important is air movement?

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[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Asian Ghost Orchids such as the species Chiloschista lunifera are not terribly easy to grow, but out of the leafless orchids, they are the easier ones to grow. If this is any indicator of what is to happen if you try growing leafless orchids, then you have an idea of what you'll be faced with if you try growing another one. You will have to accommodate the plant in a similar way.

First off, Chiloschista spp. grow on tree branches without moss growing on them, but there seems to be quite a bit of algae growing on them due to high humidity. High humidity is important to growing Chiloschista spp. You will have a difficult time with this group of orchids if the humidity is not at least 60%. It should be between 80% - 90%.

Secondly, even though you want to have a high humidity situation for them to be growing in, you also want the roots to dry out between waterings. You do not want the roots to be staying wet for hours or days.

Thirdly, they have a dormancy period during the winter. You have to reduce the amount of water you provide, but not the humidity, at this time.

The light should be bright shade to moderately bright indirect light.

It should also be grown intermediate to warm 15.6 C - 35 C (60 F - 95 F).

I also suggest using a piece of wood as a mount without using moss at all. Make sure the wood is water absorbent though.

Lastly, the leaves do fall off at one point or another. If the leaves fall off, the job of photosynthesis goes to the roots.

I hope this gives you an idea of how to approach the situation.

[CROrchid]

Thank you very much for the reply!

You will have a difficult time with this group of orchids if the humidity is not at least 60%. It should be between 80% - 90%.

Secondly, even though you want to have a high humidity situation for them to be growing in, you also want the roots to dry out between waterings. You do not want the roots to be staying wet for hours or days.

Just to make sure I understand. In the terrarium, the humidity is very high since it's a closed system, this means that when I water the orchid, 8 hours later, the roots are still green. Should I wait until they revert to silver color before the next watering/soaking?
As I mentioned before, adding a fan inside seems to dry the plant in less than an hour, but is that a good thing or not?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Do not soak.

Water when dry. Once to twice a day during growing season depending on your growing conditions are ok. During the dry season, hold water back to once every 2 days.

Fan is ok, but don't blow directly on it. You want it to dry out around the 1 - 2 hours time frame. If it stays too wet, it will rot out.

[CROrchid]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

Do not soak.

Water when dry. Once to twice a day during growing season depending on your growing conditions are ok. During the dry season, hold water back to once every 2 days.

Fan is ok, but don't blow directly on it. You want it to dry out around the 1 - 2 hours time frame. If it stays too wet, it will rot out.

Thank you for the useful advice. Since then I have moved it out of the terrarium because it was hard to maintain high humidity without having the plant stay dripping wet for hours and hours.

I took a large bottle, cut it open horizontally in the part where it gets narrower to the top, laid the stick across it and hung the plant. On the bottom of the bottle, I put some 2cm of hydroton pebbles and filled up to 1cm with water. I then put the top part that I cut back on but left the cap off so it has a hole of some 6cm for humidity to slowly go out of it which allows the plant to dry out cca an hour after watering it.
I put the picture of the "setup" in the attachment.

My digital humidity meter and relay (hygrostat) has also finally arrived and I put the probe inside the bottle to measure humidity. Impressively enough, I achieve around 74-85% RH during the day and 85-95% RH during the night, without even using the humidifier at all!

As for the results with the plant itself, I've noticed the roots have stopped drying out and it produced a small green "leaf spike". I'm not sure if this is so that it can regain some strength by photosynthesizing with leaves before it produces new roots to catch up for the ones that dried out?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Sounds and looks perfect. Just do your thing. It'll bloom next year.