Bulbophyllum beccarii

[estación seca]

Yesterday I bought a medium-size Bulbophyllum beccarii from Ben Ooi at the Tamiami Orchid Exposition. Three extra-large plants caught my eye. They had been pre-ordered for pickup at the show. The large plants had 2- 3 large leaves each. They were wrapping themselves around a mount. Mounts were a piece of plastic pipe wrapped with coconut fiber.

I spoke with Ben at length. He said they should remain quite wet, and the humidity must stay high. He said 40% humidity was probably too low, and 60% was around the acceptable minimum. He said the leaves lose water quickly and become thin without enough water, and plump up when re-watered.

He has a customer who mounted the plant on a tree fern log, and stands the log in a bucket filled with water.

My plant is mounted on a cylinder of plastic-coated wire fencing, which is stuffed with coconut fiber chips. The rhizome extends from the base of the cylinder to near the top. The plant has two leafless pseudobulbs and two leaves.

My plant was dry at the show, hanging on the display. I brought it back to my host's home and submerged it in a vase of water overnight. To my surprise, the following morning the plant had pushed a new growth, already a half inch / 1.5cm long. I am certain this was not there at the show. I examined both plants available carefully, and did not see any reason to pick one over the other. Had that new growth been there I would have chosen this plant without hesitation.

[SaraJean]

Thanks for posting this and what a great buy! I have been eyeballing one of these for a while now but was unsure of some of the more specific cultural requirements. I might send an email Louisiana Orchid connection, I think I remember that they had a couple of these laying around at some point.. That modified mount set up you have it on looks great

[Leafmite]

Congratulations on your new acquisition.

As long as the roots also have exposure to humid air, setting the mounts directly in water is a great way to grow orchids that need to stay damp. I find it the easiest way to give these types of orchids exactly what they want.

I grow my Bulbos in a tank and just set the pots or mounts directly on the layer of lava rock/moss on the bottom so that the mount or moss can soak up water as needed. One noID Bulbo grows directly on the layer of moss that sits on the rock. I would probably grow all of them that way if I had a larger tank.

[Rothrock42]

That is such a cool species. I love the way they wrap around a tree. Do you plan to let it "trap" some leaves or something?

[estación seca]

I read here and on other sites about the funnel-form leaves trapping falling vegetation, and roots growing up into this organic fluff. People can find the thread here easily by searching on the plant name. There are other sites discussing filling the cones with sphagnum moss. I could find no sites mentioning keeping it alive for a while with this technique. Ben Ooi didn't mention this technique when he told me how to grow it.

It grows in forest that is wet, hot and 90%+ humidity all the time. People mention having new growths turn black, then the plant rots. I know other Bulbos watered inadequately have new growths turn black and rot. I'm going to keep mine very wet.

[No-Pro-mwa]

Good luck with it. This will not be one I try, sounds way to complicated for me. But I can't hardly believe a new growth could grow so fast. Hum, a fast growing orchid, just how can that be!!