is mounting the best for coryanthes and Stanhopea?

[DirtyCoconuts]

i read this excerpt in a recent thread and it made me reconsider the way i am approaching these genus

Originally Posted by Manfred Busche
Subject: Understanding Coryanthes.

Hello there,
I have some 20 plants and, furthermore, have read the monograph of the genus by Dr. G. Gerlach.

I am trying to contribute to the subject as follows.

---------------- ! Coryanthes plants need warmth (not heat though) ! ----------------

In nature, a Coryanthes plant always grows its many roots into and throughout an ants nest sitting moderately high in
a tree. Such a nest ('carton nest') is made by the relevant ants from a variety of organic materials, and the fast-growing Coryanthes plant is dependent on the nutrients it draws from these organic materials. These ants nests can reach 60 cms in diameter,
and an adult Coryanthes plant can have bulbs 16 cms high, 60 of them, and leaves 50 cms long.

In nature, most Coryanthes species occur along the tropical atlantic and carribean rim and around the Amazon Basin. Coryanthes plants do not seasonally shed their leaves, as for example Catasetum plants do.


In cultivation, you and me should make sure that the compost is moderately acidic (PH4), loose, moist and fertile at all times; hence it is a good idea to use best-quality Sphagnum, mixed with 'Perlite' for looseness.
This compost should not be PRESSED into the pot or basket of a Coryanthes plant -to get in as much as possible as it were- because "looseness" is what the plant requires.

Renew this compost every 1 year (!),
because decomposed Sphagnum is destructive for the roots of any epiphytic orchids, and with its roots in decomposing material, the Coryanthes plant will soon shed its leaves one by one and decline.

Keep the compost moist at all times, not WET, and fertilise thoroughly with 150 ppm every day using mineral fertliser, something equivalent to PETERS 30-10-10 - but no organic fertiliser (BAD). -- If you do sloppy fertilising, then your Coryanthes plant will be doomed ...

I have read on these pages, that people add odd things such as Lemmon Juice, Epsom Salts, Dish Soap, when watering their plants; "PLEASE DO NOT" ...

Light: give as much as the plant can stand, but adapt the plant to higher light levels over several weeks. Target : direct morning sun until 10 a.m. is good for the plant. Fertilise in the afternoon, when the light is dull.

If the cultivator falls short on the requirements outlined above, the plant will shed its leaves one by one and resort to consuming the nutrients stored in its pseudobulbs - until the plant has died after a few months and nothing is left but some ugly dry stuff ...

Leaves going yellow: change compost immediately, give water and fertilise.

Cheers , MANFRED.

PS: Flowers of Coryanthes, Catasetum, Stanhopea, are wonders of Plant Evolution ...
To admire Coryanthes Flowers, you might go to
[url=http://www.botanik.biologie.uni-muenchen.de/botgart/e/research/gg_species.html]

So I was thinking i have my Coryanthes on the small brick of tree fern and my Stanhopea are each on grapewood, one with more sphag than the other.

I water them almost daily. like 5 days a week min and i feed them four those times.

there are new growths on two of them and i think these are all quite some time from blooming but i wanted to get some more educated thoughts

they are a NoID Stan, Stan ecornuta (bill x william), and Coryanthes seegerii.

i am inclined to leave them since there is new growth and that is indicative of needs being met but should i adjust the culture?

Cyno and stan by J Solo, on Flickr



Cyno and stan by J Solo, on Flickr



Cyno and stan by J Solo, on Flickr

[Roberta]

I can't speak to Coryanthes, haven't tried to grow them (large-ish plants, small greenhouse) Stanhopeas I do grow (there are some cold-tolerant ones), I use plastic baskets, so I can clip off areas where they decide to grow.I have to work to keep them wet enough. In your warm, high-humidity environment, they should do fine mounted. Which would save the basket-clipping part.

[DirtyCoconuts]

Any thoughts about the extra food needs?

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

Any thoughts about the extra food needs?

I pretty much under-feed everything and they don't seem to be the worse for wear. About the only things that I give extra fert to are Catasetinae during the early growing period when they're growing like tomato plants, and Cyms because they're big and generally hungry. You could use the trick of one those little mesh containers, or bag made of pantyhose with some time-release fertilizer to drip on them, but maybe see first if you need to. Less than ideal fertilization doesn't harm, they may just grow slower.

[isurus79]

I dunno, I think I'm a bit more pessimistic than Roberta. My experience with Stanhopeas is they don't like to dry out. I used to grow of bunch of them in baskets with sphag when I lived in Hawaii and I still hit them water every day for the warmer half of the year. That said, there's a 5-15mph trade breeze all the time, but its still pretty wet in that part of the world!

[Roberta]

In summer I sometimes water the Stanhopeas even twice a day... but then I don't live in south Florida humidity. (Where I live, people complain about how muggy it is when mid-day RH is 60% and temperature is 80-85 deg F. A Floridian would laugh at the California wimps)

[DirtyCoconuts]

That is true, it was 85% rh today and it felt like Santa Barbara! Lol

I think I am going to look at the idea of a fert pouch like what I use for my Catasetum

[Dorchid]

Those are sweet, DC; That Cory has some pipelines for roots!

[Lupus]

I grow all my Coryanthes, Stanhopea, Gongora, Sievekingia etc. in a Growroom under LED and summer them in the garden. At the moment the temps are still to cold outside, and we still get the ocasional frost at night. Im a little higher up in the hills. I have them growing mostly in wirebaskets in nothing but pure Sphagnum moss with slow release fertilizer (Osmocote). I have some in wood baskets I made myself out of red iron wood, which is very resistant to moisture and should last longer than teak baskets. But somehow I feel these baskets keep the Sphagnum too moist in comparision to the wire baskets. So I now mostly take them for my Dracula. I have tried to mount a couple of Stanhopea and one Coryanthes, but they don't seem to reach their full potential. Even plants grown in bark seem to grow much slower and flower less than in strait Sphagnum. The roots are very vigorous in Sphagnum and in a very short time after transplanting the whole basket is a rootball. Thats at least what I noticed so far. As I said, I grow in a growroom unter LED with a ceiling fan and a couple of smaller fans. The humidity is about 70 - 90% usually 80%+ the temps are 18°C (~64°F) minimum at night and the daytime temp is around 23-24°C (~74°F) at the moment. If mounting these plants I would use the soft treefern plaques with lots of Sphagnum. I might actually try that.

[DirtyCoconuts]

Thanks for the insights lupus