Anyone growing Laelia lundii?

[matos]

This is a great solution! I know him personally and all his tips are based on true knowledge. I think it'll be great. I just would not try coconut fiber, it never works as well as xaxim and also gets dryer faster and also acidifies the media around the roots while xaxim doesn't.

[rbarata]

Do you know any material to replace xaxim? I believe it's hard to find outside Brasil but, honestly, I have never tried to find it.

[matos]

I believe, even here it is hard to find since it is an endangered species. I only find from producers that harvest in areas that are legally permitted (florest devastated area for crop production or so). You may try coconut fiber, I have never been succed with it, and here in Brazil people try to avoid. Maybe the coconut fiber you find there may be of better quality or it may work in your wheatear and cultivation conditions. But it is actually really hard to find anything as good as xaxim, It is just so perfect that I doubt there is something as good. But I would try coconut fiber and just pay attention as it gets older. If your plant is rooting great in it it probably means it is fine. When the coconut fiber is not of great quality the plant just don't root in it at all. With time it may starts to decompose, than just keep checking the roots may be a good control, as in any other media.

[rbarata]

Now that I am looking for it, the place where I bought this lundii has it...it's really expensive (probably because it comes from New Zeland )

Here's the link.

[matos]

Yeah! It's really expensive! Here I pay R$10 for a 10 liters package filled with 3 cm edge cubes of xaxim. Of course plates and pots are more expensive, but they are not that easy to find here as in pieces.

[rbarata]

A xaxim plaque lasts for how long, in avg?

[matos]

That's a great question! I would say 'forever'.

Let me explain. Notice all I gonna say for now on is based in my life experience with BRAZILIAN Dicksonia xaxim, since even before orchids I was already very used to it as it is very usual here. I am not used to other Dicksonia from other regions.

My grandma has many pots and even trunks and live Dicksonia in her garden. It was very common some decades ago to grow ferns and other plants in them. These ones my grandma has are older than me, they must have about 40-50 years, and still pretty great.

Of course the properties they have when you buy a new piece of xaxim are a little different than those of old ones, but not that much. It is not something that rots or something like that, it keeps its shape , properties and appearance really well. The most difference in appearance you gonna notice after some weeks of exposure to water and sunlight, but most cus the part that you see outside used to be an inner part in the plants organism, and it is normal that change in appearance. After that it remains the same for a long long time.

Something that makes it lasts less time is mixture it with ground soil or something similar, and even than it is not that bad. Tear its fibers apart or chopping into too little pieces also may be not great cus you destroy it's integrity and you gonna end up with a xaxim powder after some time. It is usual to see xaxim powder as growing media too, it works great.

I avoid using solid fertilizers, mainly organic, that may be retained inside xaxim fibers and lead to an accumulation. That might be a problem sometimes or not.

Xaxim is so so great that orchids love it and roots so well that I would say it is unreplaceable. It retains only the desired amount of water, it allows a great ventilation and also helps with organic buffering of the medium. I read an article once that compares the growing of some Cattleya related orchids (guess it was C. forbesii and L. purpurata) with all variables equal just varying the growing media, I guess that was gravel, gravel + xaxim and gravel + sphagnum moss and the one with gravel + xaxim was the best one in growing results. I grow almost all my plants with xaxim and love it pretty much.

Gona try to up load some pictures of my grandma's xaxins and also the reference of this article I mentioned.

[matos]

Hi,

Some photos of my L. lundii in a clay pot with some gravel in the botton to help in drainage water and xaxim + sphagnum moss to help with humidity. As you can see it is not really wet. As I grow it outside with filtered light it is a little yellowish, but it is doing great and with nice new grows. It is in this pot for about 1 year and a half.







Also some photos of the xaxim I sad that were really old, one piece of it with a Isabelia sp. on it.

[rbarata]

I can't see clearly in the lundii photos...did you put the xaxim plaque laying horizontally on top of the gravel?

One more question? What's the best time to repot? The same as the other Catt and Laelia alliance, when new roots are growing?

[matos]

I used it in pieces about 2 cm each, and filled all on top of the gravel. The L. lundii was placed on it, the rizome was not buried in it. When I bought it it was in a pot filled with sphagnum, I just removed some of it before moulting in the xaxim, but left some do avoid removing all the substrate around the roots. I then filled the voids between the xaxim pieces with sphagnum moss to help with humidity, since it was in a clay pot and there was already gravel in the botton.