Brassavola nodosa in bloom

[StephaneL]

My Brassavola nodosa has decided to flower one more time this year.

[Paphluvr]

Nicely grown.

[DirtyCoconuts]

I can’t get tired of those flowers. Well done

[orchididentification]

They grow quite well in south florida i have quite a few hybrids.

a trick to get more growth points on brasavola is to wrap a strand of spagnum moss around new leaves peubosubuls which promotes new root and leaf growth.

When i had my brassavola nodosa mounted nothing much happed for over three months till i potted it in spagnum moss and kept it wet with full sun.

Then it started growing really fast


Frank

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by orchididentification

When i had my brassavola nodosa mounted nothing much happened for over three months till i potted it in spaghnum moss and kept it wet with full sun. Then it started growing really fast.

Definitely! It needed to get enough water into it. Maybe in some places where humidity is high enough ----- the plant can get enough water from the air. In other places, may need to compensate for that - by potting it in a suitable medium, like what you did.

[orchididentification]

[Fairorchids]

Agreed. Most people grow their nodosas too dry.

I bought a single lead B. nodosa with 4 pseudobulbs in February 2018. I moved it from plastic pot with bark to net pot with spaghnum. It now has 4 or 5 leads, and it is blooming for the 4th time this year.

Likewise, I have several plants of Bc. Edna (= nodosa x Sophr. coccinea) 'Summit'. This is a select clone from the now defunct Lager & Hurrell nursery.

I recently obtained one more plant from my source (a former employee of L&H). It was growing on a bare piece of cedar, had 7-8 pseudobulbs and seemingly 2 leads.

I transferred it to a net pot with all spaghnum. It promptly responded with 9 new growths. Attached photo is from September, at that time there were 'only' 7 growths started, but it has added 2 more.

[orchididentification]

yep i noticed this too.
often orchid growers grow their orchids too dry because of the fear of rotting the roots.

Same also with cattelyas i pot them in bark but arround the new growths i wrap a strand of spagnum moss to premote root growth.

[Leucadian]

Great tip. I have 2 B. nodosas that have languished. I’ll try repotting them with some sphagnum. I’m a habitual underwaterer and this might help.

[StephaneL]

I did not expect to generate this discussion about watering...

I'll add that I grow mine in stalite. In my dry and sunny SoCal climate, I water it about every other day all year round, except during winter.