Bl. Sunset Glory always in bloom.

[Sun rm.N.E.]

Bl. Sunset Glory (BL Richard Mueller x Laelia purpurata) has not been without bloom or bud for the last 2 years. These were backbulbs I left in water culture after I made 4 divisions which were potted up in S/H.
The rootless backbulbs quickly put out new leads half the normal size, but as you can see they are still flowering even before they have a fully developed root system.


I love how my Richard Mueller hybrids grow fast whether in water culture or S/H and bloom on every new lead. I only had Blc. Copper Queeen (Bl. Richard Mueller x Blc. Toshie Aoki) in water culture for less than a year when it rebloomed.

[DebsC]

Those are really nice flowers. I love those spots!

I'm not sure I know what 'water culture' is? It's not the same as S/H? Would you mind going into some detail on this?

[Chubidubi]

WOW That is so cool!

[Sun rm.N.E.]

Debs my technique is probably best described as Passive Hydroponic I simply grow some plants in nutrient solution usually only until they cleaned up and grow water tolerant roots than transfer them into S/H since that is less work to maintain. However some grow and bloom much faster in water culture like this one and one of my Sharry baby clones. The plants in the thumbnails below have also bloomed well in water culture (The large Dendrobium and Bougainvillea are in S/H).

[Sun rm.N.E.]

Wanda

Thanks for your encouragement.
I saw your gallery and your beautiful plants and wish I too could grow outdoors. I have a friend in Suriname who tied a division of a Phal on her tree with a piece of rag and in a few months it looked like it always grew there while mine was still struggling to put out a few roots. Unfortuanately they don't do well for me in water culture so I am just trying S/H for now. I had a lot of them in my first collection but then I used Shag and styrofoam chips and used enough extra humidity to rust up my imported light fixtures.

[camille1585]

Really beautiful flowers! You are lucky for it to bloom so often!

[Sandy4453]

Outstanding blooms Sun rm.N.E. I'm still trying to grasp your watering culture and hope you continue to post updates and add information along the way. It's all so fascinating to me.

If you recall, I have a Miltassia Shelob that's been struggling and I just repotted into s/h. I made a huge mistake though in that there isn't any new root growth occurring now to make the timing of the transfer, successful. I'm hoping though, that because of some new growth on the plant, that the roots will be upcoming soon. I expect a setback but hope it can withstand the bad-timing.

I have been enjoying your posts and look forward to more from you.

[Sun rm.N.E.]

Sandy


I can sympathize I have some too in suspended animation now and hope you plant will resume growth when the temperatures drop. Unless you keep it in an air conditioned place I think that your Miltassia Shelob more likely suffers from too much heat for too long and that is one reason why it slowed down its growth.

The shallow greenhouse unit I grow in is part of my house and if I don't have the airconditioner on, the heat gets to be in high 90's for some hours even when the outside temperature is in the 80's and all exhaust fans running. A lot of Oncid alliance hybrids do not do well during the Summer for me. Milton Carpenter "Everglades Orchids" specialized in breading Onc. Alliance plants that were heat tolerant and made a reputation on this, so this is a big deal for a lot of us without temperature-controlled green houses. He also had an article on the AOS website about how he did this. I bought some of these before he closed but I was able to keep only kept half of even those.

I did not buy this plant yet because of those recommendations I quoted from the people at Orchidworks. I found that if they list the temperatures range Intermediate (less than 85F max) the plant suffers during our Summers. They will tell you if they think a plant can take 90F max and that's when I try the plant. They claim to have a clone of Miltassia Shelob named 'Webmaster' that can take more heat but I have not come across it.
(Posted this on your Miltassia thread also)

[lenacao1]

Hello,

I love your orchids pictures!

I read about never leave the orchids sit in the water for more than 10 minutes, I couldn't imagine to grow them in the water. Would you please explain a little bit the conflict principles? How does that work?

Thanks

[Sun rm.N.E.]

A better photo of Bl Sunet Glory



In summary, this is the passive hydro method I use most of the time. I aim to use a nutrient solution of approximately 120ppm Nitrogen which would be about 1/2 tsp/gallon of a commonly available fertilizer labeled 20 for Nitrogen. I often add just a couple of drops/gallon of a growth regulator such KLN until good roots form.
If I have time I change the solution several times a week (you cannot over do this) and aim for a minimum of 1x/week.

I use at least 12-16 ounces of solution or more as needed to accomodate and cover roots at all time. For this purpose I keep topping up every day if needed with about 1/2 strength solution or just plain tapwater if I do not have time.

I also have to emphasize that I remove all decaying roots and stuff initially, and as soon as I see them and leave only healthy roots in water. I treat for infection vigorously as long as I see signs of it, usually with drugstore hydrogen peroxide 3%, and if rot has penetrated deeply, with Gentian violet !%. On the other hand, I let green algae grow since this probably helps keep pathological organisms under control. I respect the old saying, "Nature abhors a vacuum" . If I do not see healthy green algae growing it often means the conditions are not healthy for roots either.

My minimum temperatures seldom go below 60 degrees F and stay mostly above 70 in the Winter. Warmer temperatures definitely aid root formation with most tropical orchids.


I hope this helps. You can also search this board for my many previous posts on this subject, here are some links

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...r-culture.html

Onc. Sharry Baby in water culture