epidendrum ilense

[Rothrock42]

Ordered from EOM. Should arrive before I get home today. Very excited.

[No-Pro-mwa]

Aren't you just the lucky one. You will have to post a picture.

[kenjibel]

Nice!!! Can't wait to see yours

[Rothrock42]

Wow the plants were much more mature than I had expected. Lots of full-sized canes and several bloom spikes.

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And some of them even had developing buds.



Thank you to Exotic Orchids of Maui. They also included a small Angraecum bosseri as a gift. Nice.

[estación seca]

Wow! Those scream "KEEP ME WET!"

[No-Pro-mwa]

There so tall. Nice looking plants.

[Rothrock42]

Yeah I wasn't expecting them to be so full grown. I haven't quite figured out where I'm going to put them. I also want to repot, but with the buds forming I think I'll wait a bit.

How wet is wet?

[estación seca]

This is all prediction on my part... I haven't grown this particular plant. But I've had experience with a lot of other tropical plants with large leaves and small root systems.

Think about other plants you've grown, and where EOM is. The plants you just bought are accustomed to very high humidity, and never having completely dry roots for any length of time. Yet they seem to be potted in large-chunk bark, which suggests the plants need lots of air at the roots.

They have tiny root systems and big, soft, floppy leaves, especially for an Epidendrum. A plant like that, with so much leaf surface in relation to the tiny root system, needs continuous water at the roots. The fact that your house has much lower humidity than they had on Maui means they will need even more water. I would even worry it would be impossible for them to take up enough water if the humidity is too low.

So I would suggest to water them often, never let them dry out, and try to keep them in the most humid area you have.

I would most certainly not repot at this time and damage any roots whatsoever. Once the plants adapt to your surroundings and are growing again, you can repot. I probably would use something more water-retentive. I would probably even consider long-fiber sphagnum moss in a clay pot, if you have mastered moss growing.

[Fairorchids]

I largely agree with comments from Estacion Seca, except for:

In HI it rains a lot, so they have to use large size bark nuggets - otherwise it will never dry out during the rainy season.

Having said that, you need to repot into whatever combination works for you. It should be somewhere between what you would do for a reed stem Epi, and what you would do for a Cattleya.

I have never grown the species, but I did have an Epicatt with ilense as one of the parents. It surprised me by blooming a second time on an old spike (which branched).