Coelogyne Cristata shortening pseudobulb distance

[Guerrero]

Mostly as the title says, is there anyway to get Coelogyne Cristata growing with bulbs closer together?

I see some pictures of very well behaved cristata nicely clumped in pots but mine seems to want to grow up a treliss and the bulbs are seperated by 4-6 inches of somewhat ridged stem (not sure its called a stem mind) so i cant just.... wrap it round its self

it seems very happy and im letting it spread out but ill very quickly run out of room unless i somehow grow it up the wall. I've only had it a few months so far.

[DeaC]

I have a similar situation as my Bulbo. lilacinum is traveling laterally from its 5inch basket. Lots of new growth and seems happy but I'm needing to keep it in check and really don't want to divide. Think I answered my own question.

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by Guerrero

Mostly as the title says, is there anyway to get Coelogyne Cristata growing with bulbs closer together?

I see some pictures of very well behaved cristata nicely clumped in pots but mine seems to want to grow up a treliss and the bulbs are seperated by 4-6 inches of somewhat ridged stem (not sure its called a stem mind) so i cant just.... wrap it round its self

it seems very happy and im letting it spread out but ill very quickly run out of room unless i somehow grow it up the wall. I've only had it a few months so far.

Specific cultivars of Coel. cristata may be more compact (the result of line breeding for that characteristic). In general, the species likes to ramble. I have seen some enormous specimen plants - wonderful to look at, covered with flowers, but not something to share one's living space with. So the secret, I think, is to try to obtain one of the compact cultivars. Unfortunately, I don't know about names to look for.

[elljorgo]

Coming late but hope this helps.
I've experimented over the years, all with same clone.
some sun but mostly diffuse or indirect light equal to rambling, bright indirect with no sun at all even worst rambling. If kept all or part of the year in deep shade the rambling is crazy. But, if you slowly adapt your plants to take 50% or more of the daytime in full sunshine... Specially in a place that can get the first 3-4h of sun and the last 3-4h of sun of the day. Then I can assure you: The exact same clone will lose practically all of it's rambling nature and become quite compact. An astonishing difference that some attribute to clonal differences, but probably a simple cultivation twitch can solve.
Slowly and steadily. Do not burn your leaves!

ell

[Guerrero]

That's good to know thank you! I still have this plant (somewhat mauled by my cat unfortunately) so I will try slowly moving it to more sun and see how it goes.

[elljorgo]

Originally Posted by Guerrero

That's good to know thank you! I still have this plant (somewhat mauled by my cat unfortunately) so I will try slowly moving it to more sun and see how it goes.

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You will be amazed at what you see. I had plants with rhizome length of 5cm. This length was reduced to a minimum. Keeping the new bulbs right next to the oldest, they look like they are all touching as distance is minimal.
Older leaves may experience some yellowing or burning if transition too fast. new ones formed should be just fine. But the bulbs and plant overall will become more yellowish.

Let us know how it went. In the worst case scenario your clone is exclusively a rambler. But there is some beauty on it too.