Hello from Thailand - Orchid Board

Acharn · #1 11-02-2009, 04:17 AM

Hi, all. I'm a retired U.S. Army NCO, living in Nakhorn Sawan province in Thailand (about 150 miles north of Bangkok). I tried my hand at growing orchids many years ago but had to give it up when I moved to Bangkok.

Back in August a niece-by-marriage gave me a nice plant which I've identified as a Dendrobium, with very attractive yellow-green and purple flowers. Then a couple of other relatives gave me plants, including a couple of Vandas, and my wife picked up a gorgeous Cattleya, with a white and purple flower; I suspect it's a hybrid, but clearly related to the Cattleya family. Now yesterday a nephew-by marriage brought half a dozen more plants from Phitsanulok province, and I decided to look for an orchid board I could turn to for help.

The new plants seem to have been collected from the wild. A couple of them are still attached to tree branches, including one sympodial with about a dozen pseudo-bulbs that I hope to be able to divide and pot. There's another plant, obviously of the same species but with smaller bulbs, which is in a basket along with a small monopodial that I think is a Vanda. Getting them off the branch is going to be a challenge -- the roots are solidly anchored and completely cover the branch, which is about an inch nd a half in diameter and also covered with mold. The others are monopodials; I think vandas, but about four of them are *very* young and two are extremely "leggy" -- they have a stalk over a foot long that all leaves have fallen from. One of those has put out a couple of new aerial roots, but the roots are about a foot away from the leaves.

I'm hoping with care those "leggy" monopodials will put out aerial roots from nodes closer to the existing leaves so I can top them. I'm told they have gorgeous flowers, but I can't see how they could have bloomed recently.

Having some trouble getting my camera to connect to my computer today, so can't yet upload pictures, but I'll be asking for help identifying them when I've got that fixed.

Ephemere · #2 11-02-2009, 04:37 AM

Hello Acharn,

Welcome to the network! Here you will find very knowledgeable people who are friendly and willing
to help/exchange information. Naturally, as you mentioned yourself, in your case photographs are imperative. We look forward to seeing them. I am a swiss expatriate living in Phuket, so sawasdee krap from down South and happy growing!

Cheers, Michael

Acharn · #3 11-02-2009, 07:27 AM

Oh, how nice! Thanks for the welcome. I've never been to Phuket -- spent most of my time in Bangkok after Khorat and then Chon Buri (actually Phanat Nikhom).

RenéeS · #4 11-02-2009, 08:34 AM

Hi Acharn,

to the board! Hope to see some pictures from your orchids soon

Isn't taking plants from their natural environment illegal though? I'm sure it still is common practice to do it anyway, but still..
Happy reading & learning!

Dorothy · #5 11-02-2009, 11:17 AM

I come from a military family ...
OO-Rah!

Acharn · #6 11-02-2009, 11:34 PM

Quote:

Isn't taking plants from their natural environment illegal though?

Well, I'm not sure. I don't approve of the practice, but you have to realize that there are still undeveloped areas in Thailand. People live there, and see nothing wrong in taking growing things for their own use. My late wife used to love going into the woods/jungle/forest near where we lived hunting for bamboo shoots to cook, as well as fishing in the streams. Orchids grow wild here.

In addition, I feel pretty sure the ones I was given are very common species. I haven't seen them bloom yet, and some of the plants are still very small, but I'm confident most of them are vandas. The other type has quite a large, fat pseudo-bulb with four or five leaves growing from the top of the bulb. I'm certain they aren't dendrobium, but still haven't identified them. Still, I feel certain I've seen a picture of this species somewhere, I just can't remember where. Hope I can upload pictures of them soon.

Becca · #7 11-03-2009, 01:05 AM

Hi and glad you are joining all of us here! Sounds like your building your collection back up quickly with the help of a few others...lol. Is there a reason you are wanting to take the orchids growing on branches off of them? Why not just leave them on? Can't wait to see pictures!

Acharn · #8 11-03-2009, 03:27 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Becca

Hi and glad you are joining all of us here! Sounds like your building your collection back up quickly with the help of a few others...lol. Is there a reason you are wanting to take the orchids growing on branches off of them? Why not just leave them on? Can't wait to see pictures!

Actually, for the one large sympodial I may have to. The problem is it has ten pseudo-bulbs on one rhizome, and I would really like to divide it. Also having them in pots or baskets is just more convenient. I have another, similar plant in a basket, but the bulbs are much smaller, so I think it might be another species in the same family. It's attached to chunks of coconut husk and it shouldn't be too hard to split and re-pot.

Also on tree branches are three very small monopodials -- or at least I think so. I'm presuming for now they're vandas, based in the leaf shape, but they're probably several years away from blooming. Luckily they aren't strongly attached to the branch so I don't foresee any problem with them

My collection has actually grown much faster than I wished. I would have liked to have more time to figure out where I wanted to put them all, for one thing. Right now my front porch is full of them. Luckily most of them have finished blooming. Some of them are sets of three plants in separate pots wired together. They're potted in coconut husk and really difficult to re-pot, but I'm getting the hang of it. I just hope I didn't harm my Cattleya too much when I split it into three pots. I should have soaked it much longer to soften up the old coconut husk more.

Triffid · #9 11-03-2009, 04:04 AM

Regarding picking Wild Flowers. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe it is Illegal only when the Habitat, or Plant is part of a protection scheme. So if it's endangered, yep that's bad. By the sounds of it though, you could almost go picking Orchids like they were Daffodils in Spring where you are.

Oh yes, and Welcome

Acharn · #10 11-03-2009, 05:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Triffid

Regarding picking Wild Flowers. Someone correct me if I'm wrong but I believe it is Illegal only when the Habitat, or Plant is part of a protection scheme. So if it's endangered, yep that's bad. By the sounds of it though, you could almost go picking Orchids like they were Daffodils in Spring where you are.

Oh yes, and Welcome

Thanks for the clarification. I think there is a law here about protecting endangered plants, but the government devotes its meager resources to trying to protect endangered animals -- there's a large market here for them, partly because of demand in China. From time to time there's news of a big cleanup, and then it's back to business.

Your simile of picking Daffodils is very apt. You have to know that orchids are the flower of choice for weekly Buddhist rituals at home. Dendrobium flowers are sold at very low prices by tens of millions every week. Orchids aren't considered at all exotic here -- in fact, for some kinds of ritual presentations they are considered too common to be used. Among the stalls selling souvenirs at one temple we visited in Phitsanulok, there were at least a dozen stalls selling orchid plants that one of the stall owners told my wife were collected from the wild. Each stall had dozens of plants, and I'm pretty sure some of them would be on the endangered species list -- or, worse, would be unidentified/unknown species of which this is one of the last specimens.

Still, I'm sure the ones I have are of common varieties.