In too deep with Propetalum La Jolla Delight?

[greenhouseFrog]

On a whim, I decided to grab a Propetalum La Jolla Delight at my local orchid society meeting…I’m a sucker for cool looking pseudobulbs and this plant had some cool looking pseudobulbs! The plant is young—maybe 3 pseudobulbs the size of large grapes.

While I’m a sucker for cool looking pseudobulbs, I’m not a sucker for cool growing pseudobulbs…I got caught up in the moment without realizing this plant is probably not going to appreciate the +95F/35C temperatures in the shade outdoors no matter how much water I give it.

I don’t want to grow this plant indoors if I don’t have to, but I also don’t want to burn it out on the porch or let it stagnate in deep shade—any ideas?

Thanks in advance for any input—my heart sank when I saw ‘cloud forest’ listed in the habitat of one of the parents…Cool bulbs though

[tmoney]

howdy! hahah, yes, you've fallen into the trap. oh well!

just some thoughts...maybe try semi-hydro (to take advantage of evaporative cooling on the roots) and place it in a shady spot that get constant breeze??

of course just leave it outside in winter. or grow it inside in hot summer and put outside in the fall?

id bet you might have better results than you think. but for sure take some pics and keep us posted!!

hope you get other suggestions. best of luck!!

[greenhouseFrog]

Originally Posted by tmoney

howdy! hahah, yes, you've fallen into the trap. oh well!

just some thoughts...maybe try semi-hydro (to take advantage of evaporative cooling on the roots) and place it in a shady spot that get constant breeze??

of course just leave it outside in winter. or grow it inside in hot summer and put outside in the fall?

id bet you might have better results than you think. but for sure take some pics and keep us posted!!

hope you get other suggestions. best of luck!!

Thanks for stopping by tmoney!

I like the semi-hydro idea for exactly the reason you mentioned: evaporative cooling. Perhaps I could even create something simple that would allow me to go semi-hydro for the hot times and then convert back to a regular container when temperatures become more manageable so as to not keep the roots soaked when they don’t necessarily need to be.

I’m going to give it a test run for a week outside in the shade—I’ll try to give it morning sun and shade for the remainder of the day to beat the heat!

Thanks again!

[Roberta]

Don't get too carried away with the genetics. Actually, I looked up Prom. stapelioides in Orchidwiz, there is a Baker culture sheet. It gives a temperature range in habitat of 103 deg F (40 deg C) to 35 deg F (2 deg C). So while it can grow cool, clearly it doesn't need to. Shade is a good idea anyway, you won't want to toast those thin leaves.

[greenhouseFrog]

Originally Posted by Roberta

Don't get too carried away with the genetics. Actually, I looked up Prom. stapelioides in Orchidwiz, there is a Baker culture sheet. It gives a temperature range in habitat of 103 deg F (40 deg C) to 35 deg F (2 deg C). So while it can grow cool, clearly it doesn't need to. Shade is a good idea anyway, you won't want to toast those thin leaves.

Roberta, thank you for looking that up! I didn’t know of Orchidwiz until now and it seems like they have a free trial version available—I’ll look into that more thoroughly. Different sources and different sellers from around the web had me thinking I needed to keep this La Jolla under AC! Thanks again!

[Roberta]

Orchidwiz is my primary go-to information source on so many things. Those Baker culture sheets (almost 5000 of them) are my favorite, I do also use the hybrid lookup info sometimes. I am REALLY glad that they decided to partially come out of retirement, issue annual updates. There isn't a free trial version that I know of but the software is available to download, works for 30 days before you have to register it. So you can look at it before you buy. Expensive for a small collection, but your collection will grow as you learn.