Anyone have any Telipogon experience?

[Goods14]

I've been thinking of giving these a try in my cold fridge tank. I know they are crazy hard to grow, need pretty high light high humidity along with air movement and cool temps.

My tank is 73 during the day down to 55 at night. It's lit by three LED bulbs. I know there is a ton of discussion about how good LEDs are as plant lights, but all my plants were turning the purplish red color, and I had to move them further from the light. I water daily or every other day with either RW or RO/DI.

I'm looking for someone with personal experience with these guys to tell me if this sounds ok or should I stay away from them.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Sounds like it could work.

But then again, I don't know enough about them quite yet, as I've only been growing them for a few months. I still have quite a few divisions that are recovering nicely from total root damage, however.

They just come from such a unique environment, I'm not exactly sure how to even describe their needs. I don't even quite understand how I'm able to get them going fully.

I think the problem is not that people are messing up with the temperatures. People could get the temperatures right and they could still bomb with these orchids. I believe they're messing up with the moisture levels and gas exchange. I've found that they don't grow sopping wet. The thought that Telipogons grow wet is, I think, an incorrect assumption. It is highly probable that Telipogons grow moist. If I'm not mistaken, it's highly probable that the majority of the moisture Telipogons get in the wild is from the mist of clouds and humidity. From what I was told, they may not be getting a whole lot of moisture from rain, idk.

Many species are also climbers without any pseudobulbs, and do very poorly potted in my experience. So far all of the divisions I own are currently grown mounted.

Again, this is limited knowledge.

This much I do know though...

There are only a very small number of species that are suitable for beginners starting off with Telipogons.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I think the best way to ease yourself into growing Telipogons is to first grow Trichoceros spp. I personally have grown an unidentified Trichoceros sp. for a number of years prior to growing any species of Telipogon.

I think they grow in somewhat similar conditions, except Trichoceros spp. may be able to tolerate drier seasonal conditions and warmth better.

Trichoceros and Telipogons also share striking similarities in flower morphologies anyways. Why not start out with the easier to grow Trichoceros.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Btw, I personally think Telipogon venustus is by far one of the worst Telipogon species to start with in my experience, despite what you'll read in other sources of information regarding Telipogon culture.

Telipogon venustus is supposedly more tolerant of warmth compared to many other species of Telipogons; particularly because they are reported to be found in elevations all the way down around the mid 1,000 meters, but it's by no means any correlation to indicate their hardiness in cultivation. The fact that they have been reputed to also be found in elevations below 2,000 m only suggests that this species is much more reasonable for most growers to grow in cultivation than species that are only reported to be found in elevations in excess of 2,100 m without the use of specially refrigerated Wardian cases and such.

With that said, from my experience, they are a small, thin, and fragile climbing species with a sparse root system, and are not nearly as forgiving as Telipogon antioquianus. In fact, I will venture to say that Telipogon venustus is not even remotely close to being a forgiving species to grow.

Telipogon venustus also does not have very showy flowers compared to something like Telipogon lehmannii.

[lepanthes89]

I have seen Telipogon sps.in the wild and in the hands of good growers.One of the best was Mr.Maduro in Panama.He had a shade house with a stream running through it, and hundreds of (among other things)Telipogons in perfect condition.
He grew them from seed, and grew the seedlings on "sausages"made of net tubing stuffed with sphagnum moss.
Having said all that,I must also tell you that I've tried several times to grow this genus unssuccessfully.
They just dont have any reserves to survive even the most minor slip in conditions.
And slugs love them!
If you still want to try,start with a mature established plant with some bulk to it, and......good luck.

[Goods14]

Thanks for all the information Philip. I'll hold off for now and look for a Trichoceros to try out. I think Andy's and Botanica have some. I saw a T. hutchisonii on Ebay today and just got Ecuagenera's newest price list. That's what got me going on giving them a try. It probably wouldn't be the best idea to import one of these from Ecuador, though.

lepanthes, that growing area sounds awesome! I knew these are tough, and honestly, I'd like to give one a try just for the challenge. I think I'll try one of these for sure at some point. Another which seems similar on the difficulty scale that I'd like to give a try is Fernandezia.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I somehow knew you were looking at Telipogon hutchinsonii.

They are currently recorded to come from an elevation of 3,050 m in the province of Chachapoyas in Peru.

I would imagine that temperatures here get no warmer than 72 F - 75 F during the day at any given point in the year.

Tropicos | Name - Telipogon hutchinsonii Dodson & D.E. Benn.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I've attempted to grow 2 different species of Fernandezia before. I believe that one species was easier to grow than the other, but I forgot which one it was.

In the end, they both dropped dead because it just got too warm. They should never experience temperatures in excess of 75 F.

I also think there was a trick to the moisture levels they receive as well. Again, I think that they don't grow in wet Pleurothallid conditions just as Telipogons.

I'm guessing that if you see Telipogons growing on a small tree in the wild, there'll also be some Fernandezia growing right next to it; or at the very least, not very far away from each other.

I would love to try them again in the future, but for now, I'd be happy to find out a way to get their environment set up properly for when they become available again.

They are adorable little plants.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

If I remember correctly, the 2 species of Fernandezia were Fernandezia ionanthera and Fernandezia sanguinea.

Should my memory serve me, I think it was Fernandezia ionanthera, (which is the smaller species of the 2), that should prove to be the easier of the 2 to grow (ironically).

Although, like I mentioned prior, they are in general not beginner's orchids.

[Goods14]

Philip, you must be reading my mind or just a really good guesser

When I checked IOSPE, I think it said somewhere between 2700 and 3300m. My fridge has a thermostat set at 73F and there's a 2F leeway. It hits 75 and it kicks on to cool to 71. I'm growing Masd. ignea and coccinea well in it, so I thought these may like it, temp wise, also.

I think the moisture requirements would probably have to be something to play around with and gain real experience with individual plants, not the greatest idea when they are as finicky as these are.

Do you know Marni Turkel? I just went back to one of her posts on another forum. She said that Fernandezia subiflora is easier than ionanthera. I believe she grows (grew?) a couple members of this genus in California.