Maxillaria huntii

[OfLeafandLimb]

A few years ago, I bought one of these from Oak Hill, and it's one of my favorite plants. I've tried various things with it, but it seems disinterested in blooming.

I've had it in a southeast facing window, mounted, getting soaked in a bucket for maybe five minutes about 2 times a week , and while it grew happily, it never even began to put up a spike. The ambient temperature averaged 72 dF (degrees Fahrenheit) daytime, and 64 dF at night. Humidity in the house runs between 50-60% humidity in general. It summered outside in dappled shade. Its growth was robust, and the roots were very happy.

I tried it in a vivarium as an experiment, along with a few other orchids, placed on the back near the top. This was under a pair of T5 lights. It did not bloom, and its growth slowed considerably. I would guess that it isn't a fan of the higher temperatures and humidity in there. The average in the viv has hovered around 78 dF with 90% humidity.

Yesterday I removed it and mounted it on cork, and am waiting to see what happens. Perhaps more light, but keeping the watering, temperature, and humidity the same as before might help. That's what I'm thinking, anyway.

In trying to find more, I have done several web searches on this plant, and have come up empty handed each time. It was relatively new to cultivation when I purchased it, so it's not common yet, and now that Oak Hill (whom I loved) is under different ownership, I have no access to information from Greg or Liese.

Any ideas? Have you gotten one of these to bloom before? If not, I'll just keep playing with it until I get a bloom, and let you know what happens! Thanks for your thoughts!

[WhiteRabbit]

[OfLeafandLimb]

Is no one else growing this? Surely, there is someone.

[OfLeafandLimb]

A google search brought up my Gardenweb thread on this same plant. Apparently, I bought it on Feb. 27, 2010. It was supposed to be blooming size then. M. huntii was discovered in 2008, so it's still new to cultivation. Maybe there just still aren't very many out there.

[Leafmite]

There are a few orchids that I have that yielded no information when I did searches. It is quite frustrating.
You can try the IOSPE site and see if they have anything. I Google it by putting the name of my orchid followed by IOSPE and see if something comes up. The other thing you can do is check Andy's Orchids and see if they have it listed and, if not, call them and see if they have any ideas how to grow it.
Sorry I cannot help you. I just have two Maxillaria, a ten. and an alba (?).
It was pretty sad that Oak Hill is no more. I bought from both the old Oak Hill and new one.
Good luck!

[OfLeafandLimb]

The good news is that it's a hardy plant, and it is flourishing otherwise, but I don't know if its blooming is triggered by day length or temperature drop.

I did manage to find one person in yet another forum saying that they had one a few years before it was named, when they received a wild collected orchid. It grew very slowly, but it did bloom for her- though she never really elaborated much on culture. Other people in the thread who claimed to have one had bought plants grown from lab cultured seeds, like what I bought. None of them reported a bloom, but their plants all grew quickly, like mine.

On the one hand, it's really cool to me that I have something not terribly common, but on the other hand, it's really hard to learn much about it. I'll have to keep good track of what works so I can share it with others, then. It's been really tolerant of drought, and has done well in high humidity, too, so I can certainly afford to experiment with it. It is one sturdy little plant.

[katrina]

I grew it several years ago but gave up after 2 or 3 yrs. Not only did I have trouble blooming it but I had issues w/the leaves and I never could figure out what it wanted so I ended up just pitching it.

I got mine from TOF in Hawaii...wasn't much known about it back then...and there still doesn't appear to be too much known about it.

I suspect it's level of difficulty is the reason we don't see it in cultivation too much.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I don't grow this particular species, (Maxillaria huntii), but I do currently grow a close relative of it - what the former owner of Clackamas-Orchids once told me that Christenson identified for him as Maxillaria madida, which is also another species of those Maxillarias with pencil shaped pseudobulbs. Although, I sometimes question the actual validity of the species name of my own plant, it is definitely one of those Maxillarias that looks like yours vegetatively, so I imagine the culture would be very similar.

So here, I will be telling you what I know about my "Maxillaria madida" as a general reference guide...

I think you have it grown in too dim a light. Grow it brighter. Grow it where Cattleya will grow and bloom, then you might see a difference.

I believe that Maxillaria huntii could very well be temperature tolerant, idk.

I think temperature differences between night and day is also quite possibly a factor.

A word about these pencil shaped pseudobulbed Maxillarias…

These types of Maxillaria do not bloom profusely. They are often one of the more challenging Maxillarias to grow and bloom. I would never recommend these to those who are starting to grow Maxillarias.

(Btw, I am not implying people posting in this thread are necessarily beginners. I'm just talking in general, if someone new to Maxillarias were to approach me and ask what are good Maxillarias to start with. i will always direct them away from this group of Maxillarias first. Only with more experience with orchid growing/growing Maxillarias would I then hesitantly recommend these types. They are quite atypical growing even amongst Maxillarias.

I used to own another species of this type of Maxillaria, (the name escapes me at the moment, it was one of those long names that are difficult to remember - might have been what was sold to me as "Maxillaria cogniauxiana" from Clackamas-Orchids), and at the time this was the first time I've grown these types of Maxillarias. The un-named Maxillaria died within a period of 5 months, and the "Maxillaria madida" nearly died as well. Luckily I figured it out quite by accident how these things grew. I wished I knew then what I know now. These types of Maxillarias are rare in the hobby for a reason, and the both of you now know why, [referring to "OfLeafandLimb" and "Leafmite"].)

[OfLeafandLimb]

I typed up a nice response, but it got eaten when it took too long and I got logged out.

Anyway, I've experimented with light levels, and it had a nice reddish tinge from high anthocyanin pigmentation, indicating strong lighting, and it was in the same window where my Catts and D. spectabile grew and bloomed for five years. It got burned in the vivarium, so I think it had already been near its upper light levels in the window. It may need a bit more light, but I think it's going to be a good deal more tinkering than just lighting.

That's really where the fun is, for me. I enjoy the challenge of certain plants, which is why I gravitate towards these weird species. They're living puzzles, and I want to solve them.

---------- Post added at 10:28 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:14 PM ----------

A word on how I summer them outside, too- In the fall, I don't bring my collection inside until it's dipping into the low 50s at night, and they've hit the upper 40s at night when I was procrastinating a couple times. I have yet to see temperature damage in any of my indoor plants at that time of year. This always triggers my phals into blooming, and I have a NOID oncidium that always gets triggered by this, too. My huntii is a tough cookie, but definitely a neat, little mystery. It has been outside for those drops, and brought back into the house where it was treated to the cozy, low 70s, without spiking. I guess it's time I looked more closely at its native environment.

[Leafmite]

Good luck with it!