Project 2023 Spring Sarcochilus

[WaterWitchin]

I'm still waiting for a bloom. So I guess you're not too late to this particular party.

[Blueszz]

How are your Sarcochilus doing?

I tossed 1 because it kept struggling. Still have 2 and both are flowering. For me it are finicky little plants.

I hoped one of my plants would be the one with orange or yellow flowers. I'm not getting more Sarcochilus. It's just not my kind of orchid. Hmmm, maybe if I'm lucky and can find a dark yellow one.


Sarcochilus Kulnura Opus (E081) =
Sarcochilus Kulnura Symphony × Sarcochilus Kulnura Kaleidescope







Sarcochilus Kulnura Roundup 'Multi Spot' x Kulnura Secure 'Shapely'

[qbie]

I agree these don't seem as easy to grow or get to bloom.

Sadly I don't think my hartmannii alba will bloom this year. All I can think is not enough light even though it's been in the same spot on my balcony where it bloomed last year. Only difference is it got more light when it spent Nov in a planter downstairs while our building was being painted. I'm gonna try moving it to a brighter area this winter.

On the other hand, a noID in the brightest area of my balcony has been forming a spike. It has some reddish areas whereas the alba's was all green so curious to see what color these flowers might be!

The others are at least growing more leaves or making basal growths. Hoping some might get big enough to be able to bloom next year.

[Blueszz]

Thank you for sharing your experience with these plants. For one of the plants it took me long until it had a good root system. But I’m sure being established well helped developing spikes. Both have 3.

As for culture:

Spring. Until mid May indoors with temperature ranging from 19-24 Celcius. Then outdoors with nights minimum at 5C and days around 20. I wait until mid may as temperature should stay above 0C.
Summer 20-30 during the day up to 32/33. Occasionally 36/37 but then my orchids move back indoors for a few days. Nights 12-17.

Slowly day and night temperature drops during fall and when night drop below 8/10C I bring them in where they spend the

Winter in a south faced window at 16/17C.

This winter was cold and we barely had sun, but it didn’t seem to care. No grow lights used.

I water abundantly through the entire year. Stopped fertilizer around November because of being lazy and started to fertilize again only recently.

Pot culture. Outdoor North faced, unobstructed light. Sun very early morning and late evening sun. Protected from rain.

[qbie]

Thank you for sharing your culture details. All your plants have multiple fans with many more leaves than any of mine. Like you said, obviously a sign of a great root system.

All mine were "rescues" in fair to poor condition when I acquired them Summer 2023. They took another hit when I repotted almost all and cleaned them as best I could (because of pest signs), realizing too late whatever roots had remained viable I likely injured. Last mistake was trying to grow a few indoors before finally moving everything outside by end of Dec 2023. Only the hartmannii alba that bloomed last year had multiple fans, though only 2 leaves per fan, 3 on the parent one. Since I began fertilizing in July 2024, was hoping for more blooms or more than 1 spike on the alba this year, but am getting nothing. Although only the NoID may bloom later this spring, all have been establishing a stronger root system because they're growing more leaves/fans. Yay.

Growing conditions:

Outdoors all year on a NNE facing balcony. Due to limited space, during winter, direct sun only very early in AM and in very late PM for plants on the west end of balcony. During the summer, when sun is higher/longer days, all plants will get at least an hour direct sun and again around sunset.

Watering: Tried to at least every other day from April thru Oct (everyday if hot) and fertilized once weekly.
Only watering Nov to March (rainy season) is from Mother Nature, except if extended dry period, will water so they get wet at least once or twice a week.

Temps: Summer highs usually low 70s (rarely reaching ~90), with lows in 50s. Winter highs usually 50s maybe low 60s with lows in 40s (rarely high 30s but didn't get that cold this year)

[estación seca]

Originally Posted by qbie

Only watering Nov to March (rainy season) is from Mother Nature, except if extended dry period, will water so they get wet at least once or twice a week.

This is from my message to this thread May 26 2023:

They are heavy water users and shouldn't dry out. I'm not trying again because I couldn't water often enough. Fred Clarke's source in Australia [at Barrita Orchids] spoke to our society a few years ago. He waters and fertilizes his plants every day of the year.

I suspect you should water them constantly through the Winter.

[qbie]

Thanks Estacion seca. I will try more light first because I'm also too lazy haha.

There's a wall on the east side of my balcony some plants there get no direct sun at all except during summer around sunset. All the plants receiving the most light have bloomed again or even better this year, but the ones kept in more shade compared to last year didn't, including the Stelis restrepioides. We've also had about the same amount of rain this winter as last and last winter I followed the original grower's practice here and didn't water at all during Nov-March. I broke that practice and watered a few times this winter already. All are also looking better than they did last year, and I read somewhere when Sarcochilus are underwatered, they go thru a period of sulking.

I believe I have 2 pots of Stelis restrepioides and am testing my theory of light by moving the one that bloomed before to a brighter area again this coming winter

[Blueszz]

Originally Posted by qbie

Growing conditions:

Outdoors all year on a NNE facing balcony. Due to limited space, during winter, direct sun only very early in AM and in very late PM for plants on the west end of balcony. During the summer, when sun is higher/longer days, all plants will get at least an hour direct sun and again around sunset.

Watering: Tried to at least every other day from April thru Oct (everyday if hot) and fertilized once weekly.
Only watering Nov to March (rainy season) is from Mother Nature, except if extended dry period, will water so they get wet at least once or twice a week.

Temps: Summer highs usually low 70s (rarely reaching ~90), with lows in 50s. Winter highs usually 50s maybe low 60s with lows in 40s (rarely high 30s but didn't get that cold this year)

Our growing conditions seem to be very similar. Here winters are colder but my plants go indoors around 50, occasionally I wait until 46 but I don't go lower with Sarco's.

Most of my orchids are sheltered in a foil "greenhouse". When the evening sun reaches that little greenhouse, temperature definitely gets higher than the temperature in the environment. Also plants/roots warm up faster early morning when morning sun hits that greenhouse.

Maybe that's the trick? Along with plants being a bit more mature than yours?

Sometimes I even have to shade that greenhouse and I have to avoid sun shining on black pots, roots would be cooked if I don't watch that. Especially when we have 85 F and up.

---------- Post added at 02:31 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:27 PM ----------

Originally Posted by estación seca

This is from my message to this thread May 26 2023:

They are heavy water users and shouldn't dry out. I'm not trying again because I couldn't water often enough. Fred Clarke's source in Australia [at Barrita Orchids] spoke to our society a few years ago. He waters and fertilizes his plants every day of the year.

I suspect you should water them constantly through the Winter.

I learned this the hard way, somehow I didn't remember this post.
My Sarco's definitely can withstand being watered before the medium/roots are dry, even with low temperatures. Medium is airy.
With one plant I waited too long to repot after purchase. It got drie fast, couldn't keep up. It wasn't until end of summer that it took off, after being repotted. Vigorous growth, both roots and leaves.

[WaterWitchin]

Mine are still just sitting there. Since they're more of a cool growing plant and I'm more of an intermediate to warm or hot grower in my space, they will likely continue to just exist. Need to look back and see if I have pictures of them when this project first started. Probably need to just pass them on to someone with cooler growing temps. Two years is long enough to play around with them.

[estación seca]

To WW - mine grew fine in the summer in my house (85+ degrees F / 30+C) so long as I watered them every day. I finally had to admit I'm a terrible gardener who is too careless to water his plants often enough. That's why I put out a huge stainless steel bowl of water for the dogs. Plus, if I let it go dry, they knock it over and push it around to make a lot of noise.

Edit: It might be useful to have two sticky threads - one for orchids great for people who water too much, and one for orchids great for people who forget to water.