Haraella retrocalla (Project 8 - Spring 2009)

[RSS]

Originally Posted by Blueszz

Thank you RSS but that leaves me with another question? What kind of water do you use for the orchids? Rain water? Tap water? Something else?
I ask this because water also as minerals dissolved. My tap water only is for instance about 300 ppm. What've read moss can't survive that, but I didn't try that. I should run a test, as I have live moss to experiment with.
I would like to use my moss for orchids. That is why a keep asking questions :-) I hope you don't mind.

Nicole

RO water mostly but our tap water is good enough to grow it at 80ish ppm. We have good tap water thou.

[Becky15349]

You are all so lucky that your haraellas are growing! Mine has been sitting with me for 5 weeks now and done absolutely nothing. Its shaded by a larger cattleya sitting on a south windowsill, so it gets great bright light, and I water about 1x a week, sometimes with fert. Am i doing something wrong?

[whygreenberg]

Becky... Depending on how much air movement it's getting, and how quickly it may be drying out, it's possible your Haraella wants watering more often. I can't be sure of that not knowing other aspects of your growing conditions, but they don't like to dry out.

[Blueszz]

Hi Becky, I agree with Yvan. It could be you don't water enough. I keep mine fairly moist, at least comparable with how I keep my Paph's. So it's never allowed to dry out, most of the times it's even wetter than my Paph's. When not covered to preserve humidity I have to water it every 2-3 days. (2 inch pot). You could use a skewer to determine if yours dries out in between waterings.

On sunny days, mine gets sun until 1 pm, about 1 ft away from the South window. I have a fan running on these sunny days.

Now I have it covered most of the time, I can water every 5 days and it responds well.

Nicole

[nenella]

Hi all,
Just to fill you in on my plants.
Harrie N°1 - which is the one I posted a bloom photo near the end of last month- the flower wilted yesterday - It lasted 14 days.
Harrie N°2- has also just opened it's first bloom. But the flower is considerably bigger!!!

I never really thought the plant was 'bigger' than N°1.. Looking at them closer I see that the leaves are!
I think that's Good News for alot of you as I have often thought your Haraellas had bigger leaves than both of mine! So you should all be getting 'large' (so to speak) flowers!!
Here they both are..Apologies for the photo - I took it in a hurry

[nenella]

Becky,
I'm sorry I can't help you as mine are mounted but I tend to agree that they like lots of water and do not mind sunshine! Also I have been fertilizing at nearly every watering (weakly)

[WhiteRabbit]

Originally Posted by nenella

Hi all,
Just to fill you in on my plants.
Harrie N°1 - which is the one I posted a bloom photo near the end of last month- the flower wilted yesterday - It lasted 14 days.
Harrie N°2- has also just opened it's first bloom. But the flower is considerably bigger!!!

I never really thought the plant was 'bigger' than N°1.. Looking at them closer I see that the leaves are!
I think that's Good News for alot of you as I have often thought your Haraellas had bigger leaves than both of mine! So you should all be getting 'large' (so to speak) flowers!!
Here they both are..Apologies for the photo - I took it in a hurry

wow! Yours look great!
nice mounts!

[WhiteRabbit]

I think - just possibly - that Cindy is getting a spike!
What do you all think?

[Blueszz]

Wabbit, I think you are right! Congrats :-)

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by WhiteRabbit

I think - just possibly - that Cindy is getting a spike!
What do you all think?

Hard to tell, these things are so darn small! My first Haraella keeps on tricking me with roots. If you see a bright green end appear on it, then it's a root. And do the spikes usually come from so high up the plant? Mine is spiking from the very lowest leaves.