Miltonia spectabilis (Project 9 Int. - Summer 2009)

[NatalieS]

Originally Posted by nenella

Mine is now yellower... especially the half that stayed in the S window all winter but can't see any sign of spikes. I'm wondering if I should keep it moister than I have been doing ?(I let it really dry out, between watering) and maybe give it some fert as I haven't been doing so. Any ideas?
Any pics of your 'maybe spikes?' girls?

I don't know if my camera will be able to capture what my eyes are but I will try to get a pic this evening when I get home.

If it is a spike I will be massively surprised - I've only had it for about 6+ weeks and it's quite a small plant.

I've been keeping it in the mini greenhouse I posted about here: http://www.orchidboard.com/community...se-set-up.html (it's the one in the middle). I don't let it dry out completely. Temps have been ranging from about 18 - 24 C and as far as I know humidity hasn't dropped below 70%.

[NatalieS]

As requested.

[Tetouan]

Originally Posted by NatalieS

As requested.

yeah its a spike!

[NatalieS]

Originally Posted by Tetouan

yeah its a spike!

Yep! It's now well clear of the leaf and growing taller on a daily basis. I'm very excited to see how it's going to turn out.

[nenella]

Originally Posted by NatalieS

Yep! It's now well clear of the leaf and growing taller on a daily basis. I'm very excited to see how it's going to turn out.

Congrats Natalie! hope you''ve been taking lots of pics to show us it's development.

[NatalieS]

Yesterday this bud was still green. This morning it had a slight rose tint. This evening it's purple!! Hopefully it will open any day now.

[RosieC]

Looking good Natalie

My last post on mine said I had moved it back to my greenhouse, but I think I must have moved it back outside soon after as it's been outside a long time now. It's properly been getting some sun and looking yellow but healthy. Lots of growth but I think it's too late in the year for new spikes to start now... maybe this year's sun will help for next year :

[NatalieS]

Thanks guys!

I don't know if it's light with this guy. The leaves and bulbs aren't really yellow, just a pale green. This one is sitting in a mini greenhouse on the floor of my lounge about 1.3m or 4' below a north east facing window. It's about 60cm away from the window as well - so not a lot of natural light. I supplement the light with two domestic reading lamps running a 3W LED each (nothing special, straight from IKEA). I'm learning about growing under lights so I've just been experimenting. From what I've read though, this is not a whole lot of light.

If I had to guess what the trick was, I would say constant high humidity. I have a Miltonia clowesii division that sits on my kitchen table and if it goes dry for even one day, I end up with crinkled leaves. I've also read that the Brazillian Miltonia's are very sensitive to water loss and drops in humidity, so I have perlite at the bottom of my mini greenhouse which I pour a jug of water on once a week. This keeps the humidity at 70-80%, sometimes more.

I am a complete newbie so I'm just guessing, but it's the one thing that I know has been consistent while I've been growing this guy. But who knows? Perhaps the grower I bought this from grew it under very high light previously and so has contributed to it blooming this cycle. Perhaps my growing conditions haven't influenced it to bloom at all!

[nenella]

Any more pics Natalie? I can't wait to see your bloom; I keep on looking at mine and they have trebled in size since the start of this project (I split my plant in 2) all they do is grow and grow.... mine are now both as 'yellow' as when I first got it/them..
look forward to seeing your bloom.

[NatalieS]

It's open and I managed to take pics just before heading off to visit family in Galway. Didn't have time to upload them unfortunately. I promise to upload them as soon as we get back.