From what I hear, and in my experience, it is HARD to hurt the plant with it. I think that's what you meant to say.


As far as watering everyday- look at the plant, it should tell you if it's happy. Roots, bulbs, leaves, how's everything doing?

it is happy! so i guess ill stick to my ruitine

my lead is plumping!! and, the leaf is splitting so it looks like a folded leaf now cant wait till it unfolds

found a new lead!! and the leaf has opened!!

here are pics of the newest LEAF

the whole plant and the smallest lead

the roots

Well you must be doing something right...my two new leads are slow to grow. One decided to rot before coming out of the sheath and it killed the leaf but I still have a small p-bulb and the other one I am still waiting for the leaf to emerge. I may die of old age before it decides to kick into gear. I don't think mine likes me.

lol " its like mutiny!!" lol :) mine is really growing fast.

what are your conditions? a guy at the OS said humidity is a big factor

My humidity maintains around 60% give or take a little and my temps are intermediate. I try to give it bright light, but thought I would let it get established before giving it super bright light. The roots look like they are doing their thing so that is good. I just need to be patient probably. I want to grow it outside during the warmer weather, but right now it is a little too warm, in the mid to high 90's or low 100's for the next couple of months. I don't have the humidity outside to be able to grow it out in those kind of temps and I cant' stay home from work to spray it down to keep it humid outside...lol.

sounds good pretty high humidity. mine is almost that high, sometimes the same as yours. mine is outside, but my daytime temps are mid 90s to 100s. and they are doing fine. they get full sun in the morning, till like 11:30 and then get splotchy direct sun starting around 6 pm. the key is not to let it get the hot noonday sun.

how is your air movement? with high humidity, it has to have good air movement too.

what is your outside humidity?

how much do you fertilize? do you have a rooting supplement?

i fertilize at every watering, weakly. and, i water everyday, its in a bark charcoal mix, but it still needs watering everyday. i use either miracle grow 20-20-20, schults ( i cant remember exactly but it was something like 10-17-10), or peters 5-10-5. i decide in whatever mood im in. i also add superthrive, but a little less than called for. i make a 5 gallon bucket of water with nutrients, and use it when i water everyday, i water a mount and two potted plants, and it lasts about a week

I grow under lights, I have 2 4-bulb 4 foot T5 fixtures that are very powerful...but I'm wondering if I need to boost this one closer to the lights. Most of my Cattleyas think the lights are to strong, their leaves are a very light green with sometimes a tinge of purple-reddish color to them. I have multiple fans in the room for air circulation and temps are in the high 70's to low 80's during the day right now.

My outside humidity is usually around 20% or lower since I live in a high mountain desert area....dry dry dry!

okay, your right, your humidity is not enough. maybe try boosting them closer to the lights. at least try it.

how much do you fertilize?

Yep I'll try putting it in a booster chair for the lights..lol. And now that you mention the fertilizer...I've been lacking in that department since not all of my orchids have the same fertilizer requirements, like my neo's for example. I rarely feed them. Guess I should start fertilizing again...I've just gotten lazy. Thanks for the help, help!

yeah, that makes it complicated! at first i just gave everything, phals dens catts and my laelia the same fertilizer. but now that i have neos, and seedlings ( i dont know how to fertilize either of them. how much do you fertilize your neos? ) but now i think im going to start fertilizing every other 5 gallon bucket fill up.

About fertilizing- most everyone on here and that have posted articles on the web advise that in a diverse collection, just use a lower ppm weekly.

Well I made a little goof- at least I hope it is little. I bought one potted from Oak Hill and one mounted from Andys. I'm having trouble with humidity so I have been soaking the 3 mounted plants I have every day or every other day in a bucket of rain water with a tiny bit of fertilizer. Anyway, I discovered this morning that I had forgotten my L anceps and left it soaking in the bucket overnight.
Is it doomed? :(

I've not done it with a Laelia but I've done that several times with my Miltonia from the Summer 2009 project and it's been fine.

I think you will be fine, just let it dry off before you water again.

I agree with Rosie- check really well for squishiness for a while, and make sure all those nooks and crannies are dry. Sprinkle cinnamon where needed, though I doubt you will need to.

Personally I would be very careful with cinnamon arround the roots. While it's good for wounds on leaves it can be too drying for roots.

If you have bad looking bits then a bit of cinnamon on the bad bit may help stop it spreading.

it should be fine, it rained for two days non stop here, and it was POURING the whole time. and mine seems fine

Most likely not. :)

That's what I was trying to say, I should have been clearer. ;) I made the mistake of being heavy with cinnamon very early on, and learned very well from it.

Same hear Izzie... I learned the hard way :(

I think Connie's plant will be fine though... probably won't even miss a beat :)

so guess what guys!! i just found a sheath! :D :cheer: im not sure if it will have anything inside, but im still excited... growth Layla grow! grow grow layla grow! :D

Well done Bob! Looks like you have some happy plants over there.
Mine will be coming in soon, as soon as it drops below freezing. I got two healthy leads this summer that are nearly mature.

mine never got below freezing, hmm thats curious. i read they could tolerate below freezing but didnt need it. i brought them in at 45* F

it could be because i just gave mine a mini rest. a guy who grows rupics told me they needed a rest, so i gave mine a rest for about a week ( i water every other day normally), until i came here and found out they didnt need a rest. so that coudlve had something to do with it, but i doubt that little amount of time would influence anything that much

I have two L. anceps now. One I thought was forming a sheath on the new growth, but then I was told by the very knowledgeable person who gave me one my L. anceps that it is common for two leaves to form sometimes. I think that is what I have, two leaves forming and not a sheath. I haven't dropped the temps or with held watering at all. I figured it would take a year for it to adjust to it's new growing conditions anyways.

I'm not exposing it to the low temps on purpose, just out of convenience. Haven't organized my growing space inside yet! It's been kind of neat to see it truck along while all of our garden plants are like "aaauuughhhh frostttttt laaammmmeeee"

ahhh! i see, that makes sense

we will see if mine is making a second leaf, but it really looks "sheathy" but only time will tell


izzie- i tried to get some seaweed fert yesterday but the garden center didnt have and D:

Hi Everybody,

Mine has flowered and I have some great pics. I forgot how to resize them...so I'll have to go and look that up to post the pics.

Karen

OK...Here goes (I think)

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...mbs/Laiela.jpg

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...s/Laelia_5.jpg

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...s/Laelia_7.jpg

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...s/Laelia_4.jpg

It's been a while so maybe this worked. :waving :biggrin:

Well I don't know why they went down instead of across but at least they're there. What do you think. I wish I had Connies photography skills.

Karen

WELL DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Mine is not doing well at all and the new growth I had is drying up although put out 2 new roots, my older leaves & p/bulbs are suffering too. I think I'm going to try and resserect it in water in a vase.

Congrats Karen!!! lovely bloom.
Nenella I feel for you. I don't know what happened to mine, but this summer was not good for it. It started drying up and looking nasty. I put it in water culture and now have 4 nice roots. I will probably plant it in s/h as soon as the roots reach an inch or two.
Joann

Wow that spike is long! Glad I know what to expect! I can't wait for mine to bloom someday. I have one potted in a chc mix and I spray it really well every other day. I think they don't like to dry out like some Cattleya's do, and I think I have a tendency to want to treat it like the others. My other one is in s/h and is a division that Ted gave to me and it is happy as a bug! I love s/h!

Way to go Karen! :bowing
I wish my orchid growing skills were as good as yours! I have two, and no signs of spikes.
But I've been a photographer for 40 years and I've been growing orchids for less than two :)

Sad day! Can you post pictures? Maybe we can help.

eta: with these being rupiculous and very drought hardy, you might not need to do any more than repot and keep it a little more humid, perhaps with a plastic bag over the top.

:D Their long spikes are definitely one of their trademarks, that they commonly pass on to their progeny.

As for not liking to dry out, I have heard the opposite. After talking with several nurseries and knowledgeables on the board, the general consensus is that these guys do like a LOT of water, but also want perfect airy drainage, and the same dry out that other catts do. Similar to C. aclandiae.

:dunno: but different things work for different people, orchid culture isn't always an exact science.


Here's a quote from an AOS article about the hereditary influences: "This vigorous Mexican species, Laelia anceps, features prominently in the development of cold tolerance in cattleyas. The species is dominant for its long inflorescence and characteristic four-angled pseudobulbs. The species imparts good shape, size, substance, and flower flatness to its hybrids. The color is recessive allowing hybridizers to develop a wide range of colors with the exception of yellow."
AOS | Hereditary Influences in the Cattleya Alliance
(I found this article fascinating)

:lol: Looks like a real character, that one! Trying to be all cool and resupinate. "Look mom! For Halloween, I'm going to be a Reed-stem Epidendrum!"