Dendrobium loddigesii (Project 10 Cool - Spring 2010)

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by RosieC

Great to see Nenella.

That looks happy on that Epiweb. Do you have live moss on it as well?

Right back at the beginning of this project I contemplated mounting mine. I've now finally decided I'm going to do it in the spring and use Epiweb as the mount. Sue has said it did well in tree fern and Epiweb is a good substitute for that from what I've heard.

I've not decided if I will use live moss as well. The place selling the Epiweb sells the stuff to 'seed' live moss on to it. Do you think it helps?

Mounting works well for these rambling dry rest Dens. I have my Den aphyllum mounted (looks nice with the canes hanging down!), and it's much easier to do the winter rest IMO, since you can really control the watering over the winter. Mine gets a very light spraying once a week during the rest period, from early november to late february. No risk of overwatering.

[RosieC]

I knew I had remembered seeing a Den loddigesii on epiweb somewhere and found it on Nenella's when I came here. It was that memory that made me ask the question on another thread about buying Epiweb in the UK.

I'm now 100% sure I'm going to go for it with this one in the spring. Still not sure about the live moss idea, but I'm interested to see it looks like Nenella's has that.

[nenella]

Hi Rosie, sorry I'm not at home so hadn't seen your question. When I first planted it into the epiweb 'pocket' I added sphag at the bottom which is the "green" you see. The moss has grown over it and I also have a tiny fern growing in it in a corner. The green part is the part that stays permenantly in water. I plan on getting a small aquarium to put it in next year as at the moment it's in a plastic transparent container which contained liquid soap bags for laundering purposes and its a bit squashed against the plastic, it isn't quite wide enough.

[RosieC]

Thanks Nenella. I think I definately need to raise the humidity arround mine, will have to see what I can do once I get it mounted.

[RosieC]

Well, this plant has never done well for me. It hardly grew last year, has not flowered and is showing no signs of doing anything yet this spring.

I had always wanted to mount it and as Nenella's is doing well in Epiweb it was the first thing I decided to do with my new sheet of Epiweb.

When I took it out the pot (I had not repotted it before) I found that it was actually three plants. Or if it was one when I bought it they have seperated by themselves, but I could see no sign of where they would have been joined.



I can't argue that at least one of the pieces was blooming size though... it had two flower buds when I got it and I had two flowers shortly after.

Their roots seperated easily and I decided to mount all three. I used a little bit of moss arround the roots as these guys are used to a reasonably heavy mix in the pot and I thought they would be best on the moister side. It is only a tiny bit covering them.

This is only the second time I've mounted anything so I hope I've done it OK. On the larger two I wanted to cut the Epiweb big enough that the tiny keiki's at the top may also be able to root as I remember Sue telling me her's on tree fern will just keep rooting the keikis into the same piece.

I'm hoping these may prefer this setup. We shall see



(They are on three pieces of Epiweb, the bit underneath is just the space I layed them on to take the picture.)

[nenella]

Good job & looking great Rosie! where do you keep the epiweb mounts?

[RosieC]

I've put them in my greenhouse which is where the plant was previously. All my mounts will go out there as the weather warms up. One advantage out there is that I can water and not care about the drips

[RosieC]

Anyone know how much light these guys like? I've currently moved mine outside with my milt spectabilis and it's getting full light from late afternoon. It seems to be standing up well in that light for the last few days but I plan on moving the table round to a position with longer full light (for the milt spectabilis) and not sure if this will cope with that or not.

[RosieC]

They have grown since I first mounted them by the way, but not massively and always seem a bit reluctant to do much. I'm trying to find a change in conditions that will encourage them.

[nenella]

Rosie I ended up taking mine off the epiweb as was not growing. I mounted it on a piece of bark and have it my terrarium. It's growing really well now and I hope it flowers again this year.