Stenoglottis longifolia care

[neophyte]

I was thinking of acquiring one of these... what kind of care does it require? I'm mainly wondering about what kind of medium it needs (would gardening soil with some scoria work? lol) and how its rest period works (do I need to unpot?)... also, can it tolerate slightly hard water?

[Roberta]

For growing medium, I use my terrestrial mix... imprecisely toss pumice, perlite, sand, and cactus mix together to make a brew that drains well. I have grown it in fine bark too, but the terrestrial soil mix seems to work better. Other than that, bright shade or filtered sun. I water it all year - when it dies back after blooming the new shoots tend to appear within a few weeks or a month so it doesn't really "rest", at least not long enough to change one's culture. It doesn't particularly care about water quality... mine gets city water, I am sure worse than yours. Generally I have found that most terrestrials aren't particularly fussy about water quality - after all, they grow in "dirt", as opposed to epiphytes that, in nature, get pure rainwater on the sides of trees. I repot this one rarely - seems to do better with minimal disturbance.

[neophyte]

Thank you! Also, does it need very high humidity or does it do fine with normal household levels of moisture?

[Roberta]

Normal house humidity should be fine. Mine live outside so I can only infer what it needs indoors but I don't think it's critical at all.

[neophyte]

Thanks!

[Dollythehun]

I have "Vanguard " I grow it in moss, constantly moist, on the edge of the lights. It has normal humidity, grows and blooms like champ. A carefree customer.

[neophyte]

Lol, I think I need one of those too – I think you are talking about Stenorrhynchos/Stenosarcos Vanguard. Good to know it's an easy plant too; it'll be going on my wish/need list...

[Roberta]

Stenosarcos Vanguard is, indeed, a beauty, leaves are gorgeous. That one is definitely a warm grower. (Stenorrhynchos x Sarcoglottis) Perfect house plant.

Stenoglottisis not so tropical... I have S. longifolia, S. macloughlinii (a very cute miniature), S. woodii, and the primary hybrid S. Venus (longifolia x fimbriata) outside, winter night temps down to 40 deg F (4 deg C) or occasionally a bit lower. I'd love to get my hands on Stenoglottis fimbriata (flowers look exactly like longifolia, but has spotted leaves)

---------- Post added at 07:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:54 PM ----------

Neophyte, I need to correct my advice of media... just took a look at my plants, it looks like I went back to small bark with perlite. (Probably what I had at the time) . So... conclusion... doesn't make a whole lot of difference, you just want something that stays on the damp side and drains well.

[neophyte]

I've had this one for several days now and am obsessively monitoring it, haha. How often should the medium be watered/how damp should it stay? It looks like it's in a pretty standard terrestrial mix, lots of perlite with a bit of organic material.

[Roberta]

My Stenoglottis (longifolia and otherwise) are wet, pretty much stay that way. And they get tap water. Not fussy. They also live outside. No particular TLC.