Australian terrestrials

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

European tuberous terrestrials follow this same growth pattern too. This is Ophrys exaltata:

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Ophrys exaltata

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I have developed my own protocol where I do not pot the tuberoids based on time. I store them or pot them based on their stage of growth. If they do not develop roots, I keep them in storage. If they develop roots I pot them. If the leaves and roots have dried, they also go into storage ASAP after they’re cleaned and dried (inoculated with mycorrhizae before storage to ensure safety).

I’ve also found terrestrial tuberous orchids to like a lot of air to the tuberoids and roots. I pot some of them similarly to my epiphytes depending on the species.

---------- Post added at 08:05 AM ---------- Previous post was at 07:48 AM ----------

Different individuals within the same species can have wildly different times when they break dormancy and even different growth rates! This is why I learned not to pot according to time, but to growth stage. Just because it is “time” doesn’t mean the orchid’s awake! Also, just because one individual is awake doesn’t mean the other individual is awake too!

[Roberta]

I have been watering mine since mid-October - some great-looking growth. My approach is the opposite... I stop watering when they go dormant, repot (to see what I have, mostly... put the old medium back in the pot to conserve any mycorrhizae that might have gotten started) in late September or thereabouts, and start watering lightly in mid-to-late October, once the nights cool off. (I increase the watering once I see green peeking up.) Rot has never been an issue for me - there will be some that don't form a new tuber, that I may pot up in case I missed something (always hope) that stay empty, but those that had decent tubers when I repotted do fine. It's going to be a good year.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I’ve had problems with tuberoids going bad during storage and have not figured out why. This is why I inoculate with mycorrhizae during the storage process. I stop watering when I see that the leaves are dead after the growing season.

[Roberta]

Mine just never get stored... the pots stay on their shelf away from the sprinkler system, keeping them dry is just a feature of California living. If we get freak summer rain (as we did last August) I just cover the pots with some garbage bags over the baker's rack that I use for them. I don't worry about rain in early October... I figure that the plants have evolved to accommodate variation in the rain schedule. My repot time is when they're still dormant. If they have multiplied, I'll divide. But in general, I like having several plants within a pot for the show.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I’ve also had no luck keeping the orchid tuberoids in pots when they’ve gone into dormancy. I’ve had to take complete control over every step of the way to ensure their long-term survival for some reason. For some people, a more hands off approach might work, but it doesn’t work for my conditions for whatever reasons.

[Roberta]

Hey, go with what works! Those tubers look good. Neat to see what they're actually doing.