Orchid Cactus?

[Tindomul]

Gorgeous. Such an interesting group of plants. I've got two that I can't quite get to bloom. One produced a bud two years ago, but dropped it before anything happened. I grow in Semi/hydro. Have you tried that with any of yours?

[estación seca]

I've never tried them in S/H because that would be more work for me. This time of year I'm watering rooted cuttings about once every 3 weeks. In loose epiphyte mixes such as you would use for begonias or gesneriads these can go comlpletely dry from time to time for a few days without root damage. The roots in S/H might be damaged if they dry out.

Small cuttings of their relatives Hatiora, Lepismium and Rhipsalis can be grown into large plants in a bottle in water. Always start with a cutting whose base has hard, mature cylindic growth. These smaller genera (and some ancestors of Epi hybdids) come from higher elevations and none is a true warm or hot grower. They are difficult for me in potting mixes in summer, when my house is quite warm. In water they grow well for me. I've never tried water growing with an Epi hybrid but I'm going to.

Most Epi hybrids are very easy to grow for most people. I would think the main barrier is growing space. German hybridizers in the 1930s did produce somewhat smaller plants.

[Dollythehun]

ES, I am going to try rooting in water. I have one cutting that is not cooperating in a soil mix. Tips?

[Tindomul]

Thanks for the ES. I never considered that their roots might get damaged in the dry media. For me I have lots of stuff in S/H next to them, so I don't usually let them dry out. They have been slow to grow for me, but they are growing and putting out new stems.

I think one of the major problems for me is that my living room lights are usually on till midnight, I've heard/read that they won't be stimulated to bloom unless they have increasing lengths of darkness.

[estación seca]

Dolly, I haven't tried rooting Epis in water. If it's still alive in the soil it should eventually grow. As an experiment I have cuttings taken at the same time as that one (last summer) sitting unpotted on my kitchen counter. They look fine, just slightly dry. I would leave your cutting as it is and try in water with a fresh cutting.

Tindomul, flowering starts when they get big enough. They tend to produce new growth during spring/summer. They flower on last year's, and older, growth. I don't know whether they are daylight sensitive. Not many people grow them in living rooms due to size. The photo Orchid Kid posted of three cuttings in a clay pot is too small to flower for most Epis. The larger plant is big enough to flower for most Epis.

Deutsches Kaiserin can flower much smaller, and growth is dwarfed by high light. Below is my mom's plant, which gets full sun most of the day in southern California. She lives in Mission Viejo, just inland from Interstate 5, if you want to look it up on a map.

I'll post a photo of my rooted cuttings when I get home from visiting my mom.

She has a bud on her Epiphyllum chrysocardium. I'm excited because I haven't seen that one flower yet. It needs to be very large to flower. Her plant has about 15 stems, each up to 4' / 122cm long. Look up flower images to see why I'm excited.

[Dollythehun]

Wellll...I stuck it in water this morning. It hadn't even started to root in the medium it was potted in. My German Empress is in a 4" pot. Pot bound as heck, It is in a cold corner of my greenhouse window and I am watering it with a good soak when it looks shriveled. That's the best I can do.

When I had my larger Epis, I kept them cold and dry all winter. They did flower in spring and then the next year I lost them to heater failure. I think the bigger they are, the more floriferous they are.

Tindo, I'll send you a cutting if you'd like but, not till spring. LOL

[estación seca]

I knew people in St Louis who grew them in baskets hanging from trees outside in summer, then brought them into the basement in winter, near the windows. I don't know what their winter temperatures were.

[Tindomul]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Tindomul, flowering starts when they get big enough. They tend to produce new growth during spring/summer. They flower on last year's, and older, growth. I don't know whether they are daylight sensitive. Not many people grow them in living rooms due to size. The photo Orchid Kid posted of three cuttings in a clay pot is too small to flower for most Epis. The larger plant is big enough to flower for most Epis.

Thanks, that's good to know that they bloom when they reach a certain size. I have not really been fertilizing much other than watering them my aquarium waste water. Even though it's winter, they are putting on new growth right now.

Originally Posted by Dollythehun

Tindo, I'll send you a cutting if you'd like but, not till spring. LOL

Thanks but as you can see (see attached pics) I don't have space for any more. I actually have two, one I know is a white flower, the other is a mystery because it was a garbage rescue. It was at the point of death and I believe that is the one that is currently growing for me.