A Trio of Miltoniopsis!

[silken]

Originally Posted by ChasWG

They looks really beautiful. I love the Milts., but none of mine rebloomed this season. I think I understand why now after reading your posts. I'll be changing them up today. How much light do you give yours?

BTW, I just bought a new one, Milt. Maul Malden. a fragrent deep purlple waterfall, lighter purple center and a white edge. About a week away from opening up fully.

Thanks. How have you been growing yours till now? I think you could still hope to see spikes. I have one that just showed the spikes about a week ago. And last year several of mine bloomed in mid summer. I'm still hoping for a few more to bloom, but who knows.

Mine get quite high light-I think around 3,000fc. They are about 1 1/2 ft. away under two 4 ft HO T5's. I do have them in a little plastic greenhouse to keep humidity high, so the clear plastic may cut some light as the lights are on the outside of the little house. Here is a picture of where I keep them over winter. I have a large pan full of water on the lower shelf and a small fan running 7/24. They grow with my 2 masdies in a cool greenhouse over winter and like it in there. For summer I will lower the whole set-up to the floor and near where the cold air intake is.

Your Maui Maiden sounds gorgeous! be sure to post pictures when it opens.

[silken]

Originally Posted by Eyebabe

PS. They look awesome and I like the lavendar one on the right best

Thanks Eyebabe!

[ChasWG]

Originally Posted by silken

Thanks. How have you been growing yours till now? I think you could still hope to see spikes. I have one that just showed the spikes about a week ago. And last year several of mine bloomed in mid summer. I'm still hoping for a few more to bloom, but who knows.

Mine get quite high light-I think around 3,000fc. They are about 1 1/2 ft. away under two 4 ft HO T5's. I do have them in a little plastic greenhouse to keep humidity high, so the clear plastic may cut some light as the lights are on the outside of the little house. Here is a picture of where I keep them over winter. I have a large pan full of water on the lower shelf and a small fan running 7/24. They grow with my 2 masdies in a cool greenhouse over winter and like it in there. For summer I will lower the whole set-up to the floor and near where the cold air intake is.

Your Maui Maiden sounds gorgeous! be sure to post pictures when it opens.

I think I need to change out their medium as it's the same as when I bought them last year. I have already replanted one of them about 3 weeks ago because the pot they were in was just rediculas and way too small for that plant. And this morning when I went down to look up the proper spelling of the new Milt. I noticed on one of the other two I have (it used to be three but one died over the winter) that the repotted one has new growth! Some very tiny little leaves popping up from the medium. I do keep them a lot moister than any of my other orchids and they are pretty low in the enclosure that I built for them. It's simulare to your little green house, only I used a cheap 4 shelf plastic Shelving unit from Home Depot and then covered it in that shrink wrap clear plastic used for sealing home windows during winter. Inside the enclosure there are three levels. There is a flap in the front to access each level. The top is not lit by anything but the morning sun. There I have plants that like to over winter. I have Geraniums that bloom all winter there. On the inside of the enclosure there is about 700 (equivelent) watts of Compact Floro. bulbs lighting all my Catts., Dendros, Phals. and Oncs. as well as the fairly new arrivails (last year and this) of the Milts. It also sits in front of a walkout basement East facing window. So the top shelf gets a ton of light. The Catts love that level. I put the Milts. on the lower shelves because of the summer heat. The lowest shelf has no lights on that level and that is where most of the Phals go.

I have a little green house like yours, but it has 4 shelves and I have yet to put it together and get some lighting in side of it.

So at the moment, that's where my Milts live. I figure it will take some time for me to fully understand how these Milts. grow best in my situation. Hopefully they can deal with it and adapt.

Oh, don't worry about the images once the Mual Malden opens, photography is one of my other passions and Milts. are so increadibly photogenic. Probably more so than any other orchid. They remind me of Pansies, only cooler!

Last years blooms.




And a NoID. It was on special because it was pretty beat up and had no name tag. I couldn't pass it up for $11

[silken]

Gorgeous photos and I'm sure you will get to see them bloom again. Mine get quite a cool spell in the winter with nights around 55 and days to 65F so I don't know if that has anything to do with making them bloom. They apparently should have about a 10 degree drop in temp. at night. It sounds like your growing conditions are somewhat similar in a way!

[Rex Anglorum]

For what it's worth, I grow my Miltoniopsis somewhat differently from what I've usually read and have had great success.

My location is actually pretty lousy. I grow them indoors in medium indirect light from a southwest window supplemented by T-12 lighting. Because I'm in upstate New York, the plants are subject to forced-air heating all winter and central air conditioning all summer. This makes the indoor humidity extremely low most of the time.

I attribute my success in such dry conditions to the fact that I grow them in plastic pots in a 50/50 mix of peat moss and perlite. By this I mean the kind of peat moss that comes in the giant bales sold at Home Depot or Lowes for 15 dollars mixed with standard white perlite--nothing fancy.

This mix has worked wonders for all of my miltoniopsis, catts, and phals. Right now I'm experimenting with a 50/50 mixture of my peat mix and hydroton for my paphs. For all of my vandaceous I use pure hydroton in plastic pots. They sulked for a bit after ripping them out of their baskets (they held on for dear life), but are now growing again thanks to the application of additional bottom heat.

So far in the two years that I've used this method, everyone is happily growing & blooming and the results have been impressive. Repotting has always revealed a large mass of healthy, firm roots and I've never had a problem with root rot--not even once.

Of course, your mileage may vary, but I encourage people trying to grow in conditions similar to mine to research "growing orchids in mud". A good start would be https://www.msu.edu/user/harveyb/mud.htm

Cory

[ajdamania2]

Originally Posted by silken

Thanks help. They do well in cooler conditions, but the main thing is they don't like the heat. They can take a few hours of 85 or 90F so long as they have good humidity and air movement and can cool off at night. They also should be re-potted yearly as they hate stale media. They should never completely dry out. I really like them and don't find them too fussy.

Hi there, as you said they hate stale media i decided to change the media but i always find it hard to get the right media for Miltoniosis( that can hold water) so removed the old one , washed the roots and put in 100 % rockwool. Is it a crazy idea? or would you suggest something else?
many thanks

[silken]

Originally Posted by ajdamania2

Hi there, as you said they hate stale media i decided to change the media but i always find it hard to get the right media for Miltoniosis( that can hold water) so removed the old one , washed the roots and put in 100 % rockwool. Is it a crazy idea? or would you suggest something else?
many thanks

Sorry, I don't have any experience with rockwool except that a friend just gave me a division of her miltoniopsis and it is potted in a mixture of bark, perlite and rockwool. The rockwool only makes up about 1/4 or 1/5th of her mix. It seems to hold a lot of water. I guess keep an eye on the plants. If they are in clear pots it would help so you can see what is going on with the roots.

[silken]

Cory, that is an interesting read on growing in peat. I'll have to give it a try. But only on 1 or 2 plants to begin with!

[plantaholic]

I have an opened bale of peat moss that's been sitting outside for a few months (all winter). I'm assuming that I'd need to somehow or other sterilize the peat before using it to pot up an orchid. Is this correct and how would a person do that?

A local orchid vendor uses a mix of peat, bark, and perlite. I'm thinking that that would probably be a good mix. I've not had the greatest success with normal bark mixes sold at the box stores.

[ajdamania2]

Originally Posted by silken

ajdamania2, that is an interesting read on growing in peat. I'll have to give it a try. But only on 1 or 2 plants to begin with!

I dont have not much experience in rockwool either that`s why i am panicking I have an Odontioda from Eric YoungOrchid foundation which is in chopped rockwool. In the begining i didnt like the idea but then eventually i realised that it holds so much water and easy to grow.I dont how my miltonipsis will react to rockwool as it is in bud as well.many thanks