Tolumnia william thurston "Robson" info. please - Orchid Board

tim_r95 · #1 04-06-2013, 09:38 PM

So along with the Hknsa I got today from my local orchid show, I got a very small Tolumnia orchid. It was in a small pot, about 2" or so, a little bit of fine bark at the bottom and some cubes of tree fern. I think they were trying to mount it to the tree fern, but the roots were kinda just in between the cubes, I was wondering if it would be okay in just fine bark as a substrate, I read that they like to get dry between waterings and don't like to be moist for very long either, I'm wondering if the bark would take to long to dry out. I moved it from the little 2" pot it was in to a little larger maybe like 3" plastic basket type pot with bark filling the bottom and the roots between the tree fern cubes like it was before. also, I got a care sheet from the orchid sale I was at and it said it only needed to be fertilized every two or three weeks, is that true? I was told about my oncidium to fertilize weekly with like the third week just normal water to flush it. I'm gonna get up a few pics probably in a few minutes when I get the chance to take some.

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The other thing I was thinking was about mounting it to a little bigger like slab of tree fern then maybe mounting that to a piece of wood and covering it with some moss to make it look natural and cool

tim_r95 · #2 04-06-2013, 09:59 PM

Here's those pictures

WhiteRabbit · #3 04-06-2013, 10:21 PM

Fine bark may stay wet too long. A basket, mounting or small clay pot are good options.

These do like to dry quickly, so it may have been potted in the tree fern cubes for that reason. I have a Tolu potted in tree fern fiber in a small clay pot. Chunky (horticultural) charcoal is also often used as the sole media for these. Or bare root in small clay pots.

I fertilize mine weekly, 3 weeks a month, flush media well on the fourth week. Some people do fertilize only monthly, but usually at a higher rate of fertilizer.

These also like quite bright light.

tim_r95 · #4 04-06-2013, 10:31 PM

What kind of medium would you use in a basket? Or would it just be bare root?

cbuchman · #5 04-07-2013, 10:25 AM

You can be bare root or use a few pieces of horticultural charcoal. The key is that they never go to bed wet. So it must dry quickly, but of course, cannot become dehydrated. So you should watch the leaves and make sure they remain turgid and don't develop wrinkles. If they do, they adjust your watering schedule accordingly. In cooler weather they won't need as much water and can be kept pretty dry. In warmer weather they require more water. And they like as much light as they can handle. So a little reddish tinge to the leaves is good.

Good Luck!

Vanda lover · #6 04-07-2013, 11:33 AM

I have charcoal with a little sphagnum in the basket. They like to dry quickly, but not too much. With good air movement, mine are pretty much dry in a day or 2.

tim_r95 · #7 04-07-2013, 01:04 PM

hmm, maybe I'll get some charcoal and set it up in the little plastic basket pot thing that came with it.

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And what about using like, lava rock, or those little clay hydroponic bead things?

tim_r95 · #8 04-08-2013, 02:58 AM

Okay, so I did a kinda makeshift mount for the tolumnia on a piece of mopani wood I used to have in my aquarium, it's a fairly large piece and now I'm wishing I would have bought two or three of them since they were such a good price. I think this piece of wood would look much better with at least three of these on it. I'm planning on going to buy some fresh sphagnum moss and some training wire so I can properly mount this little one. But does it look good so far?

WhiteRabbit · #9 04-08-2013, 07:47 PM

tim_r95 · #10 04-08-2013, 08:06 PM

I got it mounted better now with some good moss, and basically plastic coated twist ties. I'd like to cover up the twist ties so it looks a little better, but that'll come later.

sorry for the blurriness on this photo

I like using the image code to put pictures in post more. less of a hassle to look at them.

---------- Post added at 04:06 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:05 PM ----------

oh, and the little one on there that's seperate kinda just like fell off when I was mounting it, so I attached it lower down. it only had a couple small roots on it, but I figured it was worth a shot to try and keep it alive.