I'm thinking of creating another Weed Orchid

[voyager]

About a week & a half ago, I split my original Den. Samurai [pics earlier in this thread] into 3 portions and mounted them in 3 separate trees.
The portion with the cane that has the 2 seed pods on it is in a tree out along-side the street. I mounted it so high up in that tree that I had to pull my Dakota down next to it so I could set the ladder up in its bed to get as high as I wanted to go.
When those pods finally split more height will let the seed spread farther.
I'm pretty sure I've now created another new invasive weed.

[pipsxlch]

Seems to me I read somewhere that there were some self established colonies of D. antennatum somewhere in Hawaii, so you have a good chance of success maybe.

[voyager]

Originally Posted by pipsxlch

Seems to me I read somewhere that there were some self established colonies of D. antennatum somewhere in Hawaii, so you have a good chance of success maybe.

That would not surprise me.
Somewhere I've read that Hawai'i has a climate very favorable for Spatulata section/antelope type Dendrobiums.
Knowing that has spurred me on to get this one established on my trees.
Plus, I'd always wanted a Spatulata type Dendrobium while living in Alaska, but didn't think I could give it the conditions needed for it to do well.
Now, I can just throw them outside and forget 'em.
That's a win-win situation.

[Plodde]

Originally Posted by voyager

That would not surprise me.
Somewhere I've read that Hawai'i has a climate very favorable for Spatulata section/antelope type Dendrobiums.
Knowing that has spurred me on to get this one established on my trees.
Plus, I'd always wanted a Spatulata type Dendrobium while living in Alaska, but didn't think I could give it the conditions needed for it to do well.
Now, I can just throw them outside and forget 'em.
That's a win-win situation.

How are you liking living in hawaii? As an orchid lover your collection must be amazing. i can just imagine all the possibilities.

[voyager]

Originally Posted by Plodde

How are you liking living in hawaii? As an orchid lover your collection must be amazing. i can just imagine all the possibilities.

M'Lady and I love it here.
I had spent 30+ years in Alaska.
I loved living there too.
I won't lie, I miss many things about AK.
But, The things I like about being here more than make up for the things I miss about AK.
I'm now in my 70s.
M'Lady's just a cute young thing.
She won't reach her 70s for another couple years yet.
Winters are 6 to 7 months long up there.
We weren't playing outdoors like we did in our 40s, 50s and 60s, partly because of our age, partly due to other conditions.

I find it hard to feel like I'm building an orchid collection.
Most of the ones I bring home are hybrids, I just set them loose in the yard.
If they make it, great.
If not, maybe the next one will.

With that said, I am beginning a small collection of species orchids.
Finding good interesting species orchids is hard to do around here.
The hybrid orchid industry is flourishing everywhere around here.
Hybrids are available everywhere cheaply.
Occasionally, I do run across a species orchid I'm interested in.
Like today, I went to the farmer's market to get some papayas, avocados and bananas for next week.
I always check the vendors for orchids while I'm at it.
Today I found a nice Den. aggregatum [lindleyi] in bloom for $10.
I already had one, but it isn't doing anything yet.
It isn't dead, but still seems to be dormant.
So, I got this one to satisfy my need for instant gratification and maybe the other one will realize that it had better get its act together.


I'll probably end up mounting them together on the same mount.

[Tindomul]

Cool! Keep spreading them,

[No-Pro-mwa]

Nice weeds to get going.

[bethmarie]

Love your photos, and the Den in the beginning of the thread is awesome. Must be a nice camera!

[Stray59]

Fascinating post! Living in the Midwest, it blows my mind that you can broadcast orchids seeds in your own yard and have them survive - I am green with envy! Really, pea-green, perhaps chartreuse even....LOL. How cool. Of course I knew they did this in the wild, and you live in their natural environs, but I hadn't thought you could naturalize them is such a manner.
Which brings me to my question. I know about the symbiotic need for the fungus to supply the nutrients to the seeds for success. Could you take a live root from a mature plant and pulverize it, smearing the resultant gunk on a tree - wouldn't you be "seeding" that area with the needed fungus starter? Or would the rotting material of the root set up a harmful fungus/bacteria?
Just a thought......

[voyager]

Originally Posted by Stray59

Fascinating post! Living in the Midwest, it blows my mind that you can broadcast orchids seeds in your own yard and have them survive - I am green with envy! Really, pea-green, perhaps chartreuse even....LOL. How cool. Of course I knew they did this in the wild, and you live in their natural environs, but I hadn't thought you could naturalize them is such a manner.
Which brings me to my question. I know about the symbiotic need for the fungus to supply the nutrients to the seeds for success. Could you take a live root from a mature plant and pulverize it, smearing the resultant gunk on a tree - wouldn't you be "seeding" that area with the needed fungus starter? Or would the rotting material of the root set up a harmful fungus/bacteria?
Just a thought......

I'm not very knowledgeable about the symbiotic fungi that associate with the orchids and help with their growth.
But, I would assume that there are probably various types specific to a variety of areas and climates.
It is possible that they could be transported to other locations with different conditions. Because of the orchids being able to reproduce here, there is little doubt that the mycorrhizal type fungi do exist here, and are ubiquitous.

We may find out if the fungi can be transplanted.
I "re-homed" 3 of my storm disrupted weed Vandas with a forum member on the mainland.
Part of his interest in them was the possibility of gaining the mycorrhizal fungi in their roots.

My guess is that you would not need to masticate and spread the roots around.
I would think that the fungi would simply propagate out of the roots of the transplanted plant if they found satisfactory conditions.

---------- Post added at 07:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:39 PM ----------

Originally Posted by RosieC

Wow, what a great place to live where they can grow wild like that.

After over 30 years in Alaska, and growing orchids in my living room for 10 of those years:

I'm now like a kid with a new toy.
I can hardly believe it is so easy to grow them as it is here.

This photo is of the South and Southwest windows of my living room back in Alaska. There was also a Northwest window just like the one on the right. It is about 10am and the sun has just come up. The pots on the the floor on the left are a Phaius, an Arundina [Bamboo Orchid] and a tomato plant brought in just before the first killing frost.
Phaius' and Arundinas are now my major weed orchids.