Orchid project in Brazil

[mascia]

I forgot to mention that this week I was looking for a Bc. Saint Andre for myself and ended up finding this nursery's website which had small cattleyas for R$10 each.

Since that's only 3 US dollars, I thought it would be a small seedling. I was going to order a few big plants so I decided to buy one anyway and to my surprise it is incredibly healthy and decent sized.



They have about 60 different cattleyas with this price tag, so now I'm tempted to buy a few to use on my project

If anyone is interested, here's the URL.
Orquidário Oriental

[Dollythehun]

A labor of love!

[mascia]

Here is a closer look at the roots:

White phalaenopsis that was severely dehydrated. At this point it has more than 15 root tips growing. One thing I noticed is that white phals are much much more vigorous than any other color, specially the ones with huge leaves


Cattleya percivaliana. This was mine and it bloomed for the first time this year, but I didn't like its fragrance. Now I can enjoy it from afar. This one probably has 20 new roots.. it grew more roots in 2 weeks of negligence than in 2 months under my care. In a way I think orchids do enjoy being ignored.

[epiphyte78]

Super exciting project! Looks like you're off to a really great start! You should also try to sow some orchid seeds on the trees. I've had some success with this technique here in very dry Southern California. In theory, you should have a lot more success in humid and rainy Brazil. My friend in Brazil might have some seeds available. I'll PM you his e-mail address.

It's pretty easy to pollinate orchids... but it requires quite a bit of energy for a plant to produce seed pods. So you want to choose plants that can afford to sacrifice some energy.

One orchid that I'd highly recommend making crosses with is... Sophronitis cernua. Fiery colors seem to capture more attention than other colors. Plus, most importantly, it's pollinated by hummingbirds! So is Guarianthe aurantiaca and Prosthechea vitellina and Laelia milleri. Ideally the hummingbirds will help create all sorts of crazy cool combinations and the wind will paint all the trees, buildings, cars and people with orchid seeds that will germinate and produce so many more flowers for the hummingbirds to cross-pollinate.

[mascia]

Originally Posted by epiphyte78

Super exciting project! Looks like you're off to a really great start! You should also try to sow some orchid seeds on the trees. I've had some success with this technique here in very dry Southern California. In theory, you should have a lot more success in humid and rainy Brazil. My friend in Brazil might have some seeds available. I'll PM you his e-mail address.

It's pretty easy to pollinate orchids... but it requires quite a bit of energy for a plant to produce seed pods. So you want to choose plants that can afford to sacrifice some energy.

One orchid that I'd highly recommend making crosses with is... Sophronitis cernua. Fiery colors seem to capture more attention than other colors. Plus, most importantly, it's pollinated by hummingbirds! So is Guarianthe aurantiaca and Prosthechea vitellina and Laelia milleri. Ideally the hummingbirds will help create all sorts of crazy cool combinations and the wind will paint all the trees, buildings, cars and people with orchid seeds that will germinate and produce so many more flowers for the hummingbirds to cross-pollinate.

Hi, thank you for the info.. I will contact your friend and check if he has any seeds. It would be amazing to see orchids growing and spreading naturally around here!

I have an issue right now. I want to mount the orchids on spots that will get enough sun for them to grow and bloom. The problem is there are houses, trees and buildings around here, so places that get sun during winter (when the sun transits at a low angle) don't necessarily receive sun during the rest of the year.

This was a major problem for me. I mounted my first orchids on august/september of last year on trees that got 3 to 4 hours of morning sun, only to notice that 2 months later they were getting 1 hour and then nothing for the rest of the year. Now they have lots of leaves but it doesn't look like they will ever bloom.

Phals and some oncidiums don't really mind bright shade, but cattleyas, laelias and dendrobiums absolutely need it, specially here with only 1650 sunshine hours/year on average.

[mascia]

I received more donations, but ran out of space on the trees that are right next to where I live!

I will move now to the next block, which has huge old Java Plum trees, but it will be alot more complicated. The trunks are so big I can't wrap my arms around them (to tie the orchids) without someone else's help. I'm still trying to figure out how to do it.

On the plus side there are several orchids there already!



Anyway, I won't be doing much in the next couple of weeks. We haven't had any rain in 20 days now, and the forecast for the next 15 days only shows trace amounts. It is cool and humid, so the established orchids don't mind, but I've been watering the new ones every other day and it would be impossible for me to keep up if there were more.

I will keep this post updated

[mascia]

Hi everyone,
I was away for a long time, but got back home today and the orchids are doing just fine on their own. Unfortunately I've been very busy lately and haven't have a chance to expand my efforts.

Here are some pictures to show the progress:

This Oncidium Sharry Baby was the first orchid I mounted ~6 months ago. A lot of roots and lots of new growth:


Also, a flower spike!


Dendrobium anosmum. I'm expecting flowers for the first time next year.


Dendrobium parishii


This is a yellow oncidium growing from back bulbs. Roots are looking good. I expect it will form a spike on the next bulb


Dendrobium nobile with several keikis


Miltonia Lamarckiana x Brassia Eternal Wind. This one looked like it wasn't going to make it, but here it is with a spike (zoom to see)


Dendrobium loddigesii. These are my favorites, they were looking bad when I mounted them, but now there's a lot of new growth




C. percivaliana and some more stuff


Laelia anceps


No id cattleya and dendrobium phalaenopsis. The denphal was severely dehydrated, but now is growing a new bulb!

[Pattywack]

Awesome!

[mascia]

The miltassia has bloomed!

[Pattywack]

Wow this is beautiful!