Under the bonnet/hood

[SouthPark]

Otherwise ----- it should be 'spoiler alert' or 'show hand' hehehe

Google drive link (higher res):

Pic link

[rbarata]

Tenebrosa?

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by rbarata

Tenebrosa?

Hi rbarata! It is a C. tenebrosa sheath.

This orchid was the one that I purchased toward the beginning of this year when I was having a short holiday trip in Brisbane ----- a city which is in my home state of Queensland.

I was intending to visit a particular orchid nursery for the first time, just to admire the flowers or whatever was on display. But ended up purchasing against my own 'strict' orders hehehe. I just noticed a flower with very interesting coloured browny type petals, and other interesting colours on the flower.

It's the same plant from this link here ---- (link).

Hopefully it progresses onto flowering stage. I'll share pics if or when it gets to there! Your tenebrosa sheath appears to be getting there as well. These sheaths really sit there for months ---- maybe 5 or 6 months of no activity.

If I get to flowering stage for this season ----- things will be different! The orchid nursery must have used automatic sprinklers - so back in January, while the flowers were so nice, they did not last long ------ because I later discovered that the sheath was filled right up with water! So no wonder the flowers took a big dive in form after a couple of days - at the hotel.

[rbarata]

Yes, I remember your adventures with this plant when you got it.
My plant seems to enjoy some more water than what's advised for Catts in general. It is never completely dry when I water it. My environment is always on the dry side but this plant's habitat RH is, on avg, around 80%.
Both things might explain what I just said.

[SouthPark]

rbarata --- I had been looking at those sheath and bulb photos that you took many times ------ more than many times hehe. The colouration ..... pigment in the bulb is beautiful. Your tenebrosa bulb. And the colour of that sheath on your one is really appealing.

It's also excellent how you're keeping records of the growing conditions there, adding to the information about how these orchids can be or should be grown, and what they can handle too. Your growing conditions look really good too rbarata.

[Keysguy]

Better the bonnet than the boot SP

[Orchidtinkerer]

Originally Posted by SouthPark

The colouration ..... pigment in the bulb is beautiful. Your tenebrosa bulb. And the colour of that sheath on your one is really appealing.

Rbarata's plant was deficient in Magnesium for years, one can really see the progress the plant has made from stumpy red colored new growths to finally producing a sheath after Rbarata started feeding Epsom salts but there are still indications of a Magnesium deficiency to me.

It's very hard to distinguish between high light pigmentation sometimes but if the whole sheath has a purple pigmentation compared to only the top of the leaf having freckles its a good indication that there are magnesium issues. Probably a wrong PH which is most often the culprit for magnesium related issues.
Rbarata do you check the ph of your water?

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Keysguy

Better the bonnet than the boot SP

hahahaha Nice one KG! Or the 'trunk' hehehehe.

Originally Posted by Orchidtinkerer

It's very hard to distinguish between high light pigmentation sometimes but if the whole sheath has a purple pigmentation compared to only the top of the leaf having freckles its a good indication that there are magnesium issues.

O.T. ------- in one of rbarata's more recent sheath pics ...... the bulb sheath is a nice reddish colour, and a portion of the bulb is very nice and green. I have seen some other pics that rbarata took - of a Laelia orchid, and he gave quite high levels of sunlight ------ and those orchids appear to be handling the relatively high intensity. And I think I recall those ones being nice and reddish looking too ----- for the leaves and/or bulbs.


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For the pic in the first post, I used a Canon 70D with old Sigma brand 28mm f2.8 lens.

I have to do manual focus, and the lens was originally for a Nikon 35mm film camera, but now using an interface adapter for connecting the lens to the Canon digital camera.

[rbarata]

Originally Posted by SouthPark

It's also excellent how you're keeping records of the growing conditions there, adding to the information about how these orchids can be or should be grown, and what they can handle too. Your growing conditions look really good too rbarata.

Investigating what a plant needs is part of the fun of this hobby, isn't it?
I like to post here my findings and growing results in a blog form so that the information can be useful to our fellow members.

Originally Posted by Orchidtinkerer

Rbarata's plant was deficient in Magnesium for years, one can really see the progress the plant has made from stumpy red colored new growths to finally producing a sheath after Rbarata started feeding Epsom salts but there are still indications of a Magnesium deficiency to me.

It's very hard to distinguish between high light pigmentation sometimes but if the whole sheath has a purple pigmentation compared to only the top of the leaf having freckles its a good indication that there are magnesium issues. Probably a wrong PH which is most often the culprit for magnesium related issues.
Rbarata do you check the ph of your water?

Now that the sun is lower, I am growing my tenebrosa under full sun from 10:00 to 15:00 approx. (photo below) so an increase of pigmentation is normal in the most exposed areas.



Also, its variety (rubra-photo below taken from the web) has the most red flowers I've seen in tenebrosas so, probably, higher levels of Anthocyanin might be present.



Orchidtinkerer, can you be more specific about which clues are telling you there's a Mg deficiency?

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by rbarata

Investigating what a plant needs is part of the fun of this hobby, isn't it?

It is indeed rbarata! And the very kind members that share the knowledge in this way - such as your experiences and knowledge - is super helpful to us growers. The information is definitely very good and useful.