Calling all Dracula Lovers!

[ddivey36]

So I have been reading all the previous posts about Draculas so here's a challenge for you.

1- describe your setup
2- share your horror stories, how much blood money have you lost?
3- share your accomplishments and pictures of those little guys
4- give some advice to those new vampire lovers......

[FroggyKnight]

I've only kept dracs for a few months, but I'll bite! (hehe..)

1) I grow all my pleurothallids in terrariums and I treat the two dracs I have (D. mopsus, D. astuta) no differently than the rest of my plants. Mine are kept mounted to cork in a zoo med terrarium (same as an exo, only with one door) with the screen top half covered with glass. The humidity is around 80% with jumps to the upper 90s when misted. I hand mist my plants as needed and will typically do so lightly each day to maintain humidity. I keep the temps in the intermediate range for the species I'm growing.

2) No horror stories yet, thankfully! Although, I did start to rot out my astuta when I was keeping it in a temporary tub. Being too wet and low air flow is a bad combination for any orchid and these are no exception.

3) Uh, accomplishments.... Well, I haven't killed one yet!

4) Keep it humid, but be sure to maintain airflow. I lost a spike from my mopsus because of low humidity when I first got it, but I think it's on the right track now. I tried to choose some of the few warmer growing dracs, but most are not tolerant of warm temps! Be cautious about buying if you don't know the temperature requirements of a plant!!

Good luck!

[ddivey36]

Thanks Froggyknight! Who else wants to talk about their drac babies?

---------- Post added at 11:46 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:45 AM ----------

I watered mine with tap water and was rewarded with half its leaves falling off!

[Tindomul]

Hi,

I am no expert. I only have 1 Drac which I purchased at a show from Ecuagenera. Its D. lotax which I keep mounted same as it was purchased. The mount is cork. I placed the mount inside one of my terrariums that gets lots of ventilation from dry air from outside the tank thanks to pc fans that go on twice a day. I had the plant for about a year when it decided to put out one bloom for me. Since then it has bloomed one more time. Always a single bloom though. The plant itself seems to be doing well as it has doubled in size since I got it. Also, I always use distilled water for my terrarium plants. Here is a pic.

Dracula lotax by tindomul1of9, on Flickr

[FroggyKnight]

Ooooh, I need that one. It's been on my list for a while!

I use filtered tap water for my plants, although I plan to upgrade to RO very soon. So far I haven't killed anything from my water, but my local water supply has moderately low TDS (but high enough to kill without filtering, I'd bet).