Stenoglottis longifolia care
 

I was thinking of acquiring one of these... what kind of care does it require? I'm mainly wondering about what kind of medium it needs (would gardening soil with some scoria work? lol) and how its rest period works (do I need to unpot?)... also, can it tolerate slightly hard water?

For growing medium, I use my terrestrial mix... imprecisely toss pumice, perlite, sand, and cactus mix together to make a brew that drains well. I have grown it in fine bark too, but the terrestrial soil mix seems to work better. Other than that, bright shade or filtered sun. I water it all year - when it dies back after blooming the new shoots tend to appear within a few weeks or a month so it doesn't really "rest", at least not long enough to change one's culture. It doesn't particularly care about water quality... mine gets city water, I am sure worse than yours. Generally I have found that most terrestrials aren't particularly fussy about water quality - after all, they grow in "dirt", as opposed to epiphytes that, in nature, get pure rainwater on the sides of trees. I repot this one rarely - seems to do better with minimal disturbance.

Thank you! Also, does it need very high humidity or does it do fine with normal household levels of moisture?

Normal house humidity should be fine. Mine live outside so I can only infer what it needs indoors but I don't think it's critical at all.

Thanks!

I have "Vanguard " I grow it in moss, constantly moist, on the edge of the lights. It has normal humidity, grows and blooms like champ. A carefree customer.

Lol, I think I need one of those too – I think you are talking about Stenorrhynchos/Stenosarcos Vanguard. Good to know it's an easy plant too; it'll be going on my wish/need list... :evil:

Stenosarcos Vanguard is, indeed, a beauty, leaves are gorgeous. That one is definitely a warm grower. (Stenorrhynchos x Sarcoglottis) Perfect house plant.

Stenoglottisis not so tropical... I have S. longifolia, S. macloughlinii (a very cute miniature), S. woodii, and the primary hybrid S. Venus (longifolia x fimbriata) outside, winter night temps down to 40 deg F (4 deg C) or occasionally a bit lower. I'd love to get my hands on Stenoglottis fimbriata (flowers look exactly like longifolia, but has spotted leaves)

---------- Post added at 07:05 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:54 PM ----------

Neophyte, I need to correct my advice of media... just took a look at my plants, it looks like I went back to small bark with perlite. (Probably what I had at the time) . So... conclusion... doesn't make a whole lot of difference, you just want something that stays on the damp side and drains well.

I've had this one for several days now and am obsessively monitoring it, haha. How often should the medium be watered/how damp should it stay? It looks like it's in a pretty standard terrestrial mix, lots of perlite with a bit of organic material.

My Stenoglottis (longifolia and otherwise) are wet, pretty much stay that way. And they get tap water. Not fussy. They also live outside. No particular TLC.

Thanks! I'll (try to) stop worrying too much about this one. :biggrin:

My Stenoglotis ended up producing 4 leaves (not including one or two small initial ones that have already browned), one of which has started to die back. Is it too early for the leaves to start dying back? When should the inflorescence start to appear?

It's pretty early to be losing foliage - I just took a look at mine, and foliage is still growing, no sign of spikes yet, don't really expect spikes until September or October based on history of my plants. Are you keeping it damp? It needs to be... mine stay pretty wet. Sngl. woodii and Sngl. macloughlinii have both just started to open (within the last week or so), those tend to be much earlier than longifolia, fimbriata, and their hybrid Venus.

Yikes, I think mine has been too dry. Will the tuber at least survive to next year if it hasn't been happy this growth season, do you think?

I think the tuber will be OK. I don't dry mine out in winter at all, even as the leaves dry up... since new growth starts soon after the old fades. So keep watering it.

Sounds good. If I want to repot, it would be when the leaves are all gone, right? I think I want to add some more peat/cactus mix; a lot of the organic portion has washed out, so the potting mix is currently mostly perlite, which seems to dry out slightly faster.

I would wait a bit to repot... wait until it loses leaves, also when the weather cools off if possible. Perlite won't hold nearly enough moisture to keep it happy. I use small bark with some cactus mix (peat would work well too) So if it loses leaves while weather is still warm, pot anyway to give it the moisture that it needs.

Is there much difference between longifolia and woodii winter care? My longifolia has had all leaves go brown, but the woodii still has a few green leaves and what looks like a new start ready at the base.

I treat them all the same... keep watering. Maybe reduce it just a bit (I water everything less in the winter) but don't dry it out. Even when the longifolia goes dormant, it isn't for very long.

Running the risk of hijacking this thread: I´ve also recently acquired a Stenoglottis longifolia, and was wondering if the potting media I´ve potted it in is suitable? It´s about 1.5 parts fine orchiata bark to 2 parts peat based potting soil and with some part pumice and perlite. See the attached photos. It´s grown fairly bright indoors under lights with average temps now during the fall being about 20 degrees Celsius. I´m worried the mix might be too water retentive. It´s potted in a ~10 cm pot.

I think it will be fine... Stenoglottis is pretty much terrestrial, so it does not need the drying-out that epiphytic orchids do. If it gets cooler, that's fine too. (Mine gets winter temperatures routinely down to 40 deg F/4 deg C, occasionally even a bit lower for a few hours.) My winter high temps are typically around 68-72 deg F (20-22 deg C) on a "warm" day, often somewhat cooler (but most of the time at least above 60 deg. F/15 deg C)

Would a mix with more added bark, perlite and pumice be better suited? As it is now the media is quite wet for 2-3 days atleast, before it becomes more of a damp consistency, albeit there's some small air pockets distributed evenly in the pot (thanks to the pumice, perlite and bark) I don't want the tuber to rot. But also it would be nice to water it more seldom and having the option to forget about it for a while and not needing to check on it every other day. It's growing indoor, so the relative humidity is low but not terrible.

Maybe in the future you can play with the mix. Don't disturb it now, wait for leaves to drop, do any potting as new growth emerges in few months.

Thanks for the reassuring words! As of now it´s under quite strong led growlights and the foliage has begun to deteriorate. There´s also new growth emerging from the base of the plant. Should I try to coax it into dormacy by taking it of the lights and putting it somewhere less bright and warm, like on a windowsill? I feel like I´ve made the plant confused as which season it is.

I never stop watering mine... the old growth goes dormant about the time that the new growth is starting .So there is never a real dormancy.

All right. So there shouldn´t be a problem that the conditions are pretty much the same (regarding light levels) year round?

I don't know the effect of light levels or temperature variation, since mine are outside and they get the seasonal temperature and light variations, not something that I control. Of course yours are indoors for at least half of the year. But if new growth is starting, that's excellent, it certainly needs water and light.

I realize this is an old post, and I am late to the party. I just pulled mine off of a lower shelf in front of an east window. I can't say that I was the best waterer, and it has been the victim of benign neglect. It has at least three bloom stalks coming up. It's potted in spagnum in a clay pot and more often than not run drier than it should be. So if I were you, I would relax, and just enjoy something that's easy to care for.

Dolly I don´t know if your reply was for Neophyte or me, but it struck a chord. I originally bought the plant because I´ve read it was pretty undemanding and its overall looks are somewhat remiscent of the native Dactylorhiza.

I´ve now starting to see some thick roots growing in the pot, and I also have some fat seed pods on the way (I will try ex-vitro sowing).

Thank you.