Project 2023 Spring Sarcochilus
 

Spring is here, which means it's plant project time! A bit late this year, but better late than never.

We could go through the usual suggestion round/discussions, but as I was preparing my wishlist for a trip to Akerne Orchids next week and saw their extensive Sarcochilus selection (they do a lot of breeding), I decided that I'd really like to try growing one. I've been wanting one for years, but not knowing anything about them, have been hesitant until now.

From what I understand, Sarcos are cool to intermediate growers, and modern hybrids (especially SVO's breeding from what I read) are getting to be rather heat tolerant. Culture seems to be rather similar to Neofinetia.

So 2 questions:

1) Anyone have more cultural info on this genus and can advise if it is a good project candidate, and can be grown indoors under lights? (Many seem to be grown in shadehouses/greenhouses).

2) Anyone interested in joining me in trying to grow this genus? In the US good quality hybrids are available at SVO, and in Europe Akerne Orchids (Belgium) has a great selection.

I'm in Camille.

As I said in another thread I'm going to have access to some of the SVO hybrids via Tim Culbertson in a couple of weeks when he visits New Hampshire.

id be in


Sarcochilus

fo sho, we're always up for a project!

I’d be interested! I expect I’ll be tempted into ordering from SVO this summer and it won’t take much to get me to add a sarco to that order.

I think it would be a great project. The newer hybrids are not only more forgiving of temperature, I think, but also have wonderful colors. Not only pinks and reds and patterns, but yellow too. They just keep getting better. They do grow under pretty much the same conditions as Neos. Keep them a little drier in winter, likely will help blooming especially if you can't get "cool".

I need something that will grow warm and from my research on IOSPE it looked like argochilus and falcatus or some hybrid of those could be possibilities for me.

Will have to check Fred's website and see what he's got.

I'm in.

I guess it is serendipity: I am already planning to include a Sarcochilus in my next SVO order after a member of my local orchid society brought in multiple beautiful ones at last week's meeting.

I would love to, but am not sure just yet. I would be interested in following this project though. It sounds like a very interesting topic.

Modern hybrids have gotten quite complex, and hybrid vigor is definitely "a thing". If Sarco ceciliae is in the background, that would also impart warmth-tolerance. All those colorful hybrids are still mostly hartmanii and fitzgeraldii, but just a bit of other species seems to greatly extend both the palette and warmth-tolerance.

In warm conditions I also would recommend hybrids.

They are heavy water users and shouldn't dry out. I'm not trying again because I couldn't water often enough. Fred Clarke's source in Australia spoke to our society a few years ago. He waters and fertilizes his plants every day of the year.

Heckyeah!

I'm in. Sounds like a perfect project for someone who grows in SH. :biggrin:

Camille, you've already got a big enough consensus from members to roll with it. I say let's do it! It should be your turn to pick by this point anyway. :bowing

Imma go shopping now so I'm ready... :llama:

I am in Camilla.

Vendors in Europe. You probably know already 😋

Akerne Orchids seems to be the only one with hybrids, and species can be found at a handful of other vendors. Given your climate, you may want to go for the hybrid! Going to send you a PM, check your messages.

---------- Post added at 01:39 PM ---------- Previous post was at 11:51 AM ----------


Well, it seems that usually the person who starts the projects makes the rules, so I say it's a Sarc project this time! :biggrin:

I've got my shopping list all ready for next weekend, and the 15% discount is going to be dangerous, I'll be tempted to buy extra to make up for the cheaper prices!

I'm totally in! good timing for me to learn to grow them along the way.
I have two of em so I'll be testing out one indoor underlight in a small greenhouse, since my indoor lighting itself is terrible. The other one will stay outside year round.

I'm in too! I've been wanting to try my hand with sarcochilus for awhile so this is perfect. I just ordered the peachy orange one from SVO:

Sarco. Kulnura Maestro 'Peach' x Sarco. Kulnura Opus 'Vision'

I'm in. I just got this one...

Sarcochilus Picotee hardy Australian species easy to grow and bloom, fragrant flowers, compact plant(NOT in bud/bloom when shipped) – Orchid Insanity

Just got my sarcochilus from SVO, they were out of the peach one so they sent me two - the yellow one listed on their site and an unlisted one that both parents are deep red. They both have a couple fans and look very healthy with lots of healthy roots. I grow indoors on a shelf under a LED light so I think I’m going to need a bigger boat, er, shelf especially getting two rather than one! Currently have them next to my neofinetia that just rebloomed.

Got mine a couple days ago. Patiently awaiting repotting...

Got mine today!! :) I got some useful cultural info from the grower. In the winter they need night temps around 10-15C (50-60F) in order to have good flowering induction. If kept warmer than that at night usually there are far fewer blooms, or generally none at all. The hybrids he has can tolerate 30-35C (85-95F) well, as long as they are watered well.

Mr. Barrie from Australia told our orchid society theirs experience winter overnight lows in the shade house with lath roof to 0 or -2C / 30-28 F, and summer highs up to 40C / 104 F. They water and fertilize every day all year.

When these (or any orchid) are going to get this extreme temperature range (which they tolerate very well) it's important for them to acclimate. So grow them outside now, and don't consider bringing them inside until hard frost is a danger for those in regions that have those. No growing them in a grow tent or house or greenhouse and then putting them out when it gets cold thinking that you'll jolt them into the bloom cycle. Now is the perfect time to put your new acquisitions outside, and then just leave them there until the snow flies. And back outside in early spring if they do need to be brought in during the coldest winter months. For those who live in areas where hard frost isn't an issue, leave them out. They don't need - or want- to be pampered. They may be little but they're tough.

I've been repeating the advice to water frequently. That's why I couldn't keep them alive. Weekly is most certainly not enough in my conditions.

Totally! Remember, these are in the Vanda family. Note from WaterWitchin's photo of the plants from SVO - in chunky medium. Especially when it is warm, you can't over-water them in medium like that. Maybe cut back water frequency a little when it gets cold, but still keep them hydrated.

Are you guys telling me this is going to one of those plants that will grow great but probably not bloom for me unless I put it in the fridge overnight?

You do get the occasional cold snap, that may be sufficient. It can tolerate really cold temperatures, but don't think it requires them. If you get some winter nights into the 50's F that may be sufficient.

I think we had 1 night in late January but I can't remember.

I'm sorry, was that being snotty? :biggrin:

Only a little... maybe take it with you to New Hampshire, scare it a little...

They're small enough to take to New Hampshire.

Yeah the things I’ve read is to treat it like a cymbidium and a neofinetia had a cute baby. I’ve reported mine into 3” net pots in orchiata bark with lots of perlite and I’ll probably put them outside on my covered patio. I’ve kept my cymbidium outside all year round just pulled in to a more protected spot. I’ll probably bring the sarcos inside since it’s gone down to 28*F the last couple winters.

Edit: forgot to mention that when I repotted the two I got SVO last weekend, there wasn’t one dead root between the two of them. 👍 There was a moss plug at the center (which the roots were avoiding) that I removed. They came with smallish bark with a lot of decent sized perlite.

Hi, all!

This is my second posting %^) and I'm interested in joining this project! But I need to check a couple of things.

I would need something that will work in a terrarium (have to go out of town for about 6 weeks).

I'm looking at Sarcochilus olivaceous.... but does anyone know if that will work in a cool terrarium?

The terrarium is 12x12X18, and gets a 2-min misting every morning. All but one item is mounted, so they get fertilized weakly weekly with MSU. To give an idea of what's in it now:

- a lepanthopsis astrophora that's flowering now
- a haraelle odorate that just finished blooming (one flower; it's young yet)
- an ornithocephalus gladiatus that bloomed in March
- a leptotes bicolor that is happily growing but not blooming yet
- a dendrochillium parvulum that had a hard start (it was pre-terrarium) so will be recovering from that for a while.

(There was an angraecum somalensis too, but it started turning a little yellow so I took it out and moved it to a place with more light.)

So: does sarcochilus olivaceous have a chance here? (fingers crossed)

Looked it up... I think that it would work in your environment, it likes humidity. Range is very wide, so cool should be fine. Go for it!

Just received my sarco! I potted it up in a mix of medium/large bark (75%) and river rocks (25%), which was the general advice I encountered on Aussie care sheets.

First time trying sarcochilus, looking forward to experiencing it with y'all :)

[IMG]https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/...4b941cd2_k.jpgUntitled by Eric, on Flickr[/IMG]

I've never grown sarcochilus either! Just finished repotting from the bark-perlite mix they were in. A moss plug in middle was removed from the two I potted into semi-hydro, and the third I left as is other than shaking it a little and mounting it. The mounted one is hung under auto misters that will actually hit the mount and the other two are underneath and will only get high humidity that results. From reading a bit, I may have too much light on them so I'll just watch for awhile and see what happens. Roberta will put up the pics for me when she has a minute.

Here's mine! It's a Sarcochilus Kulnura Treasure. I had a really, really hard time choosing because Akerne Orchids has a huge selection of them, and many are grown from seed so there's a huge amount of variation even within one cross. The Sarco didn't travel alone, I also got a Prosthechea cochleata (last photo is one in the greenhouse) and a Lycaste campbellii.

The greenhouses were really nice, I wasn't expecting to see such a large greenhouse (700m2 from what I read), in someone's backyard.

https://i.postimg.cc/Z0k67ffz/DSC-3944-2.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/SQGqyXLk/DSC-3945.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/pTJNX7Fq/DSC-3940.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/vBMjjzN9/DSC-3933.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/Z5SM0jJQ/DSC-3935.jpg

I can't find my notes but I hope I will eventually. Mr. Barrie said they potted in a mixture of 5 inorganic substances: Large perlite, polyfoam pellets like used for bean bag chairs, glass wool cubes, and two I can't remember. They used this mixture because they reused potting material after unpotting plants to move up into larger pots. They sanitized the old media first. I can't recall whether he said they used heat or bleach. He said they saved a lot of money on media with this approach.

I'm in with (Sarco. Kulnura Dazzel 'Midnight' x Sarco. Sweetheart 'Speckles') that I got from Tim Culbertson (via Barrita and SVO) this weekend. His talk on Sarco's was great and highly informative.

I had him pick me which cross he thought would do best. Once we got past the color option, this is what he picked. He warned me I'd likely have issues getting it to bloom well in the Keys although getting it to grow well should not be an issue.

His blooming aid suggestion was to stick it in the fridge at 40 degrees every night for 2 weeks in Nov. He thought that would work for me. He also cautioned to make sure it was dry when I did that because they HATE cold and wet.

Under lights for the summer so no stress growing until late October.

how :dumb: I can be!! ....

Super nice looking plants! and the Greenhouse is huge, I though it was a small place as well.

ENJOY!!!!

So my Sarcochilus olivaceous came yesterday!

They were nice enough to send a care sheet, too... although the care sheet says it shouldn’t be dry for more than 24 hrs - and they wrapped it in dry newspaper for a three-day trip.

This might be over before it started. :(

For now, I’ve soaked it and will see what happens.