Kingidium minus (also known as Phalaenopsis finleyi) - How do I pot that one up?
 

Hi there,

I've just acquired a Kingidium minus
https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Iu...Q=w504-h896-no

Potting hints? It's a tiny plant, but that's to be expected yes?
I suspect these are also prime candidates for Mounting?

I see another post on the forum (it won't let me post a link) where one seems to be in a mix of Bark, Sphag. and LECA beads?

I can't really tell what the media is from the photo, as it concentrates on the beautiful flower!

Nobody is answering. I've never grown this so I'm answering based on what I've read. There are a lot of British on this forum so I hope they add something better than what I can write.

Look it up on orchidspecies.com as Phalaenopsis minus. Hot to warm growing miniature leafless epiphyte with what I think are amazing flowers. Adult plants have no leaves.

I would mount it because leafless orchids photosynthesize with their roots, so the roots must be exposed to light. Do not put it in a pot. Soak it for an hour in rain or reverse osmosis water so it is as flexible as possible. Attach it to a mount, disturbing roots as little as possible. If you use sphagnum moss with the mount, put the roots on top of the moss and not under the moss. Grow it in a very humid spot. Water it daily with very pure water - rain water or reverse osmosis. A little brighter than full shade - you should see a slight shadow if you put your hand over the plant.
Fertilize with low concentration orchid food.

I grow mine mounted without moss, in intermediate temps, moderate light and watered daily.

It has grown vigerously though I don't think Ihave it's culture quite right as in the two years I've had it it's tried to flower six times but blasted on every attempt.

I've never heard that they lose their leaves as adults before!? Can't find any images showing them leafless either.

I agree the flowers look wonderful, if only I could experience them first hand!

They can and do drop their leaves. Sometime they'll hold on to one or two and sometimes they'll drop them all. It's not the easiest species to grow. I have a friend who is an expert phal grower (w/many awards!) and she has had trouble w/this species too.

If it does drop all it's leaves and there are no active root tips then you want to be super careful w/the watering or you'll lose it. (ask me how I know THIS!)

I grow mine (3rd and final try w/this species!) mounted w/just a teeny amount of moss that holds next to nothing of moisture.

I water it heavily in the summer months and I grow it brighter than some of my other phals but no direct sun. Less than anything that has gigantea in it but more than some of my others. Bright shade - my light meter says the highest is 1500 fc.

In the winter I have it sitting on one of the warmer areas of my space - again slightly brighter than my other phals but no where near catt light in this spot.

This is my 3rd attempt and I've kept this one alive for more than a year now and I've even managed to bloom it this past spring. Last winter I lost a couple of leaves but still had 1 so I continued to water in the winter. When the roots tips stopped growing I reduced the watering to lightly spraying 2-3x a week until they started growing again in late winter. Once the root tips reactivated I upped the watering to daily. I also got 2 new leaves this year (giving me a total of 3) but already it looks like it might lose one of them so I'm pretty certain it's just a natural part of what this plant does. My guess is that it would be rare to see one w/more than 3 or 4 leaves.

Side note - when mine went into "rest" mode last year it sat there doing nothing for about 5 months and if not for that lone leaf I would've thought I killed it. Hell, I wasn't sure I hadn't killed it even w/the leaf...until I saw those root tips come alive. Shortly after I saw the itty bitty spike and, no lie, happy dance.

There are likely more experienced growers of this species but I thought I'd throw my success and failure info out there.

BTW - the accepted name is - finleyi

I also grow it and I've never had it drop the leaves in winter but if it gets too cold, that might trigger the loss.

The one thing I do know is it doesn't like to go very long without water, even growing it in a g/h. I DO put the small amount of moss over the roots to help keep the roots moist longer and water it daily. With age the roots will wander out of the moss.

I give it typical Phal light and my temps are never below 60 or above 88.

https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2636/...71d_z.jpg?zz=1Phal minus LUR_4498 by Jim Lurton, on Flickr

Brooke

Beautiful!

And...there goes my guess at it being rare to see one w/more than 3 or 4 leaves. Awesome plant, Brooke!!

Looks like I should up my watering a bit more and maybe add a bit of moss...then, perhaps, I'll be able to hang onto to more leaves. Thanks for posting that info!

I learned the hard way about it drying out. I had the flu a couple of years ago in the middle of winter. I didn't go to the g/h for three days because the skies were always gray and I thought every mount would be fine. This species hated that approach.

Brooke

Should a hybrid be in the stars for you,try Phal. Donna's Delight(equestris v. alba x finleyi). Have mine potted in sm. bark and moss giving the usual phal conditions. No leaf loss either.

Just thought, should post my mounted pic, for completeness.

Here she is, looking like a spider on the side of a terracotta vase:

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CTNrDK9XIAALGdu.jpg

This is an old post, but wanted to see further input on this one...

katrina, your experience has been insightful... mine lost all it's leaves this last winter and most likely i attribute it to cold as i grow it outside. I got it from Andy and he said it can grow outside here in LA and handle down to 40's... it had 2 leaves when i got it last spring, so when it lost it i freaked... but the roots looked alive so just tucked it away and watered every once in a while. i was just at Andy's the other day and when i brought it up he simply pointed to his finleyi and they were all leafless, and sitting toward the bottom of the area of the outside are growing area (temps up to 90's low to 30's some years)... i'm guessing it'll pop into root growth once it's warmer, but we'll see... I have a phal thailandica that lost one of it's two leaves a couple months ago and no root growth... hoping it'll pump into gear soon also...

Don't know if Brooke is still around, but I have my doubts your plant is the species... looks oftly like a hybrid to me, the species leaves I've seen with research are all thinner more slender leaves...

any further insight would be appreciated...

I'm still around and yes, my findleyi was the correct species as guaranteed by several AOS judges. I lost the plant pictured about three years ago when I had the flu. You will notice my plant got quite a bit of sun to turn the leaves a purple-ish color which will also make the leaves smaller.

I replaced it with another plant that has bloomed and the bloom is the same except the color isn't quite as dark. It is in spike now and I'm hoping the color improves. I still grow it in the same temperature parameters I gave in my original post.

Neither of my two plants have ever lost all of their leaves in the winter. I do have a lowii, wilsonii and braceana that do lose their leaves annually. The findleyi has not.

Brooke

Thanks brooke! Where's your location? and to be clear, you grow in a gh?

Well, hmmmm, guess I'll just keep it watered and hope it starts to resprout and grow roots... and once/ if it does I'll keep it watered and eventually move to an indoor location for winter...

how are you growing the wilsonii?

I live in Kentucky so long winters with lots of ugly gray days.

The wilsonii grows about 2' from the findleyi but it is slightly more shaded.

Good luck with yours.

Brooke

I took Brooke's advice about watering through the winter this past season and the plant held onto it's leaves. I have the 3 leaves from last year and it's now growing a new leaf too. I added some extra moss and while I didn't give it as much water as I do in the summer...it got watered a good deal more. Temps were the same low of 58/60 and high into the 70's most days.

The one bummer thing is that it was very dry in the space this spring and while my little plant spiked and produced buds...they all blasted. We had a drier than normal spring and w/less rain outside and no humidity in the air combined w/lights that dry everything out...it was super dry in the space and I should've upped the watering even more but I didn't. When I say low humidity...I'm talking single digits many days! I assume it was the low humidity that caused the blasting problem...I had a few other phals that did the same thing. But, it held onto all it's leaves and the spike it still there so maybe it'll popped some more buds now that it's outside and in the rain/humidity.

Thanks to both of you for the insight!

wow, Katrina, thats like socal and southwest desert dry! Had no idea it can get like that in your neck of woods... makes me not feel as bad about over here... ;)

It can and does get that dry here in Oct/early Nov. I'd say October is probably our driest time of the year and w/the lights running...well...we walk around the house zapping each other from all the static electricity. Spring is usually a good deal more humid but we had lower than normal precip this year and, again, the lights really dry things out. I was happy if I saw day time humidity in the space in the low 30% range. In the winter I'm happy if I can keep the space in the low 40% range...furnace and lights = me lovingly referring to the space as the desert. If I were smart, I would grow only cacti as they do very well in my space. Plus, they'd require a good deal less watering. ;)

Summers here are a mixed bag of dry and humid. The past 3 days have been so humid that it feels like a sauna. Some days it's so humid my mounts won't dry in 2 days and other times it's so dry and hot that the mounts are bone dry in under an hour. Welcome to central Ohio! :biggrin:

I grew up in OH, about an 1 hour north of columbus, city called Mansfield... Ohio countryside is beautiful, every time I'm back there I always marvel on the rolling green hills, forest thickets along the fields... but yeah have noticed the climate has been a bit erratic in recent years! (where isn't it...) I remember it generally been humid, especially in summer, don't even recall it being dry in fall, but probably wasn't on my mind as a teenager lol however i did grow orchids then albeit phals and catts...