Spring 2024 plant project
 

I was hoping to get the ball rolling on a plant project for next year.
I don't really know what the criteria is, I presume it's buy an orchid in the spring and try to get it to flower that year.

So a few criteria are important. First of all it must be something easily available and it should be something that can be flowered ridiculously fast.

Like certain vanda's or cattleya species would be out of the question because they would take years to cultivate.

Ok so the good candidates are phals, epidendrums, slippers, oncidiums, and tolumnia's. I know in the past others like leptotes, dendrobiums, maybe even catasetums have been done but I don't think they are ideal candidates. Probably better than cattleya's unless it is a ready to bloom hybrid but I think it should be one of the fastest and easiest to get to bloom.

Personally I think phals are amazing and should always be part of any serious orchid collection but they are generally also that common we all know phals very well.

I am sure tmoney would put in a vote for phals but personally I am hoping the spring 2024 project can be a tolumnia.

I am proposing this for mainly selfish reasons as it is one I am interested in growing next year and making it a project would be great. I also am fairly confident with the modern hybrids sold these days that they are fairly reliable bloomers.

So I am proposing a Tolumnia. I think it would be easier if we just made it a general project about any kind of Tolumnia. That would make it more interesting too if they manage to flower.

The good thing is there should be lots of new hybrids coming out in spring I should imagine. Cheap, easy, and very available.

It's not necessarily my first choice but the criteria that are important does exclude a lot of choices otherwise it turns into a decade long project like watching a bonsai tree grow.

Maybe a tolumnia is a bad choice if it is a type of orchid that can just be bought in bloom at the right time but that wouldn't be too bad either. So who thinks a tolumnia would make a good project for next year?

I've found Tolumnias are easy to grow if you have lots of light and warmth all year, air circulation so strong other plants' leaves rustle continuously, can water them every day, and they can dry by nightfall.

Other than that it's a struggle to keep them alive.

I do not grow these even though I enjoy miniature/small orchids and mounted orchids. From what I have been observing at my orchid society meetings,it seems that Tolumnias are very fussy here in Ohio.

I don't find Tolumnias particularly interesting, I don't know why...I mean, I think their blooms pretty but... I have never grown any so I might be misjudging them.:whistling

A 2024 project sounds like a good idea to me! I’m not opposed to Tolumnia… I don’t have any. I have some Jamaican species on my wishlist but I haven’t seen them offered anywhere. Being relatively new on the scene there are many genuses that I have not grown yet… coelogyne, schoenorchis and Lycaste are also at the top of my lists.

Same here Dalachin.

dalachin, I think you will like them. I have looked them up on youtube and they seem fairly straightforward.

I think the advice used to be to let it dry out between watering.

The new advice seems to be to grow them like oncidiums and keep them well hydrated.

Oncidiums do not really like to dry out. They can tolerate it occasionally but it's not something I try to aim for.

As such I think they should be fairly easy. That is what other growers have said.

Any orchid will be difficult if you follow the wrong advice growing them.

But another reason to have a plant project on them maybe. See what works for them. I'm surprised they have never been picked for a previous project before.

I will remind people again next year when the temperature is warmer for ordering plants online again.

I grow Tolumnia mounted, but my success lies with having automisting, a fan, and really high light. Have a friend who grows them very well in windowsill in small terracotta pots with just a little charcoal in them. Didn't work for me... but friend waters way more often than I plus has a humidifier trained on them. Tried semi-hydro for years... they grew "okay" but not great. Have another friend who grows in a greenhouse and they are awesome; huge great big balls of them. No greenhouse here.

Took a couple of decades for me to decide how to grow them well in my environment. Lost many in the process. I don't normally grow anything that requires a special setup, but evolved into wanting them badly enough to provide special conditions for them.

They need LOTS of humidity, light, and air flow to do super well with them. My humidity runs around 65-70% in winter, which isn't really enough. The automisting is what keeps them growing well, but sure not nearly as spectacularly as greenhouse consistently high humidity does.

Growing them is relatively easy as they're tolerant to a lot of abuse, but I don't consider them easy to grow really well and bloom. Just my :twocents:

No greenhouse here either, but I do have automisting :).

Where is a good place to get tolumnias? Clearly, living in the cold north, I avoid buying orchids at this time, but I can dream. I don't see a lot on offer... Hausermann has some species that look very tiny, and some hybrids.

The tolumnia that has been on my wishlist for years is Tolumnia pulchella. It amuses me to collect orchids from where my Dad grew up (Jamaica). It is in Andy's catalogue (as oncidium pulchellum), I inquired via the website as to availability.

My experience with Tolumnia is consistent with WaterWitchin; the only thing that I would add is they need temps to sit reliably in the warm range [ie 65f+ nights]