Mormodes and shriveling bulb prevention?
 

Soooooooo....like all of you, we all notice the Mormodes during the winter along with the rest of the Catasetinae can fall prone to the back bulbs turning yellow and shriveling. I understand this is common - but at the same time, I don't notice this happening in natural environments as often.

I know the standard advice is to divide often to prevent the shriveling. But I've received Mormodes in trades before that had a healthy 4-5 bulbs or so - which promptly lose their backbulbs in my care.

I maintained my Mormodes horichii with 3 bulbs until this winter - and now it looks like its going down to one - the blooming bulb :((

Any clue what can be done to prevent this?

Is it humidity? Temperature? Lack of water?

I think maybe I'll maintain a Mormodes in S/H over next winter and keep it wet to see if I lose the backbulbs.

Sometimes they just do this. I am currently conducting an experiment by watering half my collection over winter and letting half dry out. Some Catasetinae in both groups have lost a bulb or two and some have not. So its not a watering issue. Humidity this time of year is around 60-70% so its not that. If anyone has any thoughts, I would be very interested to hear them, though I would not worry about it for your plants Aceetobe.

I would say based in my experience in the field that even though some Mormodes and cycnoches can have several (4-6) PBs in nature this is not the standard for these genera. Normally they have 3 PBs, and it is some thing reflected in culture. Different of Catasetum and Clowesia, where you can find plants in nature (and in culture) with more than 6-7 PBs.

As Steve said, sometimes they shrivelled more PBs than normal, but with the right care, they recover easily... I think it could be a result of a not very strong and healthy growth in one season... never tested this, just an idea coming to my mind...

as per watering, I do water my plants in winter when dormant, but just rarely and when the PBs are shrivelling too much: a good soak and they recover very quick. Something I have noticed since I grow in S/H is that the PBs grow better and then shrivel less than with other substrats used, making also easier to water during winter (fill the pot, and then drain all the water)

as Steve said, I would not worry too much eithar about your plants with only one PB... you will probably just miss the flowers next season, but if the plant receive enough water and fertilizer during growing season, this should also not be the case...

Based on my experience mormodes are easy to suffer the lack of humidity in their roots during its resting period, much more than catasetums and cycnoches. In nature the roots will always find some humid place deep inside in the dead branch where they live. Because we do not have the same conditions as in nature we have to simulate them. What I do is to water the holes at the bottom of the pots twice a week or even more, so humidity will keep in the basal roots of the plant for a few days and the ps. bulbs tend not to shrivel, specially during the hot dry season. I also notice that having porous pieces of rocks or pieces of bricks at the bottom of the pot make a big difference of not having them. When mormodes start to loose the back ps bulbs in captivity then something wrong is going on with its root system.

Interesting Bruno. I typically put rocks at the bottom of my pots - but I guess my humidity is quite low during the winter time. I also run my fans underneath my pots - which I find helps a lot with growth - but I guess could also contribute to the yellowing of the bulbs.

I will try the watering the bottom of the pots next season. Seems like a good idea.

I've also considered trying to put a couple mormodes on Tree Fern plaques, as those breathe but allow a lot more moisture retention. I've noticed that I have much more problems with rot on the Mormodes if I grow them in sphagnum moss versus if I grow them in a well drained media and just water more often.

Well Aceetobe tree fern plaques are not good for any catasetinae, actually at the very beggining when I started with orchids (long long time ago) I used fern plaques an all of them died in less than a year and I did not know the reason, and then I realized it was the medium. Remember no one has shown an orchid growing naturally on a fern tree and I can tell you that catasetinaes definetivelly hates fern plaques. I reccomend to use fiber and semi descomposed materials comming from palm tree mixed with vegetal coal fragments (look at the pictures from the thread of baby catasetums). There are several palm trees that have that kind of fiber at the base of the leaves sorrounding the trunk. To me that is the best medium even better than spagnum moss. For mormodes you have to remove the tannines by washing the fiber several times.

Yes, I tried growing an adult Catasetum hybrid on tree fern this year and it put out out one small growth and is now dead. I'm glad I only tried with one plant rather than a bunch!

Thanks for the tip about palm fiber too Bruno. I will try this with my Catasetinae this year, as many of plants are now growing very rapidly in an early season.

Unfortunately, we don't have too many of those palm trees here - mostly California king and queen palms.

Is Coir a similar consistency as the other palm fiber? That is much easier to get here.

Yes it is but you have to include some dirt in it because it is very clean. Actually you have to make sure that salt has been removed completely otherwise your plants will die. I use that fiber and works pretty good, actually I mixed up with charcoal and wood fragments and no problem, but I find natural palm tree fiber much more convenient and because here you may see natural catasetums growing attached to palm trees at the junction of the leaves with the trunk.