Onc. Carnival Costume Care
 

In amongst my tolumnia is a plant of Onc. Carnival Costume which my partner fell in love with and made me buy. :) It's in a bark mix, living in the same light / humidity as the tolumnia, as they are in the same wardian case. I don't water it daily, but keep it from staying too dry for too long. And it seems happy so far!

But I'm curious how I OUGHT to be caring for it? Like a "regular" oncidium? Like a miltoniopsis? Completely like a tolumnia? Anybody know?

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I have one of these - it bloomed last year (spring) growing in a west facing window. It's potted in chc, but I do let it dry completely before watering. It doesn't seem to mind staying moist for some time before drying out, but it would probably be happy grown like a Tolu.

It seems the Carnival Costume doesn't require as much light to bloom as Tolus, but since I haven't got my Tolus to bloom yet, I can't comment much there.

I think your instinct to grow this as a Tolu is a good one - I don't know how much light your Tolus get (I've been trying to give my Tolus as much light as possible)- watch for burn on the Carnival Costume, but if it's not burning, then it's good. Like Tolus, this one will get a reddish/purplish hue with higher light -but so long as it isn't burning, it's fine)

Thanks, WhiteRabbit. It seems happy enough with the light and humidity; I'm most uncertain re: the potting medium and watering.

I'm very spartan w/ my tolumnia -- mounted, or straight expanded clay. I've recently moved a few into straight EcoWeb, and they seem to like that a lot. They get watered every a.m., fertilized lightly 1x / wk, and get a heavy fog 2x / day w/ a hydrosonic mister. RO water and ~3k fc for 12 hrs a day. The tolumnia do very well with this regimen.

The Carnival Costume is in fine bark mix. I'm worried about keeping the mix too wet -- and rotting the roots -- or too dry and stressing the plant. Has anyone else tried growing it in essentially tolumnia conditions, w/ minimal media? It has the one tolumnia parent, but I don't know anything about the other parent. Should I be brave and just take the plunge?? :)

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