Hot Growers
 

Hey All,
I'm becoming more interested in the Oncidium group, but if I'm to explore any further, I need species that like it hot during summer. Honestly, I'm not too familiar with this group. All my Cattleyas go outside starting in mid March and need to be tolerant of 100+ degree temps with plenty of sun for weeks or months on end. Are there Oncidium (or allies) that are ok with these conditions?

Many oncidiums don't do well in hot weather but there certainly are some that you can grow. In Florida I've found that mounting them on tree fern fiber or putting them in a wood basket with some big chunks or tree fern fiber works well. Outdoors they like to be watered often and dry quickly. Common hybrids like Onc. Sweet Sugar, Onc. Twinkle and Onc. Jiuhboa Gold (my favorite) have grown well for me in hot weather. The species Onc. sphacelatum grows like a weed in South Florida. Be careful buying oncidiums from California growers. Many of them don't tolerate hot weather.

Thanks Tucker! While I'm more interested in species, its always good to know what grows well in South Florida because of the heat. I can also check out the parents of the hybrids to see how they grow.

Oncidium sphacelatum would be a good choice

Thanks!

I've also been looking into Trichocentrum (and its new allies) as a smaller statured option.

Steve, I grow Oncidium ampliatum (I think it is now considered a Rossioglossum) and Oncidium splendidum (a "mule ear" species, may be considered Trichocentrum now) in Georgia. Both seem to tolerate our heat just fine, but we only occasionally hit 100, maybe not as often as you do. It is more humid here as well. The splendidum I am growing in lava rock; it is a very small one, no blooms yet, but it is considered warm to hot growing. The ampliatum I am growing as a mounted plant, which it seems to like, it is considered hot growing.

From the alliance or specifically Onc?

Small alliance Sigmatostalix? My picturatissima is tolerant of all sorts of abuse and neglect and is suppose to be a warm to hot grower.

I'm really leaning towards the mule-ears at this point. There are some monsters and some reasonably sized ones too. It seems like finding them for sale is the toughest part of their culture!
From the alliance. I'll check out the Sig. picturatissima. Thanks for the tip!

Not sure of its absolute heat tolerance, but Zelenkoa onusta thrives in bright, dry conditions; the USBG in DC has a specimen happily growing on a large cactus in their xeric room. The few Tolumnias I grow also do well in hot conditions as long as I keep up the watering.

I've grown a couple of mule ear oncidiums here in Florida and they seem to tolerate the heat pretty well. They've been reclassified as trichocentrum. I've never seen a vendor who specializes in them but you can find them for sale from time to time. Most of them are big plants with large leaves but there's also some very interesting trichocentrum with pencil thin leaves, like trichocentrum jonesianum. Most trichocentrum like to dry quickly and do well mounted or in fast drying mix.

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Here's a picture of one of my trichocentrums which unfortunately died although I had it for several years.

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...tgt-kuquat.jpg