Zga Adelaide Meadows Cross

[orchidsarefun]

I only water my catts every 7-10 days. In winter they don't like a lot of water/fertiliser at all. I have to be careful not to water more often. However I do have quite a high humidity - upwards of 55% 24/7.
I only have seedlings under lights. I am still experimenting with the duration and strength - its hard to figure out the optimum and there is no real resource to ask. Currently I am on 10 hrs and 1 growers T5 bulb per fixture, with 2 stands pushed together. The light seems sufficient.
I have catasetum seedlings in a window. My new favourite genus because in Winter you don't water them and just basically forget about them. And next year I am going to be planting 1 or 2 in fresh horse manure......an idea I got on this forum.

[lotis146]

Good to know, thanks. Just watered my mini Catts. My humidity is definitely not that high in winter. I was thinking I could get away with less watering of my Catts however at least a few of them have extremely shriveled pbulbs. There is a fine balance here I'm going to have to figure out although I am pretty sure it's been at least 7-10 since I last watered them!

I recall you bringing up Catasetum before and I can definitely see why you've been drawn to them. Set and forget sounds lovely. My world with orchids is oh so different now than in the summer when more than half of them sat outside in "happy humidity" and fair rain.

Thanks! And good luck with everything. Oh and btw are you thinking of selling off some of both crosses? I may be interested in one of each.

[orchidsarefun]

update. Doing well now that I water more often - basically whenever the media feels dry to the touch. Temps under the lights reach about 81f during the day, so I end up watering probably about 3x per week........and that's with humidity about 55% in the room. At night humidity in the stands reaches into the late 60's.
No sign of black spot or streaking ! Hopefully this cross is super resistant.


Other notes
- seedlings seem to prefer the tray method. I have a couple in individual pots that don't appear to be doing as well.
- a couple have developed the classic pseudobulb and are on another growth. It could be years to bloom these....

[No-Pro-mwa]

After reading both threads on this I have a very strange suggestion. How about leaving one Zygo inside all summer and see if that stops the rot. I mean it sounds like it only happens when you bring them in. Could be they get use to all the air movement then go through a big change when brought in.

I guess i would be interested in the difference between the one left inside and the one taken outside. Am I rambling? I get that they do better outside in the summer, BUT......there's always a big but right? Say it doesn't grow as fast inside but it also doesn't get rot to set it back. Which one will then do better in the long run.

Does that sound stupid? In my feeble mine it make sense. Just a thought.

[orchidsarefun]

Shannon - no that's not a silly suggestion. I had 3 mature zygos all fall victim to spot/streak and rot when brought in. 2 recovered indoors - I learnt to water sparingly about every 3 weeks on these. I know it doesn't sound right but the new growths need time to root. Perhaps these 2 I will keep indoors ( they are in 1 pot ) but they do love it outdoors in Summer. Currently I count 7 new growths of about 4 inches each.
I also have a cattleya that almost rotted last year indoors. However this year its fine - 5 new growths, and the secret - watering roughly every 3 weeks too, with almost zero fertiliser.
I think zygos get a double whammy - the 'natural' streaking which then makes them more susceptible to black rot when cultural conditions change ( moving from outdoors to indoors ). The seedlings that you read about - these were outdoors and transitioned to indoors with no problems at all. Of course everyone's cultural conditions are different so you may have had another experience.