Quote:
Originally Posted by theloyalplum
Any suggestions on Latouria care? I have one that has a couple 18 inch growths that's never bloomed, but has 3 new growths coming in. I don't mind the new growth, but just curious if I'm keeping culture right.
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I don't know if my care works for everyone (doubt it!) but this is how I grow my Latourias.
I live in a small condo with lousy windows, so I grow everything under artificial lighting. My Latourias are in an Exo Terra terrarium with a glass top instead of the usual wire mesh. Daylight temps in that tank average about 84F during the day and down to about 73F at night. I keep the humidity between 75-80% and have a pc fan inside the box generating a lot of air flow - all the leaves in the tank move slightly with the breeze. I do not let the Dendrobiums dry completely between watering and usually water them every three days. If I wait till day four, they are bone dry. They get a lot of bright light, except for Den aberrans, which seems to like less light. My light meter shows them getting about 800-900 foot candles, the lighting source is a Metal Halide lamp and it is on about 13.5 hours a days.
I use R/O water and fertilize every other watering with K-Lite, a little bit less than 1/4 teaspoon per gallon and once a month give them a dose of KelpMax. They get a good flushing once a month. They are all potted in bark/charcoal, but I did mix in a little sphagnum moss in the pot with my Den aberrans since it seems to like it more moist than the others. They are in plastic pots with a lot of ventilation slits cut into the sides. They grow like weeds in that tank. My Den Microchip has put out 11 new canes since I got it 9 months ago and has already bloomed twice.
The Latourias are definitely my favorite orchids right now; easy to grow, free flowering and can rebloom from old canes - the perfect orchid IMO.
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