Start of a journey (miniature Pleurothallid quaratine/prop box)

[BWG139]

Not the most important update, but I'm excited so thought I'd share. In the original tub the Scaphosepalum breve continues blooming and the Masdevallia (Diodonopsis) erinacea is blooming for the first time for me. All those orchids were picked because they were considered easy growers, but still makes me happy that they seem to be thriving.

In the new bigger tub, the leaf loss seems to have stopped. The Dryadella both look not the best, but everything else seems ok. The Dryadella cristata has a bunch of yellow leaves, but plenty of green too. The Dryadella simula looks rough and has since getting it. Leaves haven't fallen off, but are a yellow green color.

All the spikes and blooms from the recent Ecuador order died in transit. I'd have been surprised if they hadn't given it's a long, dry trip. The Masdevallia geminiflora though is now growing five spikes. Having only had it three weeks I'm not sure how much credit I get. It also hasn't bloomed, but I'm taking it as a sign that it's at least happy, unlike the Dryadella.

I also broke my own rule about quaratining separate orders by getting some plants from Andy's while there was a sale. New additions are
Pleurothallis: grobyi, grobyi yellow type (Ecuador), megalops, minutalis, rabei, and rubella
Scaphosepalum ovalure (small form)
So a bunch of new mini miniatures and I probably qualify as being addicted.

[Roberta]

Certifiably addicted. You're in good company.

[BWG139]

At least with it getting cold now I'll have a better chance of actually saving towards a background and light for the future actual terrarium.

[BWG139]

Apologies as always for bad pictures. My oldest plants remain alive and growing with several blooms. I did purchase another light on Black Friday to upgrade the size of that bin in the hopes of getting more light to lower plants. The Stelis hirtzii for instance grows really well, but only has a single occasional spike.

New plants are doing surprisingly well. Nothing has died. I've dialed the light down slightly on one half since despite my cheap light meter saying I'm within the range Andy's gives, there is more purple in leaves showing than I'd want. All the pictures are from the newest plants. The Restrepia bloom was short lived, but everything else has bloomed multiple times or had a longer lasting bloom (Pleurothallis rabei). There's a few other plants in bud that I'm hoping bloom, but it's nice seeing that both the plants from Andy's and from Ecuador seem to be adapting quickly. Took about three months to get any blooms from my original plants (still three that have not bloomed for me, but I'm patient).

[Roberta]

Looking good! Patience, patience... 3 months is nothing. Many orchids only bloom once a year, so there's still much to come. The plants seem to be adapting well. Good growth leads to blooms, all in good time.

A note... when you're trying to match your setup to nominal light levels for a particular plant, remember - the light range given by Andy (and other references) is, usually, a maximum (like at noon). It's determined in a shadehouse or greenhouse environment where light is (mostly) ambient and so varies throughout the day, and year. Your lights are producing at that level all day, for as long as they are on. So the plants are getting a lot more daily photons at a given measured intensity level than they would in a "daylight" situation. Observe the plants, dial it back as needed. It's not that your meter is "wrong", it's the different duration pattern that makes comparison tricky.

[BWG139]

Aquariums and orchids both require patience. I might be newer to orchids, but have a lifetime with the other, so there's no worries there.

Thank you for the confirmation about the lights! I didn't think my light meter was that wrong or that online sources were. I've spent time researching if artificial lighting required less foot candles than natural, but could never find anything stating so. Perhaps I just don't look well enough. Really nice to have that stated!

[Leafmite]

Wow, really nice!

[BWG139]

Strange question, that possibly doesn't belong here, but when choosing branches for an orchid terrarium mount are there any general guidelines for width? Obviously it depends on the size of the plant. I know Andy's sells 1.5 inch branches for miniature orchids, so is that the smallest recommended?

I'm asking after looking through my currently unused driftwood and finding this piece I think would look good oriented vertically. Please forgive its need for a scrub. At the thickest (which I'm imagining being the highest point) it does have a width of 1.5 inches, however it narrows to a third that size towards the end. In other words I'm not sure how much it provides towards mounting options.

[Roberta]

Not a strange question at all! The suitability for any mount depends on the plant you're mounting. Now, my situation is different - each of my mounted plants lives on its own mount. In fact, when I go to mount something, I go through my box of various mounts (branches, slabs of cork or hapu'u or whatever, I have a box of them) to try to meet the needs of that plant, taking into account growth habit, how big do I think it'll get, etc. Occasionally I get it wrong and have to romount on something else. Sometimes the plant outgrows the mount and I put it on a larger one without removing it from the original ones. Since each plant is a separate growing organism, growing at its own rate according to its own habit, it's not a static environment - whatever the current condition, it's likely to be different in a year or two years or five years. My suggestion would be to start each plant on its own mount - you can tie those to the branch for aesthetics, but you then can manage the plants as individuals.

[BWG139]

Thank you. All my epiphyte plants I'm hoping to use for this project are grown unmounted on spaghnum. The orchids I give a little more care to and have been using random cork pieces to mount. I don't think they've outgrown any mounts yet, although most of the oldest could probably be easily split. Other than the Dracula they've filled in a lot.

As far as the "big" project I haven't decided which is better/ easier between a full DIY background or a cork mosaic. Leaning towards the mosaic. Either way it seems adding a mount to the background would work, although I'm not sure it would look good on that branch. I might be thinking greedily, but I'd like to showcase as many species as possible, hence the idea for the branch. I may need to rethink things.