Chiloschista Lunifera Culture

[rbarata]

Originally Posted by Roberta

See? Plants CAN read!

[mopwr]

Originally Posted by rbarata

That's consistent with IOSPE.

Yeah, I guess so, just makes me wonder why orchidweb lists the bloom time as "Varies." There was a blog I found as well that shows it blooming square in mid May. I guess (I hope) I'll find out which timing pans out for me in the next 6 months or so. From what I've ghathered, being a bit colder at night and a bit drier may be a good way to get the blooms going. Drier is easy, cooler I think I can manage... If I manage any successes here, I'll come back with an update.

[DirtyCoconuts]

Do you have access to live tilly usneiodes? Spanish moss?

---------- Post added at 07:56 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:46 PM ----------

I have this species, dark form, I believe and I will post pics and culture after bath time and put down of the girls

[mopwr]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

Do you have access to live tilly usneiodes? Spanish moss?

I have this species, dark form, I believe and I will post pics and culture after bath time and put down of the girls

Yes, I have some spanish moss, I actually grabbed some from an orchid grower when I was visiting family in Florida. And I also have the dark form of this species, per the plant tag.

[DirtyCoconuts]

okay- sorry for the terrible pics, i have to garden at night


i would drape the spanish moss over it like a shawl- this does a few things- it protects it from getting scorched by the sun but allows for high light, adds some humidity and tells you when to water

Untitled by J Solo, on Flickr



i spray mine on any day it has not rained but i forget often. it gets midday filtered light (under a massive ficus) and then mid afternoon to sundown direct light

i have most of my other ghosts without mush moss as they just dont need it but i found this one gets bothered by too much sun and i wanted to hang them all together so i used the moss

Untitled by J Solo, on Flickr


it grows backwards so if it is mounted as mine is, make sure you leave it room to grow INTO the mount...the plastic thing both of ours are on is fine for accomplishing this



here is parishii and usneiodes for comparison

Untitled by J Solo, on Flickr



Untitled by J Solo, on Flickr



microcoelias get put on horizontal metal grates bc they like the litter

Untitled by J Solo, on Flickr


here is the growing rack where they hang



Untitled by J Solo, on Flickr

[mopwr]

Thanks for the post, appreciate it. These are a little less commonly grown than some other orchids (knowing their needs, I understand why), so it's nice to get some hands on perspectives. Mine is doing well and keeps growing roots in all directions - literally everywhere, it's like an octopus - so I'm thinking I'm doing ok. I had hopes of removing it from it's current mount and putting it on something else after I can manage enough success to get it to flower, but it's so tangled that I think doing so might end up setting it back a lot.

[Roberta]

I wouldn't try to remove it from its mount... if you want to give it more "mount room" (in case it wants to grow that way, it tends to send roots in all directions) just tie the mount to another mount, maybe try to gently guide developing roots with soft ties of you want to)

[mopwr]

Been a little while, but I thought I'd share a happy update here. It looks like the temperature drop of my basement though very subtle (~70 at the height of summer, to ~65 now), was enough to coax this plant into flowering for it's first time. All the roots appear to have gone to sleep for the most part and a spike is now pushing slowly from the center... Painfully slowly I might add, as I wasn't sure until a couple days ago that this was even actually a spike, ha.

The roots started to go to sleep about a month ago (maybe a little more), and I first noticed what is now a confirmed spike probably about 2-3 weeks ago... So, at least for now, this thing is moving really slow - at this rate I'm guessing flowers will be 2-3 months out unless it really picks up steam, so it looks like it's right on schedule for a late winter / early sping flowering.

Thanks for all those who contributed here, now it's just a waiting game to see this one through to flowers. If there's interest, I can (hopefully) update with some actual flower pics when they get around to showing up, ha.