Growing methods - sharing experiences

[bitis78]

Hi all,

I am curious about what successes you've had and methods you've used to grow tropical vandaceous orchids in temperate / cool areas.

I live in Sydney, where Winter and Summer are extreme opposites - Summer days are frequently above 30C (sorry, I'm not great with F temp) and even over 40C is not uncommon. Likewise, Winter nights where I live are commonly 5C and we can have Winter day temps of no more than 12C.

Nonetheless, I am having outstanding success with the following species:

Aerides falcata, Renanthera monachica, Aerides multiflorum, Angraecum sesquipidale, Dendrobium discolor, Paph. sukhakulii, Paph. moquettianum, Aerangis modesta, Vanda Gordon Dillon x V. coerulea, 8 varieties of Vanda coerulea (proper species), Vanda tricolor (currently as big as me, with two keikis and seven flower spikes!), Vanda tesselata, Papilionanthe teres, Renanthera imschootiana, and more!

These are not recently bought and in fact, the V. tricolor is on its third flowering for me after a particularly cold Winter.

Let me stress that these plants are outside, under an alsynite awning, but otherwise exposed to the elements.

I water them with collected rainwater when available, or with saved dirty aqaurium water from water changes on my tanks. I use an orchid specific soluble fertiliser from mid-Spring to early Autumn.

I understand that some of these species reputedly do "OK" in these conditions, but many would say that others, such as the R. monachica, do not.

Please share your experiences with me - I am keen to see what everyone else is doing with their hot growers...

Cheers,
Andrew.

[smweaver]

I would love to see pictures of your V. tricolor, Andrew. It sounds like an awesome plant. Both it and V. tessellata are reputed to be quite adaptable to cool winter temperatures. I'm afraid that I've mainly given up on trying to grow most of the truly warmer species (vandas or otherwise). The only vandas I haven't been able to bring myself to part with yet are two large V. merrilliis. They get the spa treatment of being carried around the house during the colder months to take advantage of all the windows (and kept out of the sunroom where all of my intermediate and cool growers spend the winter). I even had a humidifier installed with the furnace last year when the house was built, not for the benefit of me or my partner, but solely for the wellbeing of the orchids, and the lot we picked for the house was based on where the sunroom would be oriented (yeah, I happily admit that that's probably bordering on being obsessive).

I also have an Angraecum sesquipedale, but I'm not nearly as brave as you are with this species. It too gets pampered during the colder months and is one of the last plants to go back outdoors in the late spring (and first to come back inside in the early fall). I think that some species can be "pushed" a little, meaning that you might gradually get them to adapt to cooler conditions than they would normally experience in their native habitats, which sounds like what you seem to have been successful with from some of the plants you listed (the renantheras, for example).

Do you try and keep the warmer growers in your collection relatively dry when the weather in your part of Australia starts cooling down? Is your area of Australia also being effected by the ongoing drought? I would be interested in learning about your water-conversation efforts, especially for water-hungry species like vandas.

Good luck with gathering data on your posting. Hopefully some other members with a variety of experiences will respond.

Steve

[wonderlen3000]

Most of the renanthera species need warm condition. Your Ren. monachica may not die instently, but will withdrawn gradually over time. IF you want, only a few renanthera can tolerate cool condition are ismoochotiana, citrina and coccinea as they originate from higher elevation.

V. tricolor and coerulea come from high elevation so it's no surprise that they are doing well in your location. You can add it to the list if you want are V. coerulescens, jarvierae and lamellata.

What you can do is careful about watering in winter, as almost all vandaceae speices are from moonsoon belt and they have cool dry winter rest in nature.

[smweaver]

V. lamellata is able to adapt to cool and/or intermediate winter conditions? I thought it was strictly a warm grower. If it can be grown on the cool to intermediate side during the winter months, I might have to reconsider getting one.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Be careful about the V. lamellata. They're more intermediate growing than they are cool growing.

There's a local nursery here that used to carry them and they grow strictly outdoors under a tent made from shade cloth, and they looked terrible. I almost felt sorry for them. Temperatures here get to be extreme as well. Summer days can be over 100 F, nights are 60 F to 70 F. Winter days are around the mid 70's F and usually around 45 F, with it occasionally dipping down to 36 F at night.

Not ideal conditions for V. lamellata. They may like it a bit milder, but cannot tolerate harsh climates like the one here.

So smweaver, if your climate is anything like mine, I wouldn't recommend getting the plant and kicking this outdoors.

Same with your V. merrillii, that's definitely a lowland growing plant and likes it intermediate to warm. I've grown this plant before, it doesn't tolerate cold at all.

As for more cool to intermediate growers, V. luzonica, V. roblingiana, V. subconcolor are good choices to grow outdoors.

I've read somewhere that someone tried V. lilacina outdoors here in the LA area, but I don't want to take that chance. This one is too rare for me. I grow this indoors. V. lilacina likes it shadier than most Vandas anyways.

A word about the Ren. monachica. I've tried growing this one outdoors and it's never worked. It just gets too cold.

[smweaver]

I don't let the V.merrillii experience anything below 60 at night (and it rarely even has to contend with that). It really does get pampered, especially in comparison to the two V.lilacinas I have. I read somewhere that lilacina can take relatively low winter temps, so I'll see how it does this winter with the cymbidiums. I didn't know that it prefers lower light levels than most vandas. That might explain the maroon-tinted leaves it developed this summer when I had it out with the cattleyas. How low should the light levels be during the growing season--and is it safe to assume that it can take higher light levels during the winter? Would light levels suitable for phals be okay? Thanks for the reply regarding both lamellata and lilacina. Good info' to know.

Steve

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

The V. lilacinas can grow in Phal type light. I grow it with my Paph niveum and my Phals indoors. When I grew it outdoors with my other Vandas and Laelia superbiens, it burned. Then again, the sun here is stronger than it would be in Indiana.

Unless I can get seedlings going of V. lilacinas, I won't put it outdoors.

When mine flowers, I'd gladly trade pollina with you if you like and if I get enough flowers per spike.

[smweaver]

Yes, you're more than welcome to some pollinia. I've had the plants for less than a year, so this will be the first time they should flower for me. But I know they're flowering size because each one has the remains of several old spikes. When do yours normally bloom?

[bitis78]

Thanks for all your input!

I practically stop watering the warmer growers once the cooler hits. An occasional light watering on a sunny day does the trick, but apart from that, watering is restricted to the growing season/s.

Very honestly, I've always been aware of the R. monachica's hot and humid requirements, but for some reason, my plant is doing very well. It began its flower spike in the middle of Winter and is now in full bloom, though I must admit, the plant is young-ish and the spike is small (about 10 flowers).

I will definitely post pics of things as they flower - got some awesome orchids in bud...

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by smweaver

Yes, you're more than welcome to some pollinia. I've had the plants for less than a year, so this will be the first time they should flower for me. But I know they're flowering size because each one has the remains of several old spikes. When do yours normally bloom?

I just recently purchased mine as well. It's only been about a month in my care. Already it's putting out new roots!

I suspect it's blooming sized. It appears to be a miniature Vanda. I did see some remnants of old flowering spikes.

Unfortunately, I don't really know when they bloom. I assume it's sometime during the early to mid summer times. I believe the remnant of a flower spike I had removed was not that old.