Vasco. Pine Rivers 'Fushia'

[tucker85]

Originally Posted by TOMMYMIAMI

Thanks, I will try to slowly acclimatize it to semi direct afternoon sun, I will place it in between my dracena plant:-) I have close to 70 orchids at my balcony now, so I have probably 5 spray bottles, some for clear water, some for distilled water for Masdevallia, some with seaweed, some with fertilizer:-) All set on that front, plus I do work a lot from my home office, so I can water every day. I have only one vanda in my collection but I did order 3 more vanda species right now, one of them this Vasco, I love them but I was really disappointed for a years with mine, it did bloom only when I bought it, and than it was in shade side of my balcony, it was growing great, nice green leaves, but never bloomed again, so I did move it to direct sun after I read they need a lot of light, and burned it:-( Now, it is in filtered sun, under shade cloth, it did loose quite a few leaves from burn, but it seems to be doing much better and roots are stronger, so I hope this change did help and will bring it to bloom, and I decided to give Vanda another chance:-) I know my biggest problem was not enough light, plus not fertilizing as I should:-) Can't wait for this one to thrive and bloom, I hope:-)

---------- Post added at 04:57 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:53 PM ----------

Funny you mentioned it, Vanda's and Cattleya's grows well in Florida, both of them had always issues at my balcony:-) I did mention problems with light, for both of them, and for cattleyas I guess also watering, too much rain at the spot I had it, killed already like 3 in years:-((( So now I did get only mounted one, and change the spot again, and hope for my cattleya to bloom, cause I do love them, both Vanda and cattleya are my favorite orchids, but i seems I have great success with bulbophyllums, dendrobiums, and other more rare species than with these 2, which of course are growing and blooming like crazy for all my friends who had them free in the gardens at the trees:-)))

I have two suggestions if your cattleyas are getting too much rain water. I like to grow them in an open wood basket (a 6" basket from Home Depot is good). I use large chunks of media that are 1" to 2" in size. I buy a cork slab and break large pieces of cork off to use. I also put large lava rock. I bought a bag of lava rock from Home Depot. I also use some large chunks of tree fern fiber. You can get that from orchid supply stores. It can rain all day and the roots will be fine if they're grown like that. Secondly, when there's lots of rain during the summer cattleyas often don't get enough calcium. That can mean fungus and rot problems. You should always use a fertilizer that has calcium and magnesium in it. If you don't mind the extra expense you can buy a calcium/magnesium supplement and use it once or twice a month.