How to grow Dyakia hendersoniana?

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Anybody out there growing Dyakia hendersoniana? What are you doing?

My first came from Carmela's in October 2015 on a tree fern raft, a surprise in one of their big box assortments. It was barely attached to the raft by one root. I dipped it in water every day and it grew slowly. It didn't seem to mind humidity in the 40% range. Then I let it dry out once for 2-3 days. From then on it declined steadily, trying to make a new root or leaf here and there, but always dropping more and more leaves. No matter what I did it got worse. After a few months there was nothing left.

So... If anybody here is growing it, I'd like to learn what to do next time. The fact that a fair number of vendors sell it means somebody has to be able to grow it.

[jkofferdahl]

Well, I know someone who grows a few of them. He keeps them in his greenhouse near his Phals - same temperature and light but more humidity. I considered them myself and asked him about them, having seen both their lovely size, growth habit, and stunning flowers when actually touring his Phals. Phil (Phil the Phal Phreak) says they're pretty easy (that's in his experience) but can be finicky. Like Phals, the roots like plenty of air circulation but unlike Phals you can't ever let the roots dry out. He grows his on osmunda rafts and sprays them twice a day, but says outside a controlled greenhouse they probably need to be in plastic baskets and in medium bark and still be watered often. As with your experience, he says that if they dry out - say you get any wrinkling in major leaves - they're pretty much toast and almost impossible to recover/rescue. That last bit is why I decided against buying one. Still, I suspect that if you can grow and bloom a Sarchochilus you can handle this one.

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Thank you; that is great information, the best available to date on the Orchid Board for this species.

[Lady Oscar]

Just ran into this post and am grateful for the information! I bought a Dyakia from H&R last July and have been worrying that I am not giving it proper treatment, but it looks like I may have accidentally done something like the right thing.

Mine came (in bloom) in a little round basket with a few pieces of bark; I put that basket into a slightly larger square basket and balanced the whole thing in the top of a decorative ceramic orchid pot with holes. It sits next to my happiest phal a couple inches from an East-facing window (slatted window with frosted glass, top half open). I water every day or two by putting the basket arrangement into shallow water for about 10 minutes, using weak fertilizer in the water once or twice a week.

I've had it lose a couple of leaves and have some wrinkling in the bottom two remaining, but it also grew two new leaves and four new roots. Now, I _think_ (don't want to jinx it) it's actually putting up a flower spike!