Haraella Retrocalla

[JimmyTheCack]

I recently purchased an Haraella Retrocalla off of ebay, and I am curious as to whether anyone else has had experience with this little plant. I know they like humudity and I know they prefer to be mounted, but will take to pots with proper care. my "plan" is to use a plastic basket with a sphagnum moss media atop a bed of clay aggregate with water used as a kind of reservoir, inside of an appropriately sized glass vase. I honestly have not had much success with mounted orchids. However, I have had great success with Masdevallias using this method. I grow indoors under lights. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[Paphluvr]

I think you may be on the right track. I've grown this under lights, too, but it was mounted on cork and the room ran about 65% RH, 55-58° nighttime winter temps and hung close to the end of the bulbs under a 4 lamp T12 HO light setup (440w output). Also had excellent air circulation. I'm not sure with your plan whether you need the glass vase or not.

[EricMN]

While official instructions always mention good air circulation, one of the members on here (Guido something) keeps a specimen on a twig in a closed gallon jar with enough water on the bottom for Java moss and a guppy! So yes, very humid. Following suit, I have both of mine in jars with gravel and water on the bottom. Both are mounted on tree-fern blocks with some sphag around the base, as they came from the seller on Etsy. Right now, at under a year of ownership, they are putting out one and two spikes respectively. I'm in Minnesota in the Twin Cities specifically. I have them in a south window and try to keep them screened from the summer sun, but now in the fall I let them have all they can get. My house is not air conditioned, so they easily got into the eighties in the summer, and they've gotten down to the sixties (maybe lower!) at night in the fall and winter.

[camille1585]

Some one who used to be on the forum a lot grew one of these mounted, and hanging in a small glass vase with some water and leca at the bottom. It did quite well that way. As to me, I have tried with both mounted and potted plants, and failed miserably with both. Low air movement may have been the problem.

[Pattywack]

I have this happy little plant, have had it for at least three years. It flowers very often, usually multiple flowers with a lemon fragrance. My plant is mounted on wood with a pinch of moss at the roots. It is grown under light in a terrarium setting. This terrarium is made of wood and glass and not air tight. There is no fan in this setup, circulation is limited to air spaces, gaps around the wood frame. The set up is small. It stays humid inside as I mist/water each day. Usually. Temperature is roughly room temp, high 70’s day- mid 60’s night. Nothing special about this setup.

I would have no problem growing this plant potted or at least trying to do so. I would not let it get too dry between waterings though I have let my plant go a day or two between waterings. In my opinion I believe people tend to keep this plant too wet and ultimately it dies. I’ve found it to be an easy little orchid to grow and it stays small, blooms often.

The only issue I see with growing this potted would be flowering as Haraella’s blooms are pendant. I’ve honestly never seen it grown potted.

[Manu]

I've had my retrocala for just over 1 year. I find it easy to grow, I treat it like my phals, which means it's mounted with a fair amount of spagmum moss. I don't have any fans running and do not supplement any humidity. My RH is naturally around 50-60% but can go down to as little as 35% on some winter days (or hot sunny dry days) and up to 85% in humid weather. I never let this guy go dry, unless I need to leave on vacation which has happened a few times, it even got bone dry for close to 1 week once, but did not blast any buds and kept growing, so I tend to think they can be quite tolerant to neglect. It currently has 11 spikes (6 on the main plant and 5 on the basal keiki) and is in flower almost at all time of the year. I think now is the first time in quite some time it has no open flower, but has 3 or 4 buds about to open, a few more on the way and dropped it's last flower a few days ago. It gets a fair amount of light, around 1500 FC for 15 hours a day all year long, 22-24C day time, 20-21C night in winter. Summer temps are quite hot going up to 35C with an average of 26-29C day and a few degrees less at night. You'll know if it's happy as it should be continuously growing leaves, roots and spikes all year long in the right conditions... Once you get it right, it's a great miniature, and the lemon fragrance is a nice added bonus. If I'd have to pot it up, I'd probably want to use a small mesh pot with an amount of moss that dries in max 2 days, or a tiny clay pot. Keep it humid but not damp. I fertilizer at very low doses at every watering, which is pretty much daily or every other day.

[Manu]

Originally Posted by Pattywack

The only issue I see with growing this potted would be flowering as Haraella’s blooms are pendant. I’ve honestly never seen it grown potted.

To alleviate this problem, you must pot it higher outside the pot, similar to how people pot neofenitas. The other option is to mount it and then pot up the mount, this would be my preferred option should you insist in potting it up.

Is there a reason you do not want to mount it??

[Manu]

Also if a moderator falls on this thread, perhaps move it to the miniature section, or the appropriate alliance..