My rescue attempt with L. telipogoniflora

[vraev]

Hey,

I remember a lot of a people here and on other forums who mentioned that they grow their L. telipogoniflora successfully in a glass bowl/ball close to a window. I recently posted a thread that I have been having issues growing this species in my new tank. It grows for a while, then due to attacks from snails or being unable to thrive in the given conditions, it just goes downhill and flowers to death without any new leaf growth.

So here goes. Lets see how it will work out. fingers crossed.





I covered it with seran wrap and placed it 2ft from a northeast facing window. We have some low light indoor plants which have lived for years with that feeble light.

cheers

V

[cbuchman]

I'm having trouble growing my Lepanthes telipogoniflora. So please let me know how this works out for you. I'm growing mine in a glass globe with moss in the bottom and it has been in a slow decline for quite some time.

Just so you know the acronym for Lepanthes is Lths.. L. is used for Laelia.

[vraev]

Good to know. lol! Thanks. Its bad as I am more accustomed to carnivorous plants and have for the longest time refused to deal with orchids due to the mess of hybrids. I prefer pure species...but now more than ever, I think I have bought more (also killed) orchids than Cps. I never really bothered doing the homework i used to do with Cps. Good to know that Lths is the proper usage.

But yes... I will keep u updated.

[TOMMYMIAMI]

Hi Everyone, since I think I am famous for growing in the glass orbs, and I do grow telipogoniflora, tsubotae and it's crosses in them for nearly two years, here is the way I do it - on the bottom of the glass orb put some bonsai mix, or cactus mix, just thin layer. Live moss layer on the mix. ALL Lepanthes orchids should be always mounted on the piece of cork, and this small mount should sit on the top of the moss, or I do even put thin plastic ring and set the mount on the top of the plastic ring not to sit directly on the moss. This setup has the purpose to keep high humidity, however the plants itself should not be kept soggy all the time, they do not like it and they will die! NEVER grow the plants directly in the moss!!! Other observations - when the plants are declining, it is better to grow them even drier, till they start new roots and growths. I do grow most of my telipogoniflora this way for past two years, and they are all growing excellent, and in spike nonstop! I do lightly mist them only once every two to three days since they stay fairly moist in the orb. I do never cover holes with foils, I know these plants do not need much air movement, but they still need some air, and it has no sense to cover all the holes! Very weak fertilizing with every watering, and using only rain or RO water. Low light is very sufficient, window or balcony light is enough, no need for extra LED lights, they do grow well in bright shade. Temperatures inside are 76F days and some 68F nights. I really hope this help everyone :-) I have many plants growing like this and all are doing great.

[vraev]

Thanks for the info Tommy. Yes. Your setup was one of the inspirations to try this. I also have a tsubotae that I pretty much killed in my nepenthes tank.
so trying this now. I might pick that out too and see if it can rescued as well...if this works.

I went and removed the plastic right now.

here is some more detail. U can see the two pieces of roots on two mounts that I made up.

[TOMMYMIAMI]

With Lepanthes, it is sometimes true miracle, as far as roots are healthy and green, they can still send new growths, so do not give up yet. If the roots are brown and rotted, than there is no way, These green roots look ok. Try to keep it on the drier side, not bone dry, but very lightly moist only, so the plant will try to send new roots to search for water, and hopefully new leaves! Setup looks good. Hope it will work!

[vraev]

Thanks Tommy. Much appreciated. Your words bring some confidence. This one species is my first orchid and it will always be my favourite orchid. I was able to grow my first teli very well in my big tank on a cork mount. Unfortunately, success has eluded me since then. perhaps this spells a change.

I have two other backup new plants that I just got a couple of months ago. You think its too much light already? lol Dangit...I cannot give up on this species. Even if I don't succeed with other species..this is the one orchid to rule them all for me.

[TOMMYMIAMI]

:-) And I totally understand, I love telipogoniflora, and I am 100% sure, that even if I give up on many others, this one will always be in my collection, no matter what! Regarding light - leaves are pretty red, that shows it gets pretty high amount of the light, I would move it little bit away, it may be still doing just fine, and if you do not see any leaves falling and it seems blooming for you, thank let them be, but they definitely can not take any more light than they have now. In my terrarium setups I have telipogonifloras on very bottom, shaded with top hanging plants, and there are usually bottom green leaves and only top leaves exposed to more LED light have reddish leaves. I see Ivan brought you some very nice healthy plants, all 4, you were lucky! :-)

[vraev]

Thanks Tommy. Yup! The plants are again blooming very well. And I am glad it is a nice sized plant. However, still haven't seen new leaf growth. As u said, I might have to lower the egg crate hangar .

this is still my own benchmark of my old plant when it was growing amazingly. I grew it from a 2 leafed plant I got from Ivan.

[AnonYMouse]

Here's what's working for me. Plastic ghetto enclosures. I'm done with buying, shattering and picking up pieces of "nice" glass enclosures. There is usually some condensation. Kept warm and damp. Been playing with light, flowers better when there is some red in the leaves than just green (and one is always out of sync).