Mastering YOUR growing culture

[Ray]

I know this is a gross generalization, but orchids, being very highly-evolved plants, are less likely to tolerate conditions outside of their cultural niche than most terrestrial plants.

[Leafmite]

There are many terrestrial plants that are very picky, too. Sometimes, it depends on how long the plants have been in cultivation or what their individual native range covered... just like orchids. The common houseplants are quite easy to grow which probably accounts for their popularity.

[WaterWitchin]

Truth. I still cannot grow a damned maiden hair fern, regardless of how many ways I've attempted to grow and kill one!

[Keysguy]

It's an interesting process this learning how to grow orchids! I started about 15 years ago while trying to grow other tropicals in a NH greenhouse. Of course my initial collection evolved out of whatever my wife and I saw at shows that we liked. I'll call it the "Oh my" factor. Man, I should have been brought up on cruelty charges!

Interestingly, I think I have learned more about those failed attempts since I moved my growing to the Keys. For the plants I particularly enjoy (cattleya's and other warm growing epiphytes) I ran that greenhouse completely wrong. Too cheap to spend the money to run the heater high enough all winter or to shell out $ to the power company to run grow lights for a few hours most days in the fall, winter and spring to supplement the abysmal natural sunlight.

When I moved that collection to the Keys 4 years ago when I retired, the plants just absolutely exploded! This is what they wanted. A lot of them survived in NH but they sure as heck weren't thriving.

As the cool weather plants from NH died off over time down here I finally started my real education. Grow the plants that the environment you can provide for them will like. Because we are snowbirds, I've also moved to selecting varieties that will bloom primarily between October and May. A lot of the complex Cattleya hybrids are good too, because I am finding I can get 2-3 bloom cycles/year out of them here. I have spent hours combing IOSPE looking at genus and species cultivation information. Cross referencing to another source like OrchidWiz is also beneficial. There are some differences of opinion but what I'm finding is that the source of the individual plant stock can definitely impact your success ratio. I think that may account for some of those disconnects in the literature.

Pests here are very different and honestly, much easier to deal with here I fully believe, because of growing outdoors year round and the constant flow of the tradewinds we enjoy. (although today it is dead calm and hotter then he!!). In the GH, it was a constant battle against mites, whitefly, aphids, mealybugs, you name it even though I was running 2 big floor fans 24/7. Growing indoors is a different beast. Here, I had one outbreak of thrips which I had had no experience with but got good local advice on what was going on and now have a good and successful approach to systemically eliminating them. 2 years running so far. And then of course there are my friends the iguanas. It's a battle but I win more than I lose. I keep a constant eye out both for them and for plants that are starting to spike. As soon as I see a bud (which is what they love to eat) I grab the plant and move it to our large porch which is essentially our living and dining area all winter. It adds some work keeping 2 plant growing areas but I have to say, my chest does puff up just a bit when we have company and they come up onto the porch, stop dead in their tracks and say "Oh my god!". In the dead of winter it really has grown into quite a show.

I also learned that I killed a lot of GH orchids by overwatering. When you're growing cool, err on the side of too dry. Down here during the summer, my plants get drenched constantly by mother nature and they love it because this is what they want when they are in their summer growth spurt. In the winter it's typically much dryer here with significantly lower humidity so I supplement with irrigation roughly every 4 days except for my epiphytes which are under a 2x/day auto mister.
Of course, there are those select families of plants that want a complete dry time so you need to be cognizant of those guys.

I have also done a much better job of understanding nutrition and that is paying dividends as well but in all honesty, I don't have the scientific brain that our friend Ray has about such things which is why I have really enjoyed reading his contributions to this forum. I don't understand it all, but what I do and have tried seems to help so thank you Ray!

[Orchidtinkerer]

quite some different approaches here.
I feel like I waited far too long to eventually start growing orchids, that was my main conclusion.

The advantage was that I could then provide all they needed and had a bit of experience already but nobody really tells you how slow it can be to get some orchids established.
It is such a bonus when you buy a plant that is about to flower and even better when it is in great condition so it just settles in at yours without a hiccup compared to most dendrobiums I have bought that need 2 years to get used to my climate and settle in.

One of the first plants from a nursery instead of the supermarket was a Phalaenopsis Bellina. She did not disappoint and I have 4 of them now. The great thing about the Bellina is it flowers for a month, takes a month to produce another flower, flowers for a months, takes another month to produce the next flower and does this one more time if you are lucky. So it flowers for a long period every year which is great.

I just discovered the powerful smell of an Angraecum this year which is also lovely but in comparison I got one month of flowering and 11 months of non flowering.

Cattleyas are next but they are quite pricey once they are big so instead of getting a few per year for the next 10 years I am going to get them all at once as seedlings and hopefully have a nice collection of those in 5 years. You really need the patience for this hobby.

I tried dendrobium seedlings but the roots on those are the thickness of hair! so not easy to work with, with phalaenopsis and cattleya you get far chunkier roots so hopefully a bit easier to work with.

[SouthPark]

Excellent thread. What I have found, and a lot of other growers too is ------ the local climate and local conditions (even where the orchids are placed around the home, or where-ever they will be growing) ----- can make a difference in how much work or effort needs to be put in.

In the tropics here, my orchids grow under a balcony, and just so-happens to be pretty good growing conditions for a bunch of tropical kinds of orchids. The only thing I do is just water them, along with the once-a-month weak fertiliser and weak mag-cal application. I pretty much never need to touch the orchids and/or their pots.

I can grow temperate/cold climate cymbidiums here - no problem at all - but I know in advance that it's going to be difficult or impossible to get flower spikes developing from them ...... but that's ok with me, as I'll just be happy to be growing the cyms with no spikes. Maybe there will be the occasional surprise .... not sure. But definitely ok with no spikes. I like the cym leaves.

I don't think I can grow the cold climate or high-elevation dendrobium here ---- eg. various speciosum --- so I don't grow them. One day I may give it a try - just to see what happens. But probably won't expect flowering or spiking.

Other than that ------- I have found that the orchids are like us -- and other animals/plants. We're all growing systems. As long as these systems have the required conditions to function properly and reliably ----- then ok. It will be our job/task/aim to get some idea (checklist) of what requirements should be satisfied (in general) ..... and make sure those requirements are satisfied all the time (not just some of the times).

It is from that point on where people can be in a position to tinker more ..... compensation, experimenting, optimising ------ that's if they want to.

Understanding that there are various ways for growing orchids in the home etc ....... and they can all be reliable. Also understanding some people need to use automatic watering systems - simply due to having so many orchids. So there must be different ways of growing.

And the other thing is to get an idea about what sort of organism/insects/mites etc that are around - that could possibly attack the orchids. And then have a selection of goodies (systematics, non-systematics etc) waiting in the wings to use - if needed.

[Steve83]

I'll echo DC about airy mix, at least for epiphytes.

One thing I've noticed is that everything I've unpotted and mounted, is growing faster and putting out more growth/spikes than what is potted. My potted plants are in clay, with either Geolite (similar to hydroton), or New Zealand tree fern.

My belief is that air exchange at the roots is the reason for this, which in pots, requires more drying out. Exposed/aerial roots, can be watered/fed multiple times per day, and respond accordingly.

I don't want to hijack this thread with my thoughts on this, but will be adding more observations to my thread under Growing Under Lights

[DirtyCoconuts]

No hijack, Steve, this is the kind of info I was looking to elicit

What is the humidity like for you? Mounts are the best but they need either the work of maintaining them (water) of an environment that does it for you ( tropics or greenhouse or terrarium)

Also are you still able to get tree fern? A lot of folks are not carrying it or can’t get it.

[Steve83]

My humidity goes from 65 to 80% at the 7am watering, and it drops to 60 by 7pm when the light goes off. I can water the mounts up to 3x day lol

When the light goes off, humidity rises back into the 70s as things cool.

This is labeled as New Zealand tree fern, and under the dame distribution as Orchiata I believe. They offer it in slab form for mounts, or shredded for potting.

bloominmachine.jpg - Google Drive

It is softer than regular tree fern, and the pieces appear fine, but it maintains it's structure (air passages) when saturated.

The slabs can hold quite a bit of water if you drench them, and some plants may root into them. I purchased both Sophie's Orchids. There are also some vids of the products on youtube.

[DirtyCoconuts]

Sweet. Thanks.