Revitalizing bare root (aka rootless) dendrobiums
xmpraedicta
14 years ago
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terpguy
14 years agohighjack
14 years agoRelated Discussions
What tickle your fancy? A general introduction thread
Comments (31)I succumbed to orchids when I went to a flower show and finally decided to try one. It was a paph. I stuck with one for about a year or so, moved to a new house with a new roommate. She bought herself an orchid, a phal from Ikea. It did alright. I kept eyeing phals at Whole Foods. It was inevitable. I got one. Then another. Then she got another one. Then I did. Then I started working 3 jobs, 6 days a week. Let's just say there were casualties. Since then, I've tried some oncidium hybrids, more paphs, then discovered species orchids. I got Phal equestris, Phal stuartiana, and Aerangis citrata. With Aerangis citrata, it all went downhill. I became an Angraecoid nut. Today, I primarily grow Angraecoids and Pleurothallids. I have three terrariums, and I do most of my orchid growing within them. I have tried growing seedlings from a flask, and it was great! Except for the part where I can't seem to part with any of the seedlings. Which is why I still have roughly 20 Aerangis modesta seedlings, whoops. Due to an infestation of bush snails and what I can only guess is immature bush snails, my original case is not quite as fun as it used to be, and will probably be cleaned out and rearranged if I ever find the time, but that is where the older angraecoids in my collection live. Two of my cases stay at about 75-80 degrees, 80-90% humidity, with air circulation via a computer fan in each. The last case I don't monitor too closely, and doesn't have a fan, as things seemed to dry out too quickly in there with one going. Most of my orchids grow under CFLs. I also grow about 65 African violets, and about 35 hoyas. I'm trying to cut back on the violets, but I'd like to get them to bloom at least once before I decide, and while growing from leaf cuttings is pretty satisfying in the end, it is also a little slow. Hoyas have been catching my attention a lot lately, because they like to grow! A lot! You can almost see some of them growing, when they get going. So I guess my growing niche is: Hoyas, African violets, and small growing mounted orchids in terrariums. I'm definitely interested in growing more from flask, but we'll see if I have the room....See MoreCalling all serious shade gardeners....
Comments (53)Hi H/W, Yes, skeeters are literally a pain. We have a salmon stream running through our property and there's a still pond part of it where they hang out and party in between taking chunks out of me for their dinner (husband never gets bitten). I am really personally opposed to DEET etc. and that definitely curtails my evening outdoor activities. There's some times when they seem to be worse. We have fish in the constructed pond that seem to take care of them and that is also moving water. We got one of those electric wasp things you hang out on the deck and it zaps a lot of wasps and a few skeeters. Every window in this house is screened and that helps too. The expense and bother of a fence were the very LAST thing we wanted to do. Since we plan to stay here we see it as an investment; we either forget gardening and surrender to the deer or fence in a portion of the lot we want to grow vegetables and flowers, leaving the rest of it to wildlife! We get black bears around here too and while they would just break down a fence they're not after the roses (go for fruit) Deer also leave a trail behind them (literally) that looks like it came from a giant species of hamster. Something else I don't want in the garden anymore. Nervy creatures, we caught one drinking out of the pond! (counted the fish and none disappeared through her slurping) There are some forums here about deer and one very funny one I read yesterday; the poster wants to nominate his resident doe for the deer Olympiad (she jumped a high fence and used his rockery as a salad bar) - so even a fence isn't 100% deerproof. Having visited a rose centre who have a deer fence grown over with roses that add another foot or two to the height works for them. A really thick rambler rose can withstand any grazing from the other side and their livelihood depends on protecting the 700 roses they have on their property. don't know the problem with the links. I just checked them and they were okay. Here's the URL's to copy and paste: http://www.cnr.vt.edu/dendro/dendrology/syllabus/ccanadensis.htm http://ca.f2.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/sunshinecoastgardener/album?.dir=/bde2&.src=ph http://hotwired.lycos.com/webmonkey/reference/html_cheatsheet/...See MoreDendrobium kingianum, Northern Calif winter
Comments (45)My cymbidiums have bloomed best after the rainiest winters - but maybe that is simply because I didn't fertilize, and the salts got washed out. I haven't tested that out. I have an L anceps thread on another orchid board and a guy from Mexico says over and over, they stay completely dry in winter in their natural habitat. There's a guy in Sausalito who has really good results with L anceps, and he doesn't water them at all in winter, and they are bone dry under a cover. In other seasons he waters them once/week on an automatic system. I met some people from San Mateo County who grow L anceps in greenhouses, they water straight through winter and some of their plants are monster sized with hundreds of blooms. I guess that's why these three categories of orchids are considered easy to grow! Different things work for different people....See MoreDo have any Orchids that thrive in Drier Conditions?
Comments (13)Mike, I did use simple floor lamps to boost the light and extend the daylight. I used CFL's in octopus type floor lamps so I could point the lights over specific plants.I plugged them into timers so they ran until about 11pm. They were only used on the higher light orchids or plants which were further away from the windows. My living room was large and quite drafty. I wasn't worried about air circulation as the whole area was totally open with high ceilings. Because I didn't have energy efficient windows (just single pane) the room would get quite cool at night. I put some of the warmer growers in a smaller room that I could close off from the rest of the house. I only put orchids which didn't like the cooler conditions of the living room. The small room was dark with only a small, north facing window. Again, I used octopus floor lamps and a few clip lamps which worked fine. I was able to bloom all my Phals and dends using the octopus lamps to grow out the spikes in a nice, even way. In this room I did use some little fans I bought for $4.00 each in Target. I still have them. They were great because I could stick them right in with the plants. I did run a inexpensive vaporizer (not humidifier) to add moisture to the dry air. Not sure it was necessary. I didn't go crazy. Most of my plants did fine in the living room with the cool conditions. I only moved the Phals into the small room when winter got really cold at night. Phals which weren't in spike stayed in the living room without problems. I'll look for some old photos to give you an idea what I'm talking about. What I found is that the orchids handled being in the house very well despite low humidity and cool conditions. I never lost one nor had problems. Once March rolled around, all the plants in the smaller room got moved to the living room to finish out the winter. Don't worry about it. It really wasn't a big deal and my plants did well. Jane...See Morettkidd
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shavedmonkey (Harvey in South Fl.)Z10b