FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

evenwind wrote:Do you know the name of the Odontoglossum/Oncidium that you're calling "Orchid2"? It looks a lot like Odontoglossum tripudians but the lip might be a little different...

I know absolutely nothing about theses orchids. Most of them were about dead and unrecognizable. Its does look very similar to the one you mentioned though.

The greenhouse cooler wasn't working, so you can only imagine what the temperatures were inside while it was 105+ degrees fahrenheit outside. I still have a few that haven't flowered yet but have started growing new divisions. I'm in the process of dividing and re-potting many of the ones that aren't flowering or actively growing right now.

Funny thing is that the only thing keeping the evaporation cooler from working was a fan belt that had fallen off or been removed to sabotage the greenhouse. Got it back on and the cooler works great. Maintained the greenhouse at 85F during our hottest days last summer, which is where the thermostat is set at for daytime running. As you can see the orchids are doing much better then when I found them. Sad thing is that there was one of those large construction dumpsters that was filled with the dead plants that had to be removed because they had been fried from the sun and heat.

Dionae wrote:Are you growing them in full sun? I can never keep an orchid alive no matter what I do to them. How do you grow them?

I forgot to mention. I also fertilize my orchids every couple of weeks. I try not to have to much air flow on the flowers, for example if there was a fan blowing on them. I've noticed if there's enough air movement to move the flowers, the flower drop a lot quicker. That's just an observation that I've had. I use tap water, but Emporia Kansas' municipal water was ranked #1 in the world. I can't think of anything else. If the leaves start to go limp you may have to increase you watering. If your keeping it constantly moist and you think its getting enough moisture check for root rot. I don't have any special advice. I've never used humidity trays and my orchids have done fine. I suggested using humidity trays to my sister in West Virginia and her orchids completely changed and now they are doing much better. I guess like everything else. You have to play around until you find out what works in your growing conditions. I wish you the best of luck Eric...Orchids are a must in my plant collection. After all it is a named after men.

Also, there is a place in Kansas City that has some amazing orchids. I haven't taken a tour yet but it is on the to do list. But their website has some really good info. I would suggest checking them out. They also have a facebook page.

Started doing some spring cleaning in the greenhouse. Took out a lot of flowers that really don't need to be in it and power washed everything down. This opened up a couple tables. So I used one for my Carnivorous plants and the other for Orchids. I thinned out the orchid table quite a bit. Gave them a little more room to breath and flower. All the larger orchids are on the other table. They just dropped their flowers so its not as pretty right now. I finally got the plumping fixed. The solenoids are all replaced and the PVC fittings are all tight with no leaks. I have the watering system programmed to come on four times a day for five minutes totaling 20 minutes a day. Starting at 7am, 11am, 3pm am 7pm. The exhaust fans kick on usually around 11 and it gets fairly dry in the greenhouse when that happens, so hopefully the misting system will help out with that. It has gotten warm enough for the swamp cooler to kick on a couple times, then the humidity raises back up, but its really isn't warm enough for the swamp cooler to be on to much.

evenwind wrote:The one in the middle right, in the pink pot, doesn't look like a Phal. Any idea what it is?

Unfortunately, I don't know what it is. It had small purple flowers and doesn't seem to get much bigger then that before it shots off new growth. I tried to do some research and find similar looking orchids, but didn't have any luck. I'll try to look again.

Couple more pictures I have some others that are sending out spikes so I'll be able to get some other pictures rather then just phals

Loving the "fringe" one!!!

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A couple orchids that are flowering for the first time this year. The yellow one was completely unexpected. I had been moving orchids around and changing the watering, air flow, and the temperature and I was having a problem with bud blast. Quite a few of the buds were turning yellow and then dropping off. I was pulling weeds out of my orchid pots and picking up all the fallen flowers just to clean up a bit. I glanced up and saw the yellow flower and not thinking I grab one and was going to pull it off thinking it was just a bud that was dropping. Then I realized it wasn't a bud but a yellow flower. I'm going to have to take a camera out and take a picture of it. My phone doesn't adjust to the lighting very well out there to truly show off the color.

A few more lovely orchids. This is one happy orchid. The cuttings that I took are doing amazing. There are a couple rabbit foot fern cuttings in with the orchids that are taking off as well. You can also see some baby capensis. These cutting are getting nothing but fertilizer and tap water and the capensis are still growing. Such a weed

Great collection! Love the variety.

Have you ever cultured a phalaenopsis spike cutting? I'm going to be trying shortly.

xr280xr wrote:Have you ever cultured a phalaenopsis spike cutting? I'm going to be trying shortly.

I've read about it and I have tried it a few times before, but I haven't had any luck with it. I don't know if I need to take the cutting while its actively growing. That would probably give me a better chance but I like the flowers to much to cut a flower stalk off that hasn't already bloomed. All the stalks I've used have dropped their flowers before cutting them. Most of the time I just trim the stalk back to the next node and it re-flowers for me.

It would be fun to say I've done it successfully though.

Supposedly after they flower is an ok time to do it as long as it's a living, dormant bud and some people just lay it on moss and it will grow. I read somewhere that if you cut the tip of a living spike off (it might have been before it blooms), it will stimulate production of cytokinins to encourage a strike. I don't know if that's true.

Are those cuttings you have dendrobiums? Looks like a multiplication factor of 1. What's the idea there? Were they shoots that had already flowered and would have died back?

xr280xr wrote:Are those cuttings you have dendrobiums?

Yes

xr280xr wrote:Looks like a multiplication factor of 1.

I think they're still called nodes. Depending on how big your cutting is or nodes you include in your cutting depends on how many strikes you get. Typically, for me, its been one per node. Some of the long ones have a couple strikes but one came after the first plantlet had roots that were at least an inch long. I think that was because before the long roots the plantlet got its energy from the cane so once the roots were long enough to gain nutrients the cane was able to support a new plantlet.

I've read that once the roots are an inch long you can think about cutting them off the parent plant. I've done that before successfully but I placed it in a pot that was appropriate for the size of the plant. Small plant equals small pot. When I went on vacation I had a friend water my plants and he didn't water them as often as I asked and my small pot dried out very quickly and my orchid died. These orchids get fresh water everyday so they don't have a chance to dry out. I've cut divisions off a cane I placed in media and they shoot out a new plantlet reasonably quickly after I cut it off. I got three new plants off one cane before it dried out.

xr280xr wrote:What's the idea there? Were they shoots that had already flowered and would have died back?

A lot of the orchids that were in the greenhouse over the previous summer were practically dead. It had gotten so hot in there from the cooler not working. After I got the cooler working, the shade cloth scheduled, and watering system running everything really starting growing again. Just like sarra rhizome you can cut notches in them to stimulate divisions or if they are stressed they'll divide. The old canes from of the Dendrobiums will do the same thing and produce a plantlet that will grow into a beautiful functioning orchid. Well a lot of the Dendrobiums did this and had mature orchids that were flowering and had an established root system, so I cut each division off. Using a scalpel I cut the base of the division right below where the roots formed and re-potted each division. Most of the life from the canes were sucked out from the new divisions so I just throw the old canes away. Some of them looked somewhat plump so I chopped some up and placed them on some soaking wet sphagnum and that's what you see in the picture above. Others, I cut the dead rotting roots off and made a clean cut with my scalpel and stuffed it in the media similar to taking a VFT flower cutting. I had success both was. The canes I stuck vertical in the media took forever to spike but they eventually did.

So new pictures of orchids that hadn't bloom for me yet. I was able to visit my plants so I snapped a few pictures.

This is a massive bloom

For size reference

I divided and re-potted this one and it has rebloomed

This is going to be an interesting spike

My cuttings have done well- orchids and rabbit foot ferns