Thanks for the report, Joanna.

It sound like he is sort of using a variant of S/H culture (straight
perlite is how I started, too), but with automated watering rather
than with a reservoir.

Monthly repotting??? Sheesh, what a lot of work.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Books, Artwork, and Lots of Free Info!
..
"J Fortuna" wrote in message
news:CbgBd.20587$_62.9852@trnddc01...
I just came back from a visit to family in the Milwaukee, WI area.
Among the
many attractions during the visit (that included two very cute
nephews, as
well as my mother-in-law's orchids), we went to visit an orchid
greenhouse
called Bettencourt Acres Orchids in Mequon, WI. This visit was very
interesting and thus I think deserves a report on RGO:

I found Bettencourt Acres Orchids through a Web search on some Web
site
listing a bunch of vendors in the Midwest, since it was in the
Milwaukee
area, I naturally had to visit (only because I needed an additional
present
for my mother-in-law, of course). When I called, Mr. Bettencourt
told me in
the directions "and then you get to a tar road, which becomes a
gravel road,
it's a dead end street, and Bettencourt Acres is at the end, we are
the only
thing out there, so you can't miss it." It indeed was a bit out of
the way,
and the entrance to the greenhouse is through some kind of garage or
shack.
It's a one man operation. Mr. Bettencourt (I don't know his first
name) was
very welcoming. He has been growing orchids for about 20 years, and
is
hybridizing with very specific goals in mind (for example: a
non-fading
lemon yellow Phal). The greenhouse makes the impression more of a
lab than
an orchid greenhouse. It is meticulously organized with all orchids
for sale
in the front part and the breeding plants clearly labeled. Further
back,
there are shelves of flasks, and some non-Phal orchids as well, but
there
were only Phals for sale, and only in spike (no plants in bloom and
none out
of spike in the for sale area). Phals with single spikes sold for
$10, and
two (or more) spikes Phals sold for $15, with the vendor encouraging
his
clients to buy single spike because it's cheaper (but that part of
the sales
pitch fell on deaf ears in our case). All the plants are in pure
white
perlite medium. The watering is computerized with watering hoses
connected
to each plant pot, and at Bettencourt Acres all orchids get watered
with two
ounces of water ever 21 days -- all the Phals that we saw were
healthy
looking and meticulously kept up. Upending the potting medium into a
bowl,
root trimming, and refilling with the existing all perlite medium is
done in
this greenhouse about once a month, and Mr. Bettencourt suggests
this
frequency to his clients in his brochure. He stressed how easy it is
to do
this in the perlite medium and demonstrated on two plants for us. I
have
never before seen such a thorough root trimming demonstration,
explaining
exactly why one root gets trimmed and another does not. We noticed
that none
of the orchids in this greenhouse have aerial roots. The reason for
this is
that if there are any aerial roots any leaves below these roots are
yanked
out by Mr. Bettencourt, and the plant put back in its pot with all
roots in
the perlite. As a results most have 3-4 leaves, but a few plants had
as many
as 7-8 leaves without any aerial roots (no doubt they do not dare
put them
out :-). The Phals that were for sale were all labeled, but I
suspect that
the names were not official names but Mr. Bettencourt's own names
for these
hybrids, he referred to them as Mabel, Adam, etc., with Mabels all
being
bred for as dark an "orchid color" (that's pink) as possible.

Overall it was a very interesting visit. From my account, you can
see that
Mr. Bettencourt does a few things somewhat differently than you may
have
encountered in other greenhouses, however as already mentioned all
the
plants we saw were healthy looking, so I believe that even though he
has a
different approach, it works for him and his orchids. He was very
friendly,
very informative, and obviously delighted to show his greenhouse to
others.
If you ever are in the area, I would recommend the visit, not only
since
there are no other orchid specific greenhouses in the area (at least
none
that I know of), but because it is an interesting place showing a
very
different approach to orchid growing than in most greenhouses. Oh,
and the
prices are very reasonable, too. I bought three orchids for
presents, so
they don't really count toward my orchid acquisition, so I will have
to go
and buy some orchids for myself soonish again, right?

Joanna