On 21 Feb 2003 18:55:20 +0100, Geir Harris Hedemark
(Geir Harris Hedemark) wrote in Message ID
:

Larry Dighera writes:

The rule of thumb is to pot for the size of the root mass not the
foliage. Choosing a pot size that provides an additional inch (or
inch and a half) of new potting medium all around the old roots is
normal practice.

But how do I stop the whole thing from tipping over other than
planting it in someting substantial? The plant has reached about 4
pounds now, and a substantial bit of that is located high up.

Wet clay pots are considerably heaver than plastic pots. Because they
dry-out faster than plastic, you can use a larger size clay pot for
the same size root mass and achieve similar results. There is also
the possibility of using the increased weight of terracota-pellet
media to assist in stabilizing, but being characterized as
terrestrial, reed-stem Epidendrums may not thrive so readily in it.

Do I cut away the "back stems"?
If the plant is getting too tangled looking, you can safely remove a
few of the _older_ reed canes at their base without materially
reducing the plant's vigor.

The new growths have to grow outwards for a bit to get around the
older canes. Is that normal?

Yes. Often, new growths occur near the base of older canes, like
large keikis, also.

I had this idea that I would leave the three canes from last year
intact, and one or two from the year before that (that is 3-4
10-15cm/4-6in canes removed from the center of the plant, or about 25%
of the foilage) to encourage it to grow new canes which go directly
upwards?

That sounds like a good plan. It will result in a tidier looking
plant. But, if you're more interested in growing a large specimen
plant in a minimum amount of time, I would not remove any live tissue,
with the possible exception of the flower spike above the point where
leaves cease.

Will there be additional keikis from nodes that have had keikis
removed from them already?

No. There is only one bud per node.

If the old, non-blooming flower spikes are left in place, you will
have many more keikis.

Yikes. Right, so I want to cut back the old spikes like I would on a
phal, then?

Yes, unless you want to grow the keikis into flowering size for gifts.

Do keikis "cost" much for the plant, by the way?

If the plant is making keikis, it's not using that energy for growth
in other areas. So, I would estimate the cost in growth as a result
of keiki production to be proportional to the size of the keiki over
the time period for its growth.

Will there be fewer new canes if the plant is busy growing keikis,

The significance of the effects of keiki production may be negligible
or not, depending on the ratio of the total mass of the keieis to the
mass of the rest of the plant.

or will there be one new cane per rhizome end no matter what?

Geir

That's probably a safe assumption.