On 06 Jul 2003 11:02:20 +0200, Geir Harris Hedemark
wrote in Message-Id: :

Perhaps Larry knows wether there exists such a thing as a miniature
epidendrum? Larry?

Yes. Mini-epis exist. There are mini plants with mini flowers, also
hybridizers (Cal-Orchid, Yamada) are breading shorter plants with
larger blooms.

Here are a few:
http://www.sborchid.com/OrchidOfTheD...LilacPixie.htm
http://www.sborchid.com/OrchidOfTheDay/Epi-TinyRed.htm
http://www.sborchid.com/OrchidOfTheD...d-specimen.htm
http://www.hborchids.com/epi.htm#epi
http://www.sborchid.com/OrchidOfTheD...planifolia.htm

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Xref: kermit rec.gardens.orchids:46735

Geir Harris Hedemark wrote in message ...
"White Monkey" writes:
I hope you aren't considering it as a source of vanilla "beans". The
process of making vanilla pods is a kind of lengthy fermentation that
takes lots of heat and sunlight.
I was thinking (dreaming) of it as a very-low-yield, impress-your-friends
kind of source, like my ginger and turmeric plants. Oh well! Someday I'll
be able to create the right conditions and I'll give it a whirl. I'm the

Don't let the process get you down. The worst that will happen to you
when fermenting your pods is that you will have learnt something about
fermentation. Since fermentation is a fairly important bit of cooking
techniques, you might be a better cook.


The fermentation in this case is a dry --well, moist-- process that
takes months and requires tropical heat and sunlight.

Home production of vanilla "beans" is wholly impractical unless one
lives in the tropics.

J. Del Col

(J. Del Col) writes:
The fermentation in this case is a dry --well, moist-- process that
takes months and requires tropical heat and sunlight.

Home production of vanilla "beans" is wholly impractical unless one
lives in the tropics.

You are saying this to someone who is growing tropical orchids in a
place that is almost north of the polar circle.

Sounds to me like an excuse to borrow the temperature chamber from work.

Geir

"Geir Harris Hedemark" wrote in message
...
(J. Del Col) writes:
The fermentation in this case is a dry --well, moist-- process that
takes months and requires tropical heat and sunlight.

Home production of vanilla "beans" is wholly impractical unless one
lives in the tropics.

You are saying this to someone who is growing tropical orchids in a
place that is almost north of the polar circle.

Sounds to me like an excuse to borrow the temperature chamber from work.


This reminds me of a discussion I had with a lady recently, who was saying
that it isn't practicable for home owners to have their own vegetable
gardens when you're as far north as the north shore of Lake Superior. I
just had to point out that I knew a family in Churchill Manitoba (which is
MUCH further north) who made their own greenhouse, and grew their own
vegetables. The structure seemed rather flimsy, and a polar bear would not
have any trouble ripping the walls apart to get to the tasty morsels inside,
but they were growing a wide variety of things ranging from potatoes to
flowers. The moment someone tells me that something is impossible or
impacticable, I tend to get motivated to find a way to do it in a cost
effective manner. That is, I won't settle for showing that it is possible
to grow a given plant in a given locality, I'd go a step further to show
that it is less expensive for me to do it myself than it is to rely on some
other means (in the case of food stuffs, the alternative is to buy directly
or indirectly from a distant supplier). After all, the principal reason
most of us can enjoy our own orchids is that some genius figured out how to
grow and propagate them in large numbers outside their natural distribution.
One factor providing impetus for technological change is a desire to do what
is presently difficult, impractical or impossible with existing
technologies.

Cheers,

Ted

BTW: instead of borrowing the temperature chamber, why not make your own?

Xref: kermit rec.gardens.orchids:46738

(J. Del Col) spaketh thusly:

Home production of vanilla "beans" is wholly impractical unless one
lives in the tropics.

While I would note that the production of vanilla from the live
plant is generally an impractical effort, I don't believe it is a
necessity that one must live in a tropical climate to process the "beans."
The fruits may be "killed" either by drying in the sun or boiling (there
is a third technique that escapes me), but then may be steeped in alcohol
after being bundled and dried for several months. There are many ways to
process vanilla, all of which are energy- and time-intensive. Some
techniques are detailed in "Make Mine Vanilla" and "The Vanilla Cookbook."

More info at:
http://www.nielsenmassey.com/makingofvanilla.htm


-AJHicks
CHandler, AZ

"Geir Harris Hedemark" wrote in message
...
(J. Del Col) writes:
The fermentation in this case is a dry --well, moist-- process that
takes months and requires tropical heat and sunlight.

Home production of vanilla "beans" is wholly impractical unless one
lives in the tropics.

You are saying this to someone who is growing tropical orchids in a
place that is almost north of the polar circle.

Sounds to me like an excuse to borrow the temperature chamber from work.


This reminds me of a discussion I had with a lady recently, who was saying
that it isn't practicable for home owners to have their own vegetable
gardens when you're as far north as the north shore of Lake Superior. I
just had to point out that I knew a family in Churchill Manitoba (which is
MUCH further north) who made their own greenhouse, and grew their own
vegetables. The structure seemed rather flimsy, and a polar bear would not
have any trouble ripping the walls apart to get to the tasty morsels inside,
but they were growing a wide variety of things ranging from potatoes to
flowers. The moment someone tells me that something is impossible or
impacticable, I tend to get motivated to find a way to do it in a cost
effective manner. That is, I won't settle for showing that it is possible
to grow a given plant in a given locality, I'd go a step further to show
that it is less expensive for me to do it myself than it is to rely on some
other means (in the case of food stuffs, the alternative is to buy directly
or indirectly from a distant supplier). After all, the principal reason
most of us can enjoy our own orchids is that some genius figured out how to
grow and propagate them in large numbers outside their natural distribution.
One factor providing impetus for technological change is a desire to do what
is presently difficult, impractical or impossible with existing
technologies.

Cheers,

Ted

BTW: instead of borrowing the temperature chamber, why not make your own?

Xref: kermit rec.gardens.orchids:46738

(J. Del Col) spaketh thusly:

Home production of vanilla "beans" is wholly impractical unless one
lives in the tropics.

While I would note that the production of vanilla from the live
plant is generally an impractical effort, I don't believe it is a
necessity that one must live in a tropical climate to process the "beans."
The fruits may be "killed" either by drying in the sun or boiling (there
is a third technique that escapes me), but then may be steeped in alcohol
after being bundled and dried for several months. There are many ways to
process vanilla, all of which are energy- and time-intensive. Some
techniques are detailed in "Make Mine Vanilla" and "The Vanilla Cookbook."

More info at:
http://www.nielsenmassey.com/makingofvanilla.htm


-AJHicks
CHandler, AZ

We don't deal much with freezing, but you might tell him about the tray of
bareroot encyclias my husband spilled while unloading the trailer after a
show -- several of them fell behind the shelves and I didn't find them for 3
weeks, till I was loading up for the next show. During which time they were
locked in an enclosed trailer with no water, no light, no air circulation,
and the trailer was parked in baking sun [temps inside had to exceed 105F].
All lived, and almost all of those which had been in spike went ahead and
bloomed.

--
Kenni Judd
Juno Beach Orchids

http://www.jborchids.com

"White Monkey" wrote in message
...
"Kenni Judd" wrote in message
...

We have a very dark and gloomy office, from a plant's point of view, and a
shady living room. It seems to me that some orchids might even like my
husband's office, there in the gloom, but he thinks Orchids Die without
Religiously Specific Conditions and that nothing can ever live in there
with
him... any suggestions from the group on what I might prove him wrong
with?
And for that matter, just to dream here, is there even a single orchid
which
can live outdoors through a freezing winter on a windy balcony? Yeah, I
know, ha, ha.

--Katrina




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White Monkey ) wrote:
: So... what am I yammering at you folks for? Well, I'd like suggestions on
: which of the miniatures make good starters for amateur cultivators. What's
: good in shade (apartment's too small and the electrics too crappy and
: bunched up to get a fancy lighting setup, so we're talking natural
: conditions on that one), what can take a lower-temperature winter (yes, we
: do have a heater, but no, we don't run it very high at night--just enough to
: keep stuff from freezing) (I'm willing and able to get reptile hot rocks or
: something for the mini-greenhouses, though, should that turn out to be
: best)? I'm not one of these people who think something has to be showy to be
: special, and am in fact quite attracted to the weird, so don't worry about
: that sort of thing in answering. I am also aware that the floral return on
: orchids is limited--in other words, I'm fine with looking at apparent clumps
: of sticks or smudges of green for most of the year. The humidity levels here
: are high, but the light low. I have access to excellent plant-supply shops
: where they will know which soils/media to sell me, and which fertilizers (if
: any), and where I can ask advice about sick or damaged plants, so I don't
: have to get only the hardiest and most difficult to kill or anything like
: that, but this probably isn't a moment for the downright delicate.

You might think about Dendrobium sulawesiense (go to Andy's Orchids at
www.andysorchids.com for a pic and description). It has low light
requirements (similar to phal light requirements) but the min temp is listed
as 55F which may require a hot rock in your environment :-). I have been
keeping one in a bathroom window that gets about 1000 footcandles of light
if I hold the light meter just right and it is not only growing well but
it's about to bloom. I am in a much, much warmer climate than you though.
The canes are listed as getting to 30" but mine is anywhere near that big
and even if they do get that long the canes are really thin so the plant
doesn't take up much pot space.

BTW, Andy's has a pretty cool search engine that you can use to get some
ideas. A search for "cool" and "shady" yields 153 hits. A search for "cool",
"shady", and "miniature" 22 hits. And, a search for "cool", "shady",
"miniature", and "easy grower" yields 6 hits. I can't get at the website
from the machine I'm typing this on otherwise I'd just cut and paste the
results in for so you'll have to do it for yourself.

Dave

"Dave Sheehy" wrote in message
...
White Monkey ) wrote:
: So... what am I yammering at you folks for? Well, I'd like suggestions
on
: which of the miniatures make good starters for amateur cultivators.
What's
: good in shade (apartment's too small and the electrics too crappy and
: bunched up to get a fancy lighting setup, so we're talking natural
: conditions on that one), what can take a lower-temperature winter (yes,
we
: do have a heater, but no, we don't run it very high at night--just
enough to
: keep stuff from freezing) (I'm willing and able to get reptile hot rocks
or
: something for the mini-greenhouses, though, should that turn out to be
: best)? I'm not one of these people who think something has to be showy
to be
: special, and am in fact quite attracted to the weird, so don't worry
about
: that sort of thing in answering. I am also aware that the floral return
on
: orchids is limited--in other words, I'm fine with looking at apparent
clumps
: of sticks or smudges of green for most of the year. The humidity levels
here
: are high, but the light low. I have access to excellent plant-supply
shops
: where they will know which soils/media to sell me, and which fertilizers
(if
: any), and where I can ask advice about sick or damaged plants, so I
don't
: have to get only the hardiest and most difficult to kill or anything
like
: that, but this probably isn't a moment for the downright delicate.

You might think about Dendrobium sulawesiense (go to Andy's Orchids at
www.andysorchids.com for a pic and description). It has low light
requirements (similar to phal light requirements) but the min temp is
listed
as 55F which may require a hot rock in your environment :-). I have been
keeping one in a bathroom window that gets about 1000 footcandles of light
if I hold the light meter just right and it is not only growing well but
it's about to bloom. I am in a much, much warmer climate than you though.
The canes are listed as getting to 30" but mine is anywhere near that big
and even if they do get that long the canes are really thin so the plant
doesn't take up much pot space.

Wow, thanks, those ARE hot! And thank you for all the light info, etc. I'll
keep my eyes peeled for it!
Thanks again,
Katrina


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Why not? Pollinating them is easy getting something out of it is harder.
I'm trying to grow my own orchid seed in windowsills in an appartment.
I'll inform you of my faillores or successes later.
Peter

"Diana Kulaga" schreef in bericht
thlink.net...
I hope you aren't considering it as a source of vanilla "beans". The
process of making vanilla pods is a kind of lengthy fermentation that
takes
lots of heat and sunlight.

And hand pollination. I wouldn't try this one in an apartment.

Diana

"Boystrup Pb, ann,..." writes:
Why not? Pollinating them is easy getting something out of it is harder.

I think Diana was referring to Vanilla flowers lasting only a couple
of hours/a day, and only one maturing at a time. If you are to get a
nice number of pods, you will need to catch several flowers for
pollination.

Geir

On 06 Jul 2003 22:47:14 +0200, Geir Harris Hedemark
wrote in Message-Id: :

Larry Dighera writes:
http://www.sborchid.com/OrchidOfTheDay/Epi-TinyRed.htm

Want!

Me too. I'll have to pick one up the next time I'm there.

Of course, I can't get. Wrong bit of the globe, and importing grown
plants is next to impossible without starting a business.

Do you know if there is anyone out there willing to sell hobby-sized
flasks of miniature red or blue miniature epis worldwide?

You've probably already looked here, but just in case:
http://www.orchidmall.com/supplies.htm

Troy Meyers ships flasks internationally:
http://troymeyers.com/index.html

Geir - about to start offloading SH grown yellow-coloured epidendrum
keikis on friends in a couple of months.

Would that be Epidendrum secundum 'Pretty Princes'?

Dang, these things grow like mad. In december, they were 2in long
with one reed. They now count four reeds at 5in.

They bloom quickly too.

Oke, thanks, didn't know that. But it makes me curious, I think I'll buy one
this summer.
Peter

"Geir Harris Hedemark" schreef in bericht
...
"Boystrup Pb, ann,..." writes:
Why not? Pollinating them is easy getting something out of it is
harder.

I think Diana was referring to Vanilla flowers lasting only a couple
of hours/a day, and only one maturing at a time. If you are to get a
nice number of pods, you will need to catch several flowers for
pollination.

Geir

Larry Dighera writes:
Geir - about to start offloading SH grown yellow-coloured epidendrum
keikis on friends in a couple of months.
Would that be Epidendrum secundum 'Pretty Princes'?

Nah. The only epis I can get locally are noname hybrids (tagged
"ballerina"), and most of the flower colors available are pink, white
and orange/yellow. This is half the reason why I am having a go at
flasks.

Thanks for the links. I will surely have a look.

Geir