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Bulbophyllum question
Bulbophyllum laxiflorum, growing in sphagnum moss in a clay pot. Growing
indoors under fluorescent lights (12 inches from fixture) with additional indirect light from a window. Humidity around 40 - 60% (cool mist humidifier during the day). Watering has been sporadic this summer, at least once a week. Put out 5 new growths, the growths got about half the size of the mature growths, and the leaves turned black and fell off. The pseudobulbs are still green and look healthy, and the mature growths look fine, still have their leaves and nicely green. Roots look good. Anyone out there have any ideas? I'm suspecting that it might have gotten too dry, and while watering saved the pseudobulb, the new leaves succumbed. Richard |
Yellow-to-brown is more common with underwatering. Black is usually
indicative of some sort of fungal or bacterial infection. I would speculate - having no further info - water on the leaves after nightfall, not enough air flow, or something along those lines. Or... too cool, maybe? -- Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info! "Richard" wrote in message ... Bulbophyllum laxiflorum, growing in sphagnum moss in a clay pot. Growing indoors under fluorescent lights (12 inches from fixture) with additional indirect light from a window. Humidity around 40 - 60% (cool mist humidifier during the day). Watering has been sporadic this summer, at least once a week. Put out 5 new growths, the growths got about half the size of the mature growths, and the leaves turned black and fell off. The pseudobulbs are still green and look healthy, and the mature growths look fine, still have their leaves and nicely green. Roots look good. Anyone out there have any ideas? I'm suspecting that it might have gotten too dry, and while watering saved the pseudobulb, the new leaves succumbed. Richard |
Well bulbophyllums are my next group to be tackled. I've repotted ny Catts
and paphs and masds. Leaving the Bulbos and the miscs to be repotted next. So just *WHAT* is it with bulbos??????? I've tried wet . moss. bark...... they just linger for me. Talk about ticking me off!!! Bill Thoms says to put them on treefern (horizontal) in 1/4 inch of standing water... pfft! Nada. No new growth much less blooms. So I put them on bark and/or s moss in clay & nada: no new growths or blooms....... so WHAT do they want??? God they **** me off!!!! Best result I've gotten is high light in baskets with dry moss and I thinK they bloom just before they expire... which doesn't get me anywhere fast. Arrgh!!!!!!!! K Barrett Yellow-to-brown is more common with underwatering. Black is usually indicative of some sort of fungal or bacterial infection. I would speculate - having no further info - water on the leaves after nightfall, not enough air flow, or something along those lines. Or... too cool, maybe? -- Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info! "Richard" wrote in message ... Bulbophyllum laxiflorum, growing in sphagnum moss in a clay pot. Growing indoors under fluorescent lights (12 inches from fixture) with additional indirect light from a window. Humidity around 40 - 60% (cool mist humidifier during the day). Watering has been sporadic this summer, at least once a week. Put out 5 new growths, the growths got about half the size of the mature growths, and the leaves turned black and fell off. The pseudobulbs are still green and look healthy, and the mature growths look fine, still have their leaves and nicely green. Roots look good. Anyone out there have any ideas? I'm suspecting that it might have gotten too dry, and while watering saved the pseudobulb, the new leaves succumbed. Richard |
On Thu, 21 Jul 2005 21:34:53 -0700, "K Barrett"
wrote: Well bulbophyllums are my next group to be tackled. I've repotted ny Catts and paphs and masds. Leaving the Bulbos and the miscs to be repotted next. So just *WHAT* is it with bulbos??????? I've tried wet . moss. bark...... they just linger for me. Talk about ticking me off!!! Bill Thoms says to put them on treefern (horizontal) in 1/4 inch of standing water... pfft! Nada. No new growth much less blooms. So I put them on bark and/or s moss in clay & nada: no new growths or blooms....... so WHAT do they want??? God they **** me off!!!! Best result I've gotten is high light in baskets with dry moss and I thinK they bloom just before they expire... which doesn't get me anywhere fast. Arrgh!!!!!!!! K Barrett Part of the problem is there are different requirements for different ones. Some grow suspended in baskets of moss under the Ascda's - These are 3/4 shade and very moist. Others like B. lobbii 'Kathy's Gold' grow on the slab and would probably be happier on a horizontal mat slab - but the mount area is vertical. I have 2 that have gone adventurous and grown into the upright on the mount wall. Humidity above 75% and the wall gets misted when the floor does to raise the humidity or cool the place. These may have a bit more light. Cirr. I have in pots and in epi light. The problem is all these plants ramble and are hard to contain. SuE http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php |
"Susan Erickson" wrote in message
... On Thu, 21 Jul 2005 21:34:53 -0700, "K Barrett" wrote: Well bulbophyllums are my next group to be tackled. I've repotted ny Catts and paphs and masds. Leaving the Bulbos and the miscs to be repotted next. So just *WHAT* is it with bulbos??????? I've tried wet . moss. bark...... they just linger for me. Talk about ticking me off!!! Bill Thoms says to put them on treefern (horizontal) in 1/4 inch of standing water... pfft! Nada. No new growth much less blooms. So I put them on bark and/or s moss in clay & nada: no new growths or blooms....... so WHAT do they want??? God they **** me off!!!! Best result I've gotten is high light in baskets with dry moss and I thinK they bloom just before they expire... which doesn't get me anywhere fast. Arrgh!!!!!!!! K Barrett Part of the problem is there are different requirements for different ones. Some grow suspended in baskets of moss under the Ascda's - These are 3/4 shade and very moist. Others like B. lobbii 'Kathy's Gold' grow on the slab and would probably be happier on a horizontal mat slab - but the mount area is vertical. I have 2 that have gone adventurous and grown into the upright on the mount wall. Humidity above 75% and the wall gets misted when the floor does to raise the humidity or cool the place. These may have a bit more light. Cirr. I have in pots and in epi light. The problem is all these plants ramble and are hard to contain. SuE http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php SuE, so how do you figure out their cultural conditions? Start at Jay's page? I figured the problem was that I was trying to grow a disparate group in one condition when in reality they want many different conditions, but am stymied as to how to proceed to figure them out. I have 'Kathy's Gold' in moss and clay and that seems to be going OK. I have a medusae that's going OK too. B echinolabium is so-so in treefern and plastic. sikkimense is going well on an upright moss slab. Bicolor is lingering. ovalifoma is lingering, blumei is lingering. fascinator, thses are mostly in teak baskets with moss. or upright slabs. Grrr K Barrett |
On Fri, 22 Jul 2005 08:41:43 -0700, "K Barrett"
wrote: SuE, so how do you figure out their cultural conditions? Start at Jay's page? I figured the problem was that I was trying to grow a disparate group in one condition when in reality they want many different conditions, but am stymied as to how to proceed to figure them out. I have 'Kathy's Gold' in moss and clay and that seems to be going OK. I have a medusae that's going OK too. B echinolabium is so-so in treefern and plastic. sikkimense is going well on an upright moss slab. Bicolor is lingering. ovalifoma is lingering, blumei is lingering. fascinator, thses are mostly in teak baskets with moss. or upright slabs. Grrr K Barrett My problem has been light or shade. Our Gh runs around 80% humidity -- I should check today. Outside we have had 104 degrees and 12% humidity. It is fire season if the rains from Emily don't come north. I mostly hang them on the less sunny side of the taller Ascda's and look for light leaves. If I see them I move them down into more shade. I have grown them as they were purchased except to try to figure out the light. Fascinator takes quite a bit of sun, my teak basket came apart so I will be re-basketing this one. Kathy gold is on a mount of oak bark on a shelf and leaning against the back wall below the mounts. This is fairly shady. My medusae has not bloomed. Mostly I would suggest mounts if you have a 'wet wall' and baskets of moss or bulb pan's so they can ramble. The fool things like to send runners out to the next spot they decide to colonize. This does not make for happy pots. I rather gave up on a standard orchid pot style. They want surface area that they can spread over. That is why mounts are so good. We have seen several grown on a bark mount that was held flat, parallel to the ground. This gives them the room to roam without the vertical challenge. SuE http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php |
K Barrett ) wrote:
: So just *WHAT* is it with bulbos??????? I've tried wet . moss. bark...... : they just linger for me. Talk about ticking me off!!! : Bill Thoms says to put them on treefern (horizontal) in 1/4 inch of standing : water... pfft! Nada. No new growth much less blooms. So I put them on : bark and/or s moss in clay & nada: no new growths or blooms....... so WHAT : do they want??? God they **** me off!!!! : Best result I've gotten is high light in baskets with dry moss and I thinK : they bloom just before they expire... which doesn't get me anywhere fast. About 2 years ago you I was thinking about getting into Bulbos and their ilk after I fell in love with Cirr. Elizabeth Ann 'Buckleberry'. I was wondering if it would be possible to keep them in my window sill environment. For reference I grow the majority of my plants in an east facing window that gets lots of morning sun and the humidity runs between 30-60%. You and I (mostly, there might have been a couple of other people chime in) discussed it on rgo and ended up concluding the only way to find out would be to try it out and see what happened. Here's what I found out so far for my environment. A month or so after our discussion I bought a Cirr Elizabeth Ann from a vendor at the AOS show in Sacramento. It was mounted in a nice thick wad of spagh on a piece of cork. It was spiking and the spike matured and bloomed, so far so good. The following year a new bulb formed and spiked but the buds blasted 2 days after I fertilized it (@#?&!). Encouraged by my success so far I bought a Bulb. wendlandianum start and co-mounted it with the Elizabeth Ann. It sulked for at least 6 months, lost the only leaf it had but finally grew a new bulb and is doing OK so far. The Elizabeth Ann has really taken off this year. It has 2 leads now and one of the leads produced 2 new psuedobulbs. The leaves are twice as big as any of the previous leaves so it appears to be quite happy. It should spike sometime in August so it's too early yet to know for sure if it will bloom this year. So, for me a hanging cork mount with spaghnum is working pretty well. I water every 2-3 days by soaking the spagh thoroughly. The spagh is often bone dry to the touch so the plants aren't constantly damp as is often recomended. I don't consciously dry them out, mounted plants in my environment dry out pretty quickly and I can't be chained to the kitchen sink watering my plants all day at their beck and whim. It even went without watering for over week while I was on vacation. I was worried about how well it would take being dry for week but it doesn't seem to have bothered it all. Right now, I've got my fingers crossed that I'll be getting not one, but 3 flower spikes this year from the Eliz. Ann this year and if I'm really lucky a spike from the B. wendlandianum although it may still be a bit small for that. Hope that helps, Dave |
"Dave Sheehy" wrote in message
... K Barrett ) wrote: : So just *WHAT* is it with bulbos??????? I've tried wet . moss. bark...... : they just linger for me. Talk about ticking me off!!! : Bill Thoms says to put them on treefern (horizontal) in 1/4 inch of standing : water... pfft! Nada. No new growth much less blooms. So I put them on : bark and/or s moss in clay & nada: no new growths or blooms....... so WHAT : do they want??? God they **** me off!!!! : Best result I've gotten is high light in baskets with dry moss and I thinK : they bloom just before they expire... which doesn't get me anywhere fast. About 2 years ago you I was thinking about getting into Bulbos and their ilk after I fell in love with Cirr. Elizabeth Ann 'Buckleberry'. I was wondering if it would be possible to keep them in my window sill environment. For reference I grow the majority of my plants in an east facing window that gets lots of morning sun and the humidity runs between 30-60%. You and I (mostly, there might have been a couple of other people chime in) discussed it on rgo and ended up concluding the only way to find out would be to try it out and see what happened. Here's what I found out so far for my environment. A month or so after our discussion I bought a Cirr Elizabeth Ann from a vendor at the AOS show in Sacramento. It was mounted in a nice thick wad of spagh on a piece of cork. It was spiking and the spike matured and bloomed, so far so good. The following year a new bulb formed and spiked but the buds blasted 2 days after I fertilized it (@#?&!). Encouraged by my success so far I bought a Bulb. wendlandianum start and co-mounted it with the Elizabeth Ann. It sulked for at least 6 months, lost the only leaf it had but finally grew a new bulb and is doing OK so far. The Elizabeth Ann has really taken off this year. It has 2 leads now and one of the leads produced 2 new psuedobulbs. The leaves are twice as big as any of the previous leaves so it appears to be quite happy. It should spike sometime in August so it's too early yet to know for sure if it will bloom this year. So, for me a hanging cork mount with spaghnum is working pretty well. I water every 2-3 days by soaking the spagh thoroughly. The spagh is often bone dry to the touch so the plants aren't constantly damp as is often recomended. I don't consciously dry them out, mounted plants in my environment dry out pretty quickly and I can't be chained to the kitchen sink watering my plants all day at their beck and whim. It even went without watering for over week while I was on vacation. I was worried about how well it would take being dry for week but it doesn't seem to have bothered it all. Right now, I've got my fingers crossed that I'll be getting not one, but 3 flower spikes this year from the Eliz. Ann this year and if I'm really lucky a spike from the B. wendlandianum although it may still be a bit small for that. Hope that helps, Dave Well that makes me feel a little better, Dave. The wet then dry cycle seems to be the key.... I actually *read* a book about these, (Segirst's book on Bulbos) and she recommends an open medium, that allows the plant to get wet and then dry over the day. Maybe a basket lined with sphag and filled with bark mix perhaps top-dressed with s moss.... Argh! I decide to read the book AFTER I took all mine out of moss and clay and put them in moss and plastic baskets..... But you should have seen the bush snails!!! ICK! And the fungus gnat population has been reduced (for this nano-second only...) Also she recommends 'light shade' for the species I'm growing...now I have to figure out what she means by that. I think I'll put them in phal light and bump up from there. sigh. Good thing I'll never have to decide whether to take the lady or the tiger...looks like when given an option I'll choose wrong every time! *G*! K |
On Mon, 25 Jul 2005 19:30:09 -0700, "K Barrett"
wrote: Well that makes me feel a little better, Dave. The wet then dry cycle seems to be the key.... I actually *read* a book about these, (Segirst's book on Bulbos) and she recommends an open medium, that allows the plant to get wet and then dry over the day. Maybe a basket lined with sphag and filled with bark mix perhaps top-dressed with s moss.... Argh! I decide to read the book AFTER I took all mine out of moss and clay and put them in moss and plastic baskets..... But you should have seen the bush snails!!! ICK! And the fungus gnat population has been reduced (for this nano-second only...) Also she recommends 'light shade' for the species I'm growing...now I have to figure out what she means by that. I think I'll put them in phal light and bump up from there. sigh. Good thing I'll never have to decide whether to take the lady or the tiger...looks like when given an option I'll choose wrong every time! *G*! K For me - if the leaves are not 'rich' green - turn the slightest bit light - it is too much. Let us know what you find. SuE http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php |
Susan Erickson ) wrote:
: For me - if the leaves are not 'rich' green - turn the slightest : bit light - it is too much. Let us know what you find. What happens to the plant if the leaves 'turn the slightest bit light'? Does the plant fail to thrive or just not bloom? I ask because the newer leaves on my Eliz. Ann are a lighter shade of green than the older leaves. I've always wondered if that was good, bad, or neutral. Since my plant has apparently been growing well I haven't worried about it too much. Dave |
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