OrchidSafari ARCHIVES*

Susan:
I was interested in the assertion that virus-free plants are not able to fend off other problems. I forgot who posted it to OLD.

Greg:
Sure Lois...I think that any grower who values their collection practices safe hygiene...it's those unseen vectors that are the problem. One sick plant can = lots of sick plants. We finally threw out the C. deckeri that started that OLD discussion with Nina - too suspect.

John:
This has been really interesting. I was talking on the phone to my daughter in Chicago while reading and posting all over the US. Isn't that something that wouldn't have happened too long ago!

Harold:
Ed, will you be coming thru Dallas on your way to Wichita? I assume you are driving. If you use 35E you will pass a few blocks from my house. I get home by about 3:00P everyday. Would welcome your stopping by if you have a minute.

Ed:
Hi, Al. Prankster, I saw that, too, and don't believe it. The healthier the plant, the better it resists any trauma. Orchids are not grown in a sterile environment in nature.

KB Barrett:
I have to confess that the bulk of the discussion I did not follow. I intended to go back and read the posts more closely (no, really I did!) but just haven't gotten around to it yet.

John:
Light really is the answer to a lot of vanda problems. I have a coerulea that never has bloomed. The shading separated right beside it and now it has a spike with 3 flowers on it. I have had the plant for many years and this is the first flowering!!!!!!

Ed:
Many thanks, Harold. We'll go up 35W to check the bluebonnets near Itasca - always some of the best color in TX. Coming back via 45 to see the dogwoods. Got a tad of business up north of Houston, too, so that makes a difference. Really do appreciate the thought!

Greg:
In defense of MM I would like to say that I was down there about a month ago and have never been in a nursery that had as many blooming plants....NEVER. I wasn't looking but I saw no evidence of the Thai fungus, which I first heard about from RF about 6 yrs ago when he mentioned that it was coming in on Thai-grown Vandaceous.

KB Barrett:
Ed, the Vanda I wrote you about is still hanging in there, even though all the roots have blackened and died. But interestingly the leaves have stopped yellowing and dropping off, so I assume some humidity is getting through the roots anyway. The moss in the nylon trick seems to work. Barbara thinks I've starved the poor thing to death.

Harold:
35W is a bit farther. Anytime you do make it to Dallas, would be happy to show off my modest GH and garage.

KB Barrett:
Vandas anyone? Ed:
KB - keep on keeping on. Tell Barbara of rule 1: never feed a sick plant. They ail from a lot of things, but rarely malnutrition. I'd say leaf retention at this stage is very encouraging.

KB Barrett:
Yay! Will do!

Ann:
I bought 10 Vanda Rothschildianas about a year and a half ago, that were supposed to be blooming-size seedlings. Fewer than half have bloomed, and the blooms are quite variable in size and color. None has been the large, dark blue heavily tessellated flower I'd hoped for.

Greg:
Kathy, I can pass on a little info on Vandas, that's what we do best here in So Fla. Our Ascda's are ALWAYS in bloom. We have a SuFun Beauty that we got an AM on last year that has a momma and a keiki in the basket. The momma spike has 37 of the most brightly-colored orange flowers in a perfect cylindrical spike that you've ever seen. AND both plants are pushing another spike. wanna know our secret ???

John:
That seems par for the course. I had a friend who bought some years ago and when they bloomed they were not worth keeping even though she had paid for superior plants.

Ed:
Ann, unless you're just determined to have Rothschildiana, get some Princess Blue (Jennie Hash X Sanderiana, I think). They look just like Roths and grow and bloom to beat the band.

Harold:
YES. YES. YES. YES. YES.

John:
WE ALL want to know your secret!!!

KB Barrett:
Ann, have you noticed that anything named Rothschildiana is trouble? Paph. roth. hard to bloom, slow to grow....your Vandas, hard to bloom, slow to grow... what we have to do is find this roth guy and stop him from finding these damn hard flowers!!!

Greg:
Here's a pic of SuFun last year.

KB Barrett:
Greg, YES YES YES!!!

Ed:
Another axiom: the closer you are to Sanderiana, the harder the cross will be to grow. When we put coerulea in the breeding line, lots of growing/blooming problems are resolved. Temperature tolerance is the name of the game in good Vandaceous performance for most of us.

John:
Your a little late now. He died in the 19th century!!! (Lord Rothchild of the banking family).

KB Barrett:
Ha! Jealousy overwhelms me!

John:
Not you?

KB Barrett:
So, Greg cough up the secret.

Ed:
John - expired hybridizers are the very worst kind.

Greg:
What is easy in So. Fla. may not be elsewhere; but we hang them high in the shadehouse, their section has only a layer of window screen. The leaves will tell you if you've got it right. The Asctm's should be thick like a cactus and heavily spotted with maroon.

KB Barrett:
You'd better be typing fast Greg!

Ann:
I had two blooms on a Vanda pumila a couple of weeks ago. Almost missed them entirely. Not showy, but interesting.

John:
Do the semi-tetre (sp?) vandas have a problem blooming? Like Nelly Morley.

Marylois:
Wow! That Asctm. curvifolium really did its job!

KB Barrett:
At last, the answer is light! How come I didn't think of that! *G* It always comes down to light, don't you agree?

Greg:
Other Vandaceous should have very stiff thick leaves when the light is proper. The Aerides hang lower soak that vellum...and not overfed. How strong is the fert on Sundays?

Greg:

Unless it's a prolonged gloomy spell we leave the water on even if it rains...extra H20 is a bonus . Being in open baskets they can take plenty.

Marylois:
And describe "shade house" -- is that screen over lath?

Al:
My Nelly Morley is in full sun till early afternoon. Its just growing some new roots, very thick and relatively stiff.

John:
I can bloom mine only when the plant gets near the top of the greenhouse! about 6 feet from bench.

Al:
Not down here, mine blooms regularly.

Ed:
John, we put our Nellie Morley into a permanent home at the local botanical garden because it became enormous. It always had the brightest area available with us and we fed it every time we watered it. Semi-teretes grow in SE Asia with their roots in compost, so a little organic might be in order. We never did this in our growing, however.

Ann:
I have been growing great foliage on a Vanda parviflora for several years. It's a miniature, about 5-6 inches tall. It's right against the glass on the west side (in Texas, to boot). No blooms. Any ideas?

Greg:
Fertilizer is applied weakly weekly, through the Dosatron we put about a cup of 20-20-20 OR Miracle Grow for 4gals H20 at 1:64 dilution, little bit of soap and seaweed too, that's for the whole shade house and the Vandas get 1/4 of that.

Ed:
Quit feeding it, Ann.

John:
I can see my trying a new approach to vanda growing here. Full sun until noon and water several times a day in the summer with proportionately less at other times. Potted in nothing!

Marylois:
The soap tickles me...sure keeps leaves clean!! Now what's that dilution in fractions of a teaspoon?

Ed:
Sounds good to me. Don't remember ever seeing a sun burned semi-terete, though I guess it could happen.

Greg:
Shade hpuse is 43% shadecloth with a few sections less (windowscreen) and a few sections more (2 layers). In the summer & fall we also try to give the Vandaceous some "high-test" food once per Month...i.e., blossom booster.

Harold:
My GH made a difference. No blooms at all till I MOVED THEM INTO THE GH. I NOW HAVE 10-15 Vanda type blooming.

Marylois:
And watered for 15 minutes! Not just til roots turn green...til they are saturated. Friend here hangs hers between two trees on barb wire (keeps them from sliding) and waters daily with the lawn sprinkler for 15 minutes. Tons of Fuchs plants. Marvelous blooms!

Al:
Nelly takes full sun as do many others for me, but other vandaceous may not be able to take full sun, at least down here.

John:
I am going to try it with one or two other vandas that I have that don't bloom. Nothing ventured, nothing gained and if I lose them I have really lost nothing.

KB Barrett:
I've been considering a shadehouse, with misters on timers for mine John, but I'm too scared about the lack of outside humidity. But if Ed can donate a Vanda to a botanic garden in San Antonio and have it grow outside (am I making an assumption about the similarities between Texas and California?)I just may try it, because light seems to be the limiting factor on blooming everything.

Marylois:
No lath?

Greg:
Sorry Ann, I'm not familiar with V. parviflora but it sounds cool (growing?) We have a V. Miss Joaquim that is in a chicken wire cage growing in full sun 'au natural' it puts out one good flush a year and would probably do better if we fed it.

Ed:
KB - San Antonio humidity runs in the 60-80 per cent range much of the time. For all: never forget that Nitrogen promotes vegetative growth and inhibits bloom. When you have a real pretty, bushy plant that doesn't bloom, put it on a diet!

Ann:
Maybe the heat is the problem, Greg. I didn't think of that. Tend to think of all vandas as being sun (and therefore heat) hogs. I'll move it to the east side where it'll get its sun in the morning, and be shaded from the heat. Thanks.

John:
All we can do it try it. The lack of humidity here is something that has prevented me trying something like this before now. If we water very frequently the humidity may be OK.

Ed:
Greg - you have the original field grown Vanda in Miss Joaquim. You see them in beds everywhere with tons of flowers. They're cut and shipped daily, the plants never out of bloom.

KB Barrett:
Wow, yes, there's a great difference between Ca. and Tx. Here humidity runs 35-40% and usually 10-15% in the summer (April thru Dec.)

Greg:
No lath...Before the misters on timers we would hand water vandas first then everything else then go back and do the vandas again. Let me say that we ALWAYS have vandaceous in bloom. If it weren't for the Ascda's we would have lean blooming periods.

Marylois:
...and dendrobiums! Always some dendrobe in bloom!

Ann:
Asco. Yip Sum Wah x V. coerulea is a dependable bloomer for me. Pretty, too.

Ed:
Get a box fan, mount a Monarch M-1 nozzle on the front (we wrote up how one time in the Bulletin) and turn it all on. It is NOT against the law to run a fan outside! You'll get a lot of humidity without drowning your plants.

Greg:
Ed, we have a judge/grower here in Jupiter; Richard Kosel who has some wonderful select teretes...large flowers, nicer colors.

KB Barrett:
And when you feed you don't feed wet roots, right? Cause the roots have already taken up all they're gonna by the time they're wet? (I read that in Fuchs material.)

John:
Just looked up V. parviflora. It is from the "tropical Himalaya" also Burma "and other parts of the eastern peninsula". Also Ceylon (Sri Lanka).

Ed:
I'm your man, Greg. I love teretes. Wish someone with real good breeding stock would do some serious work with them. The simple hybrids we see are great. Surely there is a wonderful complex hybrid hiding in there someplace.

Ann:
Thanks, John. "Tropical Himalaya" sounds like an oxymoron. What does that mean in terms of culture?

KB Barrett:
At the risk of looking dumb (I'm not proud) whats a Monarch M-1 nozzle? Can I get it at the local garden supply store? Will the man behind the counter not look at me as if I'm a foolish woman for asking for one?

John:
I have no idea. I just wrote what I read. It may mean the lower areas on the southern and eastern slope of the mouintain range.

Harold:
I sure hope we can continue this Vanda conversation Saturday. My alarm is set for 4:00A. I just must go try to get some beauty sleep. Enjoyed it. Later.

Marylois:
"intergate" - John, when did you get a new server???

Ed:
KB - a Monarch M-1 is a standard nursery-type misting nozzle that delivers 0.63 gallons per hour at something like 40 PSI. A very dry mist at ambient water pressure and low unit cost for the nozzle. Home Depot may not have it, but I should think most greenhouse suppliers would. Comes in brass or plastic. We use the plastic, but they have a very long strainer section on the back and may not fit all applications. The brass M-1 is short - a conventional length of most applications.

KB Barrett:
Sounds like John's swiping time from the school district! Your secret's safe with me!

Greg:
Ann, I just looked in Wildcatt...you would think Ascda Yip Sum Wah x V. coerulea would be named but guess what ????? It's still unregistered. [All: Ascda. Yip Sum Wah is the most awarded hybrid with 100 AOS Quality Awards..mlg]