Bulbophyllum sikkimensis culture?

[Paul Mc]

I won this last night as a door prize raffle at my first orchid society meeting. However, I'm finding very little information online about this little one.

So far, I only have that it is not fragrant, blooms in the summer, likes a medium amount of light (so I'm assuming around 2000 footcandles), and that it grows from intermediate to warm (which I'm assuming means from 65 degrees F to 90 degrees F). If anyone has any other information (conflicting or otherwise), please share it with me as I want to keep this alive.

But hold on, there is more! This is a double whammy question thread, lol...

I have never had an orchid that was mounted before and am unsure not only how to care for this orchid, but also how to care for it in a mounted situation! It's kinda funny because I was wanting to learn about mounting next for my mini-terrarium project. Guess I'm going to be getting a crash course now, lol... I will not be putting this in my mini-terrarium setting as the light it gets is between 1500 and 500 footcandles throughout the day.

[Paul Mc]

Here's a picture of it.

[britbloke]

My Bulbophyllums are either on cork mounts with a small pad of spag or in a plastic "bulb-pan" (shallow pot) with lava rock and about 1" of spag over the lava-rock.
The mounts get watered daily and dry fairly quickly, the plastic pots watered about twice a week, they stay quite wet (for orchids) but not soaking wet all the time.
I find they can take a variety of light conditions, from Paph to (almost) Cattleya light. So your guess at 2000fc is pretty good.

[tropterrarium]

I grow Bulbophyllum/Cirrhopetalum sikkimense in a terrarium. It likes moderate light (1000-2000 fc), positively does not like deep shade. I keep it at around 70-80% humidity, and 60F winter night minimum and 85F Summer day maximum seem to work well. Flowers in late fall to winter with very nice umbrella inflorescence of around 12 flowers on one inflorescence. It took my plant about 3 years to produce its first flowers from a starter size. Flowers are rather short lived in the 1-2 week range, but gorgeous, so worth the wait.

Mine are in a medium bark/perlite mix, with new pseudobulbs and roots forming a tangled web. So slab growing sound ok. I would be careful with the moss on your mount, as it may retain too much moisture if you can keep it in a humid condition. If it is a bit on the dry side, the excess water should evaporate rather quickly.

Hope that gets you in the ballpark. Good luck!

[Paul Mc]

Thank you Tropterrarium and Britbloke. That information is very helpful indeed.

As this is my first mount, we will see how this goes. It's not like I paid a lot of money (i.e. free) for this one so I guess it's a good first mounting experience.

While I do have a terrarium I could put it in for the increase in humidity, I am focusing on 500 to 1500 footcandles only in it for light and attempting to maintain temperatures between 60 to 70 degrees. It will not be appropriate.

It tends to be dry here during the winter, but watch for the humidity bath from spring until fall. We'll see how it goes, lol...

So when watering a mount, do you submerge the mount or just water from the top? I'm concerned about getting water on the leaves and bulbs of the plant other than on the roots.

[britbloke]

I like mounts because they look so natural.

I water with a pressure tank spray and simply spray the roots with water, (it gives much more control to keep water off the leaves) rather than a hose, but of course is much slower.

I'm in S. Florida, so we have high summer temperatures and very high humidity. In winter the Bulbo's come inside if the temperature is likely to drop below 55 F.