Catasetum Brazil-Import

[Lupus]

Hi,

today I received a bunch of Catasetum, Clowesia, Cycnoches, Mormodes, Cyrtopodium etc. (all species, no hybrids) from Brazil. I ordered quite a while ago, but due to Covid-19 the shipment was delayed a couple of month.
Since it is winter in Brazil and all the southern hemisphere now, all plants are dormant. But here is the middle of summer (at least it should be - nights are still very cold and down to 4°C (high 30's F), but daytime temps go occasionally up over 36°C (allmost 100°F).

So here is my question: what should I do with the plants? Try to wake them up (I got a hot and humid greenhouse) and then cultivate them through autumn and winter unter LED-lights (they are very powerful, I managed to bloom Catasetum under LED), then give them a short rest and start them up in spring? Which is my preferred option. Or leave them dormant until next spring? Or is there another option?

Thanks,
Julian

[isurus79]

I would put them in warm greenhouse and keep them dry. Hopefully they pop up new growths quickly.

[Keysguy]

I agree. Putting them in the warm greenhouse should wake them up.

BTW- welcome! I spent a few days in Vienna last summer. I had never been there before and it's a beautiful city.

[Lupus]

Thanks for the replies! I'll try the best.

isurus 79, I watched your video on the PET-Method and potted allmost all my Catasetum that way this spring and they seem to like it a lot. I tried this method also with Cyrtopodium andersonii and another Cyrtopodium which I can't recall the name at the moment, and interestingly they are literally exploding and got their roots right down into the water reservoir. Only one Catasetum spec. Peru put its roots up into the air and then a slug ate the tips It doesn't look good, not sure what to do with this guy, there are no roots going down into the Sphagnum.

@Keysguy: yes its a nice city. I got a house with garden in the upper hills a little outside of the city, where the weather is quite harsh. There is a large temperature difference compared to the city and specially the low temps are much more extreme. Great for cool growing species in summer, but winter temps occasionally go down to allmost -40°C (-40°F). I just spend the summer there and in winter I live with my girlfriend in her flat in the city because the house is not insulated. As my orchid collection expanded vastly last year and I just didn't have the room for all the plants in the greenhouse, I insulated one room of the house, wich I use as a warm/hot grow room with LED in winter and the orchids loved it. I'm now renovating and insulating the whole house and buidling a big sunroom for the plants (I only got a small greenhose - which is cramped - at the moment) to be able to spend the whole year there. But a little bit more of a warmer climate would be nice Its basically only the three month of june, july and august that are for sure frostfree.

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by Lupus

Thanks for the replies! I'll try the best.

isurus 79, I watched your video on the PET-Method and potted allmost all my Catasetum that way this spring and they seem to like it a lot. I tried this method also with Cyrtopodium andersonii and another Cyrtopodium which I can't recall the name at the moment, and interestingly they are literally exploding and got their roots right down into the water reservoir. Only one Catasetum spec. Peru put its roots up into the air and then a slug ate the tips It doesn't look good, not sure what to do with this guy, there are no roots going down into the Sphagnum.

Very interesting! I've wondered how other genera would do with PET! I'd love to see photos!

[Lupus]

I potted up all 40 or so plants and was very happy to see that except for one, all had tiny little nubs of new growth already. Also the Pseudolaelia dutrae, the rupicolous laelias, and a couple of Cattleya nobilior. Most of them have 2, some even 3 new growth coming up. I put them in the hot and humid greenhouse (except for the rupicolous laelias) and will wait a while to get the new growth to size and then move them under LED in fall when the light will fade. Only the sobralias look quite messed up, they didn't take the journey well. Gongora rufescens and Stanhopea lietzei var. aurea where pretty desiccated but recovered quite fast.

isurus 79: I will post pics of the 2 cyrtopodiums in PET later on today. But don't expect too much. The plants are still small. I potted them up in the PET method pretty much exactly 2 month ago and at that time they where still dormant, had no roots and no sign of new growth. I had them under LED with a 16h day/8h night cycle for the first month, then moved them to the greenhose and put them outside when the temperature was suitable to get them used to the full sun. So for that short time the growth is to me pretty exceptional. On the other hand I don't have much experience with Cyrtopodium yet, so its hard to tell for me how they would have grown if potted conventionally. I only have C. palmifrons since last year, which is pottet conventionally in a clay pot and doing quite ok, but nothing compared to the ones in PET. It seems that it dries out too fast. By the way, the other species I couldn't recall before is C. polyphyllum.

[DirtyCoconuts]

Very cool experiment. Looking forward to the pics too.

[Lupus]

Never posted pics on this forum... hope it works out...

[Lupus]

In the first picture its C. andersonii on the left and C. polyphyllum on the right. Overall size with the bottle is a little over 80cm (~32 inch) just the growth with leaves is a little over 60cm (~24 inch). Pretty amazing for 2 month from nothing to this. Allthough I noticed a little slowing of the growth after removing from under LED lights. Its not really visible on the foto, but some roots are down in the reservoir. The second picture is C. palmifrons. A little over 65cm (~26 inch) over all and 55cm (~22 inch) from the top of the pot. I have that plant since around a year, but kind of forgot a little about it in winter and it had a hard time...

---------- Post added at 08:42 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:27 AM ----------

In the cut bottles is just large pumice at the bottom in the water as an inert medium, then pinebark mixed with Osmocote slow release fertilizer (17-9-11) and on top Sphagnum mixed with SRF. Plus, like all my orchids (with few exeptions like Dracula, Lepanthes, New Guinea dendrobiums etc. which get less fertilizer) they get watered with RO-water with Akerne rain mix (which is the european counterpart to MSU fertilizer) in the recomended strenght.

[isurus79]

Wow, they look great! Excellent growth too!