New Gongora chocoensis

[isurus79]

A 4" basket would probably be fine. Just be sure to wait until there is new grow popping up. I would say your plant looks pretty good! I cant wait to see pics of the flowers.

[ottercottage]

Hi, I have a Gongora CH. too and it grows like crazy. Mine is in a 4" slotted basket. To me, it smells spicy, not like chocolate, but very fragrant. I keep a little sphagnum moss aroung the top. I call it my dragon orchid because the flowers look like flying dragons. Enjoy - they are not that fussy to grow.

[Randy]

Hi Misty,

It certainly will need to be repotted with the roots growing out of the pot as they are. It looks as if the media that the plant is in may be starting to sour. That may be another reason why the roots are looking for air.

I also think that it may grow rather quickly once repotted so I think you may want to go to a 5" or 6" basket. Personally, for Gongoras I like the deeper, plastic net baskets rather than the shallower wood ones because it gives the roots more room to grow and it lets you give them more water. I have a couple that are being baby sat until my greenhouse is complete, which I pray will be soon, and they have been getting way too dry so the leaves look crappy. That will be taken care of when I get them back under my care. They are just too large to fit on the small table I have set up with the Cymbidiums and other orchids I have on that table and surrounding window sills. It's getting very difficult to keep everything right watered now. So I keep the items that can get dryer near the windows and what needs more water closer to where I can easily get to it.

Randy

[Stasisgate]

[quote=Taceas;100035]As was mentioned by someone else, the mass of roots really dry what little substrate there is out in short order. So I've been watering it every other day with rain water, which it seems to enjoy.

I've got a 4" basket for it to be potted up into when it gets done flowering. Do you think that's sufficient, or should I go bigger?


To tell the truth when i first purchased my gongora it was that size and within a year it had 1/2 filled a 10 inch wire basket. It grew like crazy and all I used were a few pieces of coconut husks. This year i have to divide and transplant because the plant is so big that the bulbs are pressing into the wire and bellying over it.

I would recommend a larger basket for sure!

[Taceas]

Thanks for the potting suggestions; I pretty much agree with going bigger at this point.

Just to keep it up and out of the way while the bloom spike continues to grow and develop (and safe from further earthquakes), I've got its 2.5" pot just set in the 4" basket, and I can already see its not going to cut it when I repot it. It's already got roots growing out over the top of the basket now.

I'm getting really impatient for it to bloom, its been like this for about a week now and its driving me nuts.



By the way, do the sweet, sticky spots at the juncture of where the flower stem attaches to the spike serve any purpose to the plant? I was thinking maybe an ant would find it attractive and thus protect the flowers, but I'm really not sure.

[Stasisgate]

I want to believe that those sweet sticky spots encourage the ants to protect the plant but if there are scale insects or aphids they will mine the bugs. I noticed that bees are especially attracted to the sticky stuff and I'm sure it's some kind of mechanism to attract pollinators (apart from the fragrance which some bees use as pheromones for female bees).

I can understand your impatience, i feel the same way but with what I believe is a Coryanthes macrantha. it's the first time I've gotten it to flower after 3 years of care and the flower buds don't look like anything like coryanthes. Well i just have to wait maybe a few days, but i wish i could fast forward time just to see what it is and then rewind... lol.

[gands]

I would go ahead with the 4" basket you mention (no larger just yet). When it grows through and out of that, and it will........you can then simply put that into a larger basket and so on. We grow many different Gong. species, most all in baskets with sphag. The hanging (potted) ones are in a bark mix and watered every other day or so. I would not say they like to be root bound at all, on the contrary ours in baskets have all but overgrown the baskets to the point that all you see is roots hanging everywhere.

[Taceas]

Finally, it bloomed! Work with me here, the autofocus in my year old Nikon D80 is acting up, so I was working with manual which I am not good with at all. The only odor I can detect thus far is really faint, you come close to shoving it up your nostril before you can smell it, but it smells like vaguely flowery alfalfa rabbit food to me. lol

[isurus79]

Those are really cool! Another "must have" for me.

[Stasisgate]

That is gorgeous....I'm definitely getting one!