Quote:
Originally Posted by Andrew
King_of_orchid_growing,
Sorry to go off tangent but a while ago you put an order together from Nesbitts. I'm curious what you ordered and what you had success with. Truth be told, I'm just being nosy as I like to know what survives best in different climates. However, people might find your experience useful for knowing what types of species they're likely to have success with.
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My particular order from Nesbitt's consisted of:
Caladenia latifolia (if I remember correctly)
Diuris behrii
Leptoceras menziesii
Thelymitra aff. frenchii
The first ones to go were the
Caladenia latifolia and the
Leptoceras menziesii. These lasted no more than a couple weeks to 1 month - something along this timeframe. Basically, they croaked real fast. The Caladenia went before the Leptoceras did, but the time difference was not drastically far apart from each other. From what I gather, some insect went at them, and destroyed them beyond hope of recovery - (might've been fungus gnat larvae, idk). Both of these have really small tuberoids that were no larger than about 1/4" in diameter, probably a little smaller, and resembled tiny little onions.
The next ones to go were
Thelymitra aff. frenchii. These started growing leaves, and for some reason, the leaves fell off when they reached only about 1/2" tall, and the tuberoid rotted away. I'm not too sure why. Maybe they needed to be grown brighter than I was growing them? Who knows. These lasted about 6 months. The tuberoids were about 1/2" long and were shaped like a tiny potato.
The absolute last ones to go were the
Diuris behrii. These not only grew leaves, (if you're wondering how tall the leaves eventually got - it was about 1.5" tall), but they produced new tuberoids. The new tuberoids were smaller than the older ones, (only about 25% smaller than the original tuberoid), but they were produced nonetheless. These just passed away about a couple months ago - some time in February if my memory serves me right. So the
Diuris behrii was the one that was far easier to grow and the one that was the most promising to try again. These timed out to be close to the 1 year mark. Each tuberoid was huge! They were about 1" - 1.25" long and resembled mini skinless potatoes.
I tried growing them in what I thought was the correct soil mixture, (which it turns out wasn't quite right). I grew them in a combination of granitic rocks, horticultural sand, and red clay. However, I believe that the clay that most people are referring to with Thelys and Diuris is actually not clay (as in the red clay I was using) - they are the clay minerals that were present in decomposed granite. It made sense. The soil type I started seeing in these photos of Thelys, Diuris, and Caladenia in-situ always had crushed granite (the little granitic rocks) - so along with this kind of rock weathering, it would make sense that there would also be decomposed granite along with those granitic rocks. I thought about the rocks present in Australia, and they were mostly granitic. I thought about how
Dendrobium kingianum can be found growing on granitic rocks. I would eventually like to try them again at a later date. This time, I would like to try using decomposed granite in the place of the red clay from the state of Kentucky. Perhaps there would be far better results.
With regards to
Diuris behrii specifically, I think they needed to be grown in a soil that has far less granitic rocks in it. I think the rocks kinda hindered the growth potential of the tuberoids a bit.
I grew all these outdoors, btw.
Now, for the previous Dr. Beyrle order...
I got:
Brownleea coerulea
Disa chrysostachya
Disa sagittalis
Thelymitra megacalyptra
The only one to still be alive from this order is
Disa sagittalis. This one wanted to bloom, but for some reason, the flower spike never grew out - (might've been because of the need to adjust to living here). This species of Disa is winter growing, summer dormant.
The first to go was probably
Disa chrysostachya, this was purchased during a bad time, I think. I got this species during the fall/winter, when I should've probably tried getting them during the summer. It also had what I considered rather small tuberoids. These tuberoids were also not what a lot of people are used to seeing. They were not elongated like potatoes or sausages in shape, but rather they had the shape of Gladiolus bulbs - round, short and squat.
Disa chrysostachya is a summer growing, winter dormant Disa species.
Thelymitra megacalyptra did the same damn thing that
Thelymitra aff. frenchii did. It grew a leaf, and then it died.
Brownleea coerulea was another one of those out of season purchases. In retrospect, I should've probably gotten this one during the summer rather than fall/winter. Like
Disa chrysostachya, these are summer growing, winter dormant. This one lasted halfway through the winter dormancy, and then they probably got too dry or too wet and died. This one I grew in a small grade wood chip. These have tiny little white paired spherical tuberoids.
Kip has an Anacamptis, he was able to grow Anacamptis without a problem where he's at. I was counting on getting seedlings of
Anacamptis morio from a lab that sowed the seeds I got from Terrorchid.org, but before the plants were ready, the owner of the lab passed away. I never got the seedlings and I can't contact anybody to get a hold of them.
This is why I recommended what I recommended. I didn't recommend plants I thought most people would not be able to get to the 1 year mark or get to see bloom.
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