Psychopsis Mendenhall in S/H? Charcoal? fact or fiction?
 

Hi Everyone,

I just bought the loveliest Psychopsis Mendenhall x Papilio and it has a spike and bud. At the same time, I have switched many of my collection to S/H and the orchids and I are loving it --- my oncidium is particularly happy with the change.

Will the Psychopsis like S/H? I have read that they are prone to root rot so it would seem that S/H would be perfect for it. I have searched the forums but havent seen much except for a vague reference to charcoal in the S/H being helpful or critical. Any tips on keeping my new favorite happy and blooming? Oh, and I also read that Psychopsis hate to be repotted. Assuming it will like S/H, does anyone have tips on a successful transfer to S/H?

thanks!

Hi Slide

I just posted on this plant as you can see it put out a new bloom from an old spike and a new growth in 9 months after I transplanted it to S/H. I will try to photograph the roots when I have time.
Link to the post:

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ure-bloom.html

I do not know what your growing conditions are. I hope they are more favorable than mine. I live in the N.E.and my orchid bay is part of my living space, so for me Spring and Early Summer are optimal for temperature, light, and humidity to transplant most plants which is when I transplanted mine into S/H, early last June.

The other important factors concern the condition of the plant and a new growth, at about the time new roost are emerging ( I attempted to hasten this by cutting off the next 2 flowers, the THINK ROOT! command). Fortunetly, this time the new growth developed soon enough, and had a very good root system by the time the winter came with much lower humidity in my house. In 9 months the plant grew a normal-sized new growth with a beautiful root system The next transplanting could be at anytime of the year.

Maybe less important is that I soaked the plant in KLN solution for 2 hours while the old root-system was still intact, before I cut off all rotten roots, then used a disinfectant before I planted it.

Sun Rm.N.E. Thank you for the informative post.
I didn't realize you grow with S/H. I am in the process of moving my plants to S/H and have been wondering when the best time was to do it. I have 3 psychopsis, 1 mauture with 2 spikes, 2 near blooming size with new growth and roots.
Since I'm also in the N.E. I'll follow your lead (if the new roots will hold off that long).
Would love to see pics of your Sun Room. It looks fantastic!

Al

Hi Al

Thanks for the compliment. This is my 3rd orchid collection and this time my priority was to have blooming orchids in the Winter. The growing area is only a 15x3ft green house bay, part of my study with forced air heat, which I attached when I had the tacky second floor front knocked off a small townhouse I bought. This time I use no organic media and no forced humidification.

I once humidified a former house and my imported light fixtures all rusted up and, of course, I don't know what nasty stuff was growing inside the walls from all the condensation in Winter. I find that I end up with more plants, established in S/H or in water culture, than I will have room for once they mature. However, in the learning process I lost a lot of plants in the transfer to S/H and now I put weak plants or those with a lot rot, in water culture first and then transfer to S/H if they survive. The Psychopsis looked healthy enough to go straight into S/H. and was one of the fastest to establish.

Good luck with yours.

Hi Bird Song Farm,

I dont want to speak for Sun Rm, but everything I have read, been told, discussed and experienced in the transfer of my 15 orchids (so far) to S/H indicates that you should be guided first and foremost by new growth and new root production. I would love to hear what Sun Rm thinks, but it is my experience that you should not deliberately delay repotting your actively growing psychopsis for the change of season - if you see new growth, go for the repot.

Sun Rm, I am thrilled that you had such a successful repot of your beautiful Psychopsis! Are you saying that you didnt have new growth when you repotted, but went by season instead? How wonderful! Did you add anything like charcoal? Why have I been reading that I need charcoal for Psychopsis in S/H?

Sun Rm you are a font of practical information! I have 2 or 3 bulbophyllums in spag n bag that I am very worried for. From what you have said and what I have been reading, I wonder if I should start experimenting with water culture for them.

I realized that I neglected to fill you in on my growing conditions: I have an Orchid Haus of plexiglass that is 4'x4'x2' with flourescent lights and an ultrasonic fogger. I am in the NE as well with northwest exposure so the growing conditions have been challenging until now. But since I added the Haus three months ago my orchids have been growing like crazy.

Slide and Al

First, to clarify: Yes, I think it is important to transplant when there is new growth and I waited until my Psychopsis had new growth with root nubbins just perceptible. However, I do not know how much difference this makes if your new growth already has formed all the roots it is going have and they have already penetrated the media. It also depends on the plant (some plants continuously form new roots and branch freely). The way I think about is that there has to be a change in genetic expression as to what kind of roots are going to be formed once they hit the medium for those roots to be long-lasting. However, with a large, fast-growing plant there will be all kinds of new growth with new root formation soon enough to take over once the older roots start to malfunction.

Slide, for you, if and when you are rooting in a controlled environment like your orchidarium, the stage of growth is probably the most important varible since you can control the others.

As far as mixing the media (like adding charcoal) your are introducing unknown local changes in the wicking process that would require new experiment with large numbers of plants of similar type, under similar conditions, for a long time, to determine what the effect would be. I only paid attention to Ray's experiments when I saw evidence of a consistent method working over time to produce somewhat predictable results. I still had to experiment under my conditions for a long time to increase the predictability of the outcome. So changing one variable could have anywhere from large effects to imperceptible ones.

Slide

I have only tried Bulbo lepidum in water culture, right after blooming in the Spring. It grew new offsets and new roots very quickly. However, it ended up taking up more horizontal space then most of my larger cattleyas and I gave it away. My understanding is that there is enough variation in habitat that bulbos have adapted to, that I would be cautious to generalize from my experience with this one species.

I use water culture selectively and most of my plants eventually end up in S/H. I have grown orchids for 30+ years and have had more fun an success in the last five since I have started experimenting with these two methods of passive hyroponic culture.

These are the main advantages for water culture for me.

-Most plants that have infected roots and rhizome or infested with pests are easier to inspect and treat repeatedly. Most organisms causing the problems need wet and dry cycles to multiply so this greatly slows down if the affected parts are submerged in water. It is also less stress for the plant if l have to cut away rotting parts and treat repeatedly.(When I wake up in the morning I would rather see a half a dozen Ice cream glasses filled with plants in the place of one Shag & Bag contraption.:biggrin:)

-Most rootless dehydrated plants will soon rehydrate in water culture even without roots, and start growing if they have the potential to form water-tolerant roots. If not, you will know sooner. The older I get the less I want to see slow death, especially if I put a lot of effort in preparing a media that I will have to discard. In S/H, at least in my conditions, for many plants (not all) there is a longer period of intial adjustment and the plant requires a larger reserve of food and water to survive the stress.

I still have a lot to learn and am interested in your experiments. Keep us posted when you have the time.

Hi SunRm,

It sounds like you had great success with your lepidum in water and I would be very interested in your methodology. At last count I have 22 bulbos in my collection and several are in S/H. One or two, most notably my Bulb saurocephalum, clearly love the S/H so much that I wouldnt dream of taking them back to slat baskets. Others, though, I am not at all sure. In fact, I have a Bulb cornu-cervi that turned out to be two separate plants so I have one in S/H and one in sphag/net pot.

On the other hand, every non-bulbo orchid I have is thrilled at being in S/H. I completely understand how much fun you are having since I am now addicted to S/H as well. I cant wait to put my Psychopsis in it and see how it does!

First off thanks to both of you for all the information.
My psychopsis will go into S/H this week-end. (hopefully, I have to wait for the media, it's hard to get up here and had a greenhouse special order it for me.)
Now I'm wondering if my Bulbo. medusae should be next. It's kind of at a stand still and I really have a problem with watering a plant in bark. I mostly grow phals and have them all in moss or mounted with the exception of the few I've transferred to S/H and a selection of mini's in my terrarium.

Any thoughts about the Bulbo. medusae?

Al