Aerangis monantha culture
 

I picked up a flask of Aerangis monantha at the Seattle Orchid show. The seller said they were large enough to plant up, and suggested mounting them. That sounds good to me.

I can't find any culture information. Does anyone grow this? How do you grow it? Do you have any suggestions? This will be my first aerangis.

The moisture on the flask is on the outside - I just misted a nearby plant.

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Thank you,
Leslie

Someone else needs to advise here... my success rate with seedlings just out of flask is pretty poor.

I've just reloaded because the image wasn't showing. Hopefully this will look better.

I have deflasked these seedlings. It looks like I'll have about 8 babies, plus some tiny ones. The roots are very cool looking.

You might try putting a plastic bag over the compot or whatever you're putting these babies in. Remember, in the flask they had 100% humidity. So you will need to transition them gradually to their new environment.

I've mounted my Aerantis monantha
 

I deflasked my Aerantis monantha. After a few days, I mounted several of the babies.

I've been misting them with distilled water 3-4x a day, and it lives where the mist from the vaporizer blows onto the plant shelf. So far, they're remaining hydrated despite the rather low humidity (40-45%) in my house.

I like it's crumbly white roots.

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Leslie

This species is similar to punctata and can be grown as such. There is an excellent resource by Brenda from Botanica found here that can give you a start on the culture of these plants. I grow punctata on cork, minimal - no moss and watered daily in a 70% humidity tank. However, this could be different if you're growing in a home environment, and I have certainly seen people grow this plant in a mound of moss with success.

Desiccation will be the main battle you will need to win. I find with newly mounted angraecoids (and perhaps other genera as well) that wet-dry cycles are what stimulate root growth, whereas consistently moist ends up breeding stagnation, rot and fungus. I made a mistake several times deflasking thinking that my plants needed constant moisture and plopping them in moist sphagnum. In reality, what I've observed is that you need constant humidity rather than moisture. It is humidity that slows down desiccation while the plant adjusts and roots grow.

Make sure your humidifier isn't blowing directly onto the plants - any condensate that develops and sneaks it's way into the crown unseen could result in rot.

Good luck! This should be a magnificent species that in my opinion is better than punctata.

Thank you very much, Calvin! I read this when you posted it have been trying to follow your advice.

Because they're indoors and dry out so fast (3-4 hours), I have kept the sphagnum on the mounts. I've been misting them 2-3x a day to ward off dessication. I tried dropping to 1-2x a day but the leaves started to shrink. I gradually weaned them out of the enclosure to try to avoid fungal problems. I haven't seen any root growth yet, though. They've not grown, but not died -- no changes so far. I'm considering putting a few of them in a terrarium.

Leslie