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Quote:

Originally Posted by kindrag23 (Post 684669)

... Now when you say evening dew I would take it that you mean misting heavily in winter?

No, not really misting. Well, I guess you could mist but I believe misting does very little for the plant as most evaporates long before the plant has a chance to absorb any of it. What I do is water it but I don't get it quite as drippy. My mount set up for this plant is plastic deer fencing that I have constructed into a tube-like form and I've stuffed it w/a mix of sheet moss (75%) and sphagnum moss (25%). The roots loves it and grow into the tube and wind all through the mosses. This mix hold moisture well but it's not necessarily soggy AND the plastic tube stuff allows for excellent air flow to the roots. So, when I water it during the more dormant period I don't soak the mosses as heavily and I water every other day (sometimes stretching it to a 3rd day) VS my active growth schedule of soaking the mosses until dripping and that's every day. I hope that makes sense.

Quote:

Originally Posted by kindrag23 (Post 684669)

Are these guys heavy feeders like ctsm. and gramms? During their grow cycle? I noticed it looks like they lose all of their leaves is tjat from their winter dormancy and can be expected?

I don't feed them as heavily as I do Ctsm but they do need good, steady fert. Of course, I "feed" all my orchids at a heavier/more frequent rate during the warmer/more active months. My Ctsm get the heavier liquid schedule but they also have the granular in the pots...I don't use the granular w/the Chysis but I doubt they would be hurt by it.

And, yes, they do lose their leaves but at a different rate than any Ctsm I have. Also, they don't necessarily lose all the leaves when dormant. Actually, you could say it's not really a dormant phase but rather just a drier phase. When the growth matures the plant requires less water but it's still alive and green. It will drop the leaves toward the base of the pbulbs just before it gets ready to produce new growths at the base..it holds the leaves at the ends of the growths. The newest growths will produce the flowers out of the newly opening growths and it will then bloom. When the plant is done blooming the older leaves on the ends of the older growths will drop. At this point the newest growths will take off and start growing very fast. [you can see in my pics it's blooming but it still has those end leaves. The flowers are coming out of newly emerging new growths.] BTW - the time between when those newest growth tips first emerge and the flowers are in bloom can be somewhat long. I think I first saw the green tips on bractescens in January and it wasn't in full bloom until May.

When the Chysis is ready to drop it's oldest leaves (after blooming) most go w/in a few days. No lie...the leaves will turn yellow virtually overnight and they drop fast. I've had them lose all leaves on a growth in a matter of a days and I've had them spread it out over a week or so but it happens faster than Ctsm. As a matter of fact, the one in the pic below started dropping the leaves on those oldest growth this past Mon or Tues and yesterday it was down to one lone older leaf and most dropped on Weds.

I haven't uploaded my pics to photobucket yet and given how awful the pics of this one came out I probably won't even bother uploading the chysis. Regardless, the pic will at least give you an idea of the size. This is a young plant...very young. When it gets some maturity on it it should have double to triple the flowers mine produced this spring.