Dendrophylax fawcettii HELLPP! Roots...
 

Hi everyone,

No one gave me any info last time :( anyway...

A little over a month ago I purchased a Dendrophylax fawcettii-- SO COOL -- It was doing well: had many roots over 18" in length, and 4 new roots, all around under 6" with nice green tips around an inch long.

Recently, though, The tips have decreased in size, now only about half an inch long, and I feel the roots should not be stopping growth as they are less than half the size of the mature roots! Am I doing something wrong?

I keep it in a "green house" (shelving unit with plastic covering over it), and mist it about 3 or 4 times a week. It is in a corner with light from the west and south, not direct , though.

Should I give it some sort of fertilizer? Should I be putting it under the sink rather than just misting? Could it be that I need to water more consistently? Different lighting?

Btw, its in a 2" slated basket with a pinch of sphagnum.

THANK YOU!!
gdupont

Pictures will help us help you better.
I grow my fawcettii in moderate light but with warm temperatures on a south facing windowsill. This plant is endemic to the Caribbean. Since your plant is in a greenhouse environment you can mount and stretch it in cork. The way you describe it is: you are letting it hang like a Vanda root in the air. The root of your plant needs a bark to anchor itself. A healthy fawcettii must have tiny leaves that looks like flat fish scales. Water regularly during growing season in the summer and reduce watering during the winter. Plant prefers high humidity.
Spraying is not enough. I soak my plant once a day really wet and spray it in the late afternoon. I give it weekly weakly fertilizer with seaweed mix. They need to eat.
The way you are describing it; your plant must be shrinking from dehydration.

soooo, I have this same issue. I do the same thing you are doing. However, i guess I should of mentioned..... my fawcetti has 2 roots that are really happy and the others are doing what gdupont described.... My linden however, is not doing anything at all anymore!!!!! its just sitting there, its been about 3 months, no new growth no die back, no nothing!!!!!!!! its in a terrerium 84 F during day drop to about 70 at night high 80's humidity in the 90's half the time.

still nothing!!!!

the Chiloschista lunifera however keeps putting roots left and right even leaves that are pretty decent sized..


so I feed them every watering with about 1/6 of recommended fertilizer and super thrive.


all of these are with my Angreacoids, and they love it.


The lindenii is not doing anything, not dying, not growing just there!!!!!


so yeah . sorry about the long post.


oh moving air but the air is enclosed so its really high humidity.

No one gave you help, because very few people have ever grown leafless orchids.

Leafless orchids are tricky. They thrive in high humidity situations (>78%).

These kinds of plants receive seasonal rain water. The growing season coincides with the season they receive the most rain - spring/summer. During the fall/winter, they receive very little rain and can be watered as little as once every 2 weeks.

They should never be grown with any moss underneath the roots. I have killed many a Chiloschista that way, and Dendrophylax is no different.

Moderately bright indirect light.

Intermediate to warm temperatures (55 F - 95 F).

Moderate air circulation is good enough. It doesn't have to be superb. Remember what kinds of environments they come from. The air can sometimes stagnate.

yeah, not many of us here are growing leafless, but I'm happy i do, its rewarding to see them bloom.


LEAFLESS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :groupwave:

you are lucky to have your lindenii alive even if it is not doing anything....some growers here have their lindenii long gone and died on them....I think we are one of the few who manage to keep this plant alive even if it is not blooming....but someday I still believe I can bloom my plant, because there is one member who was successful in blooming one in captivity and posted the pictures.

Interesting thread, question king, does this watering apply also to my FUNALIS? I grow it outside in Florida, humidity is very good, and I mist it on the top couple times a day. But I did not know that I should do only this low watering in winter, so happy I saw this thread otherwise I would probably kill another one:-)))

Let me explain something in a bit more detail...

Yes, even the Dendrophylax funalis will receive most of its rain in the summer, and the winter will have a reduced watering.

When I say that most of the rain the plant receives will be in the summer, I do not necessarily mean water everyday. For your case, I would probably only advise you to water about 3 times a week, four times at the very most during the warmer months. If it is a very warm week, maybe water everyday. They don't need much because they don't really have leaves at all times. It's only the roots and the tiny bit of meristematic tissue in the center of where the roots radiate out from.

High humidity is far more important.

I'd rank what is important to the plant as so:

1st priority is providing the proper temperature range.

2nd priority is high humidity (>78%).

3rd priority is proper lighting.

4th priority is providing enough water for the respective season.

5th priority is air circulation. Remember, moderate air circulation is plenty enough. It doesn't have to be spectacular. If the air occasionally just sits still, it's ok.

Ok King
thank you so very much. So pretty much I am again killing my plant with way too much misting, good, and I did google and google and nowhere it says what you did. Appreciated.
Ok, I am living in Florida. Our humidity during summer is around 66-80 percent, sometimes even more. I can't get it better, but I think it should be fine. Regarding temperatures, well they are Miami ones, the plant is outside at the balcony 5th floor, it is not in the garden so the temperatures at the balcony are little bit cooler than outside around, but it still gets hot during summer, between 80-90 degrees is what I see nowadays on the thermometer. Light - it gets moderate light, close to phalaenopsis, probably little above. I do not know if it needs some filtered sun during the day? There is pretty good air circulation at the balcony. And one more question, after reading your post I did google also Chiloschista, totally new to me, and after reading requirements I would love one as well, I assume it should be exactly the same like Funalis care?

Yes, Chiloschista is the same.

King, only question I have is regarding the light, what is your suggestion for these plants, is it ok to have little bit more than my phals light? but not sun the whole day? or do they need at list little bit half shade and some filtered sun as well? thanks much

---------- Post added at 01:58 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:55 PM ----------

Actually If I may bother you little bit more, I do really value your opinions very much, I have tried to google and find out what are these light requirements, I do not mean foot candle measurements, I want to know what each means. In my research I thunk I found this:
SHADE/FULL SHADE - place where there is no sun at all the whole growing season
PARTIAL SHADE / HALF SHADE - shade combined with some sun
FILTERED SUN/LIGHT - longer period of sunlight, filtered with trees or shade cloth

Is this pretty much it? I wish someone here wrote exact specification of each category, and I do not mean foot candles, but actually outside locations for each one:-))))

Definitely a little more than Phal lighting. Do not go overboard with the lighting. By default, the lowest amount of light it should receive is the amount adequate enough for a Phal.

Like I said, moderately bright indirect light.

Some filtered morning sun. Some filtered late afternoon sun type lighting.

Lighting should not be on the extreme end of either spectrum. Meaning not too shady and not too bright. Just right - (like in Goldie Locks and the Three Bears). :)

Many thanks.

*shade or full shade means the plant does not get direct sunlight at all.

* partial shade means you have direct sunlight at some point in time of the day ( in my fire escape my plants get direct sun from sunrise up to 11am then the tall buildings shade the plants from the sun up til 4pm)

* filtered sun is when you hang the plant under a tree where the sun gets filtered by the leaves or if you put a plant by a window with transparent diaphanous thin curtains

Those terms don't resonate with me, therefore I don't use them.

I used to mess up a lot with the lighting because these terms didn't make any sense to me at all.

This is why I use lighting terms that mean something to me, and I do my best to convey it.

I feel that many people tend to understand moderate lighting means that it shouldn't be on either extremes. Not full sun or extremely bright and not full shade or very shady.

I also feel that many people tend to understand "indirect light" better than "partial shade" or "partial sun". Indirect means that it's not getting a direct source of lighting - not full sun. The light is more or less ambient.

"Filtered light" is more understandable to me. But in the beginning, I kept asking myself "Why use the word 'filtered'?" The context of the word "filtered" would be best understood in natural terms versus in terms of household furniture. Here's what I mean:

Think about how most small plants grow.

Many of them grow under the protection of larger plants - namely, trees.

These plants growing under the canopy of trees still receive light, because if they didn't, they wouldn't be alive for long. This light is getting through the spaces in between the leaves and branches of the trees above these small plants.

This is the context by which "filtered light" should be understood as. Try not to think of "filtered light" in terms of window blinds and window screens and such; it just doesn't make much sense to me.

Just reading through old threads, wondering how everyone's plants are doing. I have 5 Chilo's, 2 Taenio's, and a Solenangis. I'm looking to get a Dendrophylax and a Microcoelia, but I haven't been able to find Micro's, or Dendro's at an affordable price.

Sad to say I lost my big lindenii to the cold but I still have a good 20 left or so and and a bunch of protocormbs growing in my vivarium haha ... They Benn there for a looooong time and I lost my Choloschista lunifera as well to the cold.


However in good news I think my fawcettii .is in spike I believe unless. It's going to be a keiki like this species is know for lol


Also my other smaller lindenii are happy just in rest period the chiloschista segawai is happy too and so is my Microcoelia bulbocalcarata ... So I would say pretty well except for that really big loss off my 9 inch lindenii

You ever take cuttings from the Micro? I also wouldn't mind buying one on those Dendro's from you either haha.

lol I will keep you in mind, they are way too small to even make the trip i believe only about 2 inches accrosss is the biggest.. but when they grow I'll let you know


and the micro.. that one still growing too not much to it yet small seedling in winter rest not doing much growing lately, its been a couple of months since i've taken a look at it and it looks exactly the same lol...

all the leafless are just sleeping.... that's about all haha