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-   -   A new saga...Laelia vasconcelosiana (https://www.orchidboard.com/community/cattleya-alliance/103690-saga-laelia-vasconcelosiana.html)

rbarata 06-05-2020 05:27 PM

A new saga...Laelia vasconcelosiana
 
This is my new saga...the main character is called “Laelia vasconcelosiana” (or Hoffmannseggella vasconcelosiana).

Bought this one late March 2019, one year ago. This was a new specie for me, one that i had never heard about. So I decided to buy it not knowing its cultural requirements.

The medium was not in good condition (at least it seemed old) but I decided not to repot it (I usually don’t repot after buying to avoid adding to the stress of repotting the stress of a new environment. So far it has worked for me, except for this one…

Some photos when I got it…

https://i.postimg.cc/NMWzjhmx/1.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/MKw9PmDX/2.jpg

Before placing it in its permanent location I tried to find online its cultural requirements (including in this forum and others) but, as I discovered later, this is a species not well known and more or less rare to find for sale and in colections…and the scares info I could find was contradictory. So, no luck.

So I turned to find some info about its habitat. My intuition told me that, coming from Minas Gerais (Brasil), it would probably follow the same requirements as most of the other rupiculous Laelias and this turned out to be a correct assumption.
As I suspected, in general it shares the same habitat as many of the Brazilian rupiculous. Considering this I put it right next to other two Laelias: a milleri and an anceps.

This was in late spring.

https://i.postimg.cc/5ty759m3/3.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/XNCPDJ61/3-5.jpg

Didn’t put it in full sun because its leaves show that it was not acclimatized to full sun.
Although the picture don’t show it, the place where I put it is really harsh, with temps in summer that rise up to 40ºC (105 F), humidity around 15% or lower, lots of dry winds and, adding to the sun, the balcony floor and walls reflect the light back again. So I used a piece of a semi-transparent curtain to break direct sunlight to around 80%.
Night time is the opposite, with temps dropping into 16ºC (60 F) and humidity rising to the 60%. Just like the habitat.

https://i.postimg.cc/wM8wdXYf/4.jpg

But, as I wanted to be sure about its requirements, I continued to look for info about it with no avail. So I began asking questions to Brazilian growers and vendors (really helpful people there, passionate orchid growers willing to help) and managed to get the contact of the guy who discovered this species, who is a great guy that helped me giving detailed info. I even sent him photos about my setup and asked him very detailed questions about the habitat, which he “approved”.

So I was confident that this plant would thrive, especially because I found out a new growth.

https://i.postimg.cc/JzPYBHj0/5.jpg

But as time goes by, I noticed it was not growing as expected…the little new growth didn’t grow anymore (but some roots grew from it) and leaves turned red. Contacted my new friend again, and as I was expecting, he told me it was normal due to high light levels.

Summer finished and the leaves continued to become red and then started get wrinkled and fall one by one.

Didn’t know what to do… (still don’t) Water more? Water less? The medium seemed to never get dry…changed location to reduce light levels, increased humidity, etc, etc.

That’s when I saw mold on top of the medium. Decided to repot it in inorganic medium.
I don’t have photos but the old medium (mostly really old bark and charcoal) was in a bad shape, completely degraded…and the plant…poor plant, almost with no living roots.

I repot it in a plastic pot (it would better if it was clay but there was none), with LECA (should have used bigger LECA but there was none also) mixed with sphagnum (should have used less sphagnum but there was plenty ).

This was one month ago.

I have been watering it very carefully, without any excess, giving priority to misting the medium (every 4 days or so under my conditions). The smaller LECA retains more water than I would prefer but, as I said before, there was none bigger.

Now I’ve put it in a north window with indirect really bright light so that conditions are not so harsh. And the reason why I decided to write this long post is this: a new growth!:)

https://i.postimg.cc/hGYC2Fyq/6.jpg

By other hand, some time after I get it, the leaf drop started and has continued until today so I’m not sure if this is some disease (I’ve reading something similar about virused Cattleyas doing this) or if it is just lack of water (looking at the first photos, the symptoms were there already).
Hence the saga…

If you are reading this, it means you are a patient and interested person, which is great.:)
But remember, the time you took to read this is much less than what I needed to write it.:biggrin:

New posts in case any significant development occurs.

Here’s a photo of my goal: a Laelia vasconcelosiana flower. Wish me (and my plant) luck!!!

https://i.postimg.cc/Fz3nfPxX/7.jpg

SouthPark 06-05-2020 06:15 PM

3 Attachment(s)
rbarata ----- nice orchid!!!!!

I only have one Laelia right now - an anceps. I had read that anceps at least handles bright light - even direct sunlight but not the most intense light at the middle of the day. So that's what I had been giving the anceps.

I reckon your vasconcelosiana will handle the same conditions.

The only thing is maybe in the watering. I circled in red a spot in your photo that appears to be quite wet ----- maybe. If it is, then maybe that could be linked to a few things - not sure!

I attached a couple of pics of my anceps, which can get quite bright light --- very bright up to late morning even - hence some yellow bits seen on the leaves, and even a slightly yellow spot, which has been there for ages. The orchid is doing very well in full scoria. I water mainly around the sides of the pot, and spray a little bit of water toward the centre only. My approach for the anceps is to just give it as much light as possible, and not keep the roots too overly moist for relatively long durations of time.

Is your vasconcelosiana growing in the same medium as your anceps and other Laelia?

camille1585 06-06-2020 08:52 AM

What a story! It sounds like this orchid has had a massive learning curve with it, and I hope that after that repot, you are now on the right track.

Out of curiousity, is Mauro your brasilian contact who helped you? He used to be very active here on Orchidboard, many years ago (Rosim_in_BR), always sharing tons of gorgeous photos and his entensive knowledge. I miss having him around.

rbarata 06-06-2020 09:17 AM

Thanks for the reply, SP.
Here two photos, one of my anceps and another of my milleri. Both are now acclimatized to be under full sun most of the day, midday included.

https://i.postimg.cc/13vcjZJ3/20200606-130706.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/QMVkLnyk/20200606-130633.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/qvJxw7cF/20200606-130720.jpg

While the anceps in is bark with LECA, the milleri is in smaller LECA with 20% of sphagnum, with a layer of sphagum at the bottom followed by another layer of only LECA for good drainage.

The vasconcelosiana has the same medium and the same layers as the milleri. The only difference is the % of sphagnum (maybe 40 to 50%) and a thicker layer of sphagnum at the bottom (also followed by small stones). Another huge difference from the milleri is the pot: the milleri is in clay while the vasconcelosiana is in plastic (the only one available at the time).

But we can't compare the anceps with milleri and vasconcelosiana. Anceps is mainly epiphyte while milleri and vasco. are rupiculous. So, the medium should be, ideally, different.

Even the habitats are different. While anceps takes the water mainly from the rains if the warm season, rupiculous take it from night dew that accumulates over the ground and stones.

Following this, I water the anceps normally (with a water can) and I tend to water the milleri with a mister so that water infiltrates into the medium. I also tend to water by late afternoon or evening (I avoid doing that with anceps, especially in winter, because temps get too low ny night time and in the habitat, the cool season is the dry one. Milleri can handle lower temps than anceps).

So, I'm now only misting the vasconcelosiana, and considering the % of sphagnum in the medium and the plastic pot, probably I'll keep doing that from now on...if it survives.:hmm

---------- Post added at 02:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:13 PM ----------

Quote:

Originally Posted by camille1585 (Post 923611)
Out of curiousity, is Mauro your brasilian contact who helped you? He used to be very active here on Orchidboard, many years ago (Rosim_in_BR), always sharing tons of gorgeous photos and his entensive knowledge. I miss having him around.

Din't know Mauro was one of the OB members...That's good to know.
Anyway, he's one of the few really experts in Brazilian orchids but he wasn't my contact. My contact is Reginaldo Vasconcelos, an orchid passionate that, from what I understood, takes some of his time traveling around looking for orchids.

camille1585 06-06-2020 09:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rbarata (Post 923614)
Din't know Mauro was one of the OB members...That's good to know.
Anyway, he's one of the few really experts in Brazilian orchids but he wasn't my contact. My contact is Reginaldo Vasconcelos, an orchid passionate that, from what I understood, takes some of his time traveling around looking for orchids.

It was a very long time ago, and his profile confirms this (2007-2012). Have you chatted with Mauro about your plant?

rbarata 06-06-2020 09:26 AM

Quote:

Have you chatted with Mauro about your plant?
No, I haven't. Only with Reginaldo and a Brazilian vendor (Colibri orchids) that had a project of reproducing artificially vasconcelosianas to put them on the market with the aim of avoiding collecting wild specimens.

SouthPark 06-06-2020 04:15 PM

rbarata ----- thanks so much for sharing those details about the way you are growing those orchids.

Your anceps and milleri are doing great - or excellently.

The news about yet another new shoot developing for the vasconcelosianas is definitely good news!

For the vasconcelosianas, if the roots (any hidden ones ... eg. in the region of wet moss) remain nice and healthy, then that will be a nice situation.

Hopefully that pesky leaf-drop situation stops.

I was searching the name of this orchid, to see if its name pops up on Australian sites ....... but zero hits!!!!! I wonder if some growers here have it, but keeping it under the radar. Or maybe even possible that this nice kind of orchid hasn't yet made it out to Australia!

rbarata 06-06-2020 05:33 PM

My anceps, altough not completely visible in the photos, have now 6 new growths but I still can't see any spikes.

About the milleri, I'm eagerly waiting for a new growth as it is time for it to show. It never bloomed under my care but this winter I gave it a full sun treatment. The key for them to bloom is lots of sun in the winter (in the habitat, summer days are mostly cloudy).

Quote:

I was searching the name of this orchid, to see if its name pops up on Australian sites ....... but zero hits!!!!! I wonder if some growers here have it, but keeping it under the radar. Or maybe even possible that this nice kind of orchid hasn't yet made it out to Australia!
Thank you for your effort...in fact it's not very easy to find it for sale. You'll find it in Brazilian vendors, also in some Dutch and occasionally here.

SouthPark 06-06-2020 06:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rbarata (Post 923683)
Thank you for your effort...in fact it's not very easy to find it for sale. You'll find it in Brazilian vendors, also in some Dutch and occasionally here.

Most welcome rbarata! Thanks for the heads-up about this particular sort of orchid being hard to find! That definitely saves me time trying to search for it around here hahaha. As I was having thoughts about looking for this type to try out here ------ the orange colour and shape of the flower are very nice indeed (and the stripe patterns)!!!

rbarata 07-28-2020 05:23 PM

It seems my strategy is working...the only remaning leaf is holding and there's a new growth with a strange and unexpected structure growing as well as new roots. It's not a sheath but it seems to be a 2nd leaf (this plant is unifoliate).

Some photos...

https://i.postimg.cc/5X2N1qX5/20200728-194109.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/dDG090MC/20200728-194127.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/GHQhZSmh/20200728-202718.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/Hr6n7vqP/20200724-194331.jpg

https://i.postimg.cc/svygHRyN/20200724-225423.jpg


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