Trichopilia: Pro Tips?
 

Hello friends and trusted advisors. I just picked up my first two trichopilia, fragrans and sauvis. Any tips would be greatly appreciated.

I have a few, and I do have suavis. As with most everything, I grow it in moss and clay. I never let it dry out. Never. It's at the front of a shelf with catt level light. Humidity runs 60% + or-. My foliage isn't perfect but, she blooms like a champ every spring. I notice I just burned a leaf which touched the light. Perfection eludes me.

It doesn't do well with heat.

I don't know what you consider heat, hot bring relative. And I don't know where CH lives. However, in the summer my sun room can get into the low 80s. I seem to remember CH is growing in a climate controlled basement?

You are right Dolly, I grow in my basement. This time of year the max temp is 81-82f, but in the summer its 85-86f. Humidity always > 80%.

My temperature can spike that high on a sunny day. But I have a ceiling fan that runs continuously, which may make a difference. I don't know how hot it would take if that heat was continuous.

Suavis is not as sensitive to warmth as fragrans. Fragrans will live in hotter conditions for a year or two and slowly die, refusing to bloom. The fragrans group are the coolest growing trichopilias and really don't appreciate anything ocver the lower to mid-70s, and need nights at least down into the lower 60's/50s to do well. Tortilis on the other hand if you decide to grow that, is warmer growing.