> Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 10:08:02 -0400 > From: "Redman, Julia C." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: [OGD] FW: Jewel orchids > > I've always done a rather half-way job of growing my assorted jewel orchids > (Macodes, Anoectochilus; but the Ludisia is indestructible). I especially > have trouble with the macodes, and I just purchased a new one that I'd like > to keep looking fancy. I keep these plants in my basement which is an > intermediate temperatures space (50-60 in winter, ~70 in summer) with decent > humidity. Some of the plants are in sphagnum and some are in peat products. > I generally water with the well water which is on the hard side. Should I > make an effort to water with deionized water or similar? Should these > species be kept constantly moist? I do let them dry out slightly. I was > thinking that combined with my lazy use of well water might be the reason my > macodes look so sad.
I love these, buy all I can find, and have killed my share, other than Ludisia, which I agree is indestructible. I've acquired several from Oak Hill and Hoosier, I've asked growers both places how they grow them, and I've seen the growing setup at Oak Hill, and I concluded some time back maybe I was killing them with kindness. I was using distilled or RO water, never tap, feeding very very weakly, etc. etc. (Except for the Ludisia, which wasn't even in the greenhouse - it sits in a pot on the front windowsill for 15+ years now, just repotted days ago, was watered with tap water, fed when and what the other plants there were, and has always looked great and flowered profusely every winter.) When I asked one of the Oak Hill folks how and what they fed jewel orchids, the answer was "well, I'd like to tell you we have a special regimen, but actually they get exactly what we feed everything else, because it's too much trouble to treat them specially". Their instruction tags just say "pot in sphagnum, shade", and that seems to be exactly what they do. It's a shade house, but not deep shade. When I explained my delicate growing procedure to one of the guys from Hoosier, he said "be careful with distilled or RO water in that kind of setup, you don't want to let your environment get very acidic with these things", and indeed in the terrarium the pH had gotten lower than I'd realized. A California grower, who had some of the most robust Anoectochilus I've ever seen, told me they only difference in the way they treated them was they'd been in a shadier area of the greenhouse. I now water about every 2nd or 3rd watering with tap water (which in my area has a pH of around 8-9), and feed more like I would a Phal, I've increased the light slightly for some of them, and they seem happier. For what it's worth ... Steve -- Steve Marak -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
