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Year of the Orchidioides

Pyro

N=R* fs fp ne fl fi fc L
Moderator
The latest Orchidioides to bloom: U. praetermissa

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With my hand for scale

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And in profile

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I am so happy for you! I remember that we met some 5 years ago relative to these incredible plants. Back then you had diddleysquat, and now you are one of the top growers of these species in the world, with nearly every species in your stewardship. Your work and dedication with this section of Utricularia has increased the worldwide availability of these plants and I hope your generosity serves as an example to other growers of these plants which have been fairly controlled up to this point within narrow circles. Great work Pyro, and thanks for sharing the photo's!
 
my god ppl he has yah all fooled, its just a white sweet pea!!

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sorry didnt get home till 12:30 last night and still got up at 6 this morning for the 100 mile round trip to pick up the paper from the printer, im a lil loopy today

very cool Pyro, you trying for seed?
 
Amen to what Tamlin wrote!
 
wow... are those flowers real? I swear I see plastic
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.It's a really nice flower!!! It's better than any orchid, cause I think CP's are more fascinating. Are the "orchidioides" type bladderworts harder to grow?
 
[b said:
Quote[/b] ] Are the "orchidioides" type bladderworts harder to grow?

depends, yah cant grow them like terrestrials, i treat mine like neps or orchids. my asplundii and alpina are weeds that are attempting to leave their pots to grow in the damp LFS thats in the bottom of their tray. no standing water, atleast not for more than a day or so out of every 2 weeks which is about how often i give my neps their soaking. some ppl have actually had really good luck growing them in the LFS of their nep pots. most like temps similar to intermideate neps warm days, cool nights
 
with the *depends* i ment they do really well for some ppl and not so well with others. all are slow to REALLY slow growers and your main problem will probably be locating a division as do to their slow growth it takes quite awhile before you can divide your plants so there arent many around though thanks to individuals such as Pyro they are slowly getting more and more common. look for asplundii and alpina, they seem to be the easiest of the group to grow and the easiest to find
 
  • #10
Tamlin,

I don't know that I am a top grower I am just persistant. I won't consider myself top until I have all of them and with buntingiana not in circulation at all that couls be a while LOL. I do my best with them and it has taken time and effort to get where I have gotten. Some a beasts but all are very rewarding and I am just glad I can do my part.

Rattler,

Yes I am trying for seed. Swiped the last 3 nights and there is no polen left so fingers crossed. There is one more bloom too if I am unsuccessful but I really want to go for hybrid seed with that as my asplundii "Duida" will be open around the same time and that could make for an interesting cross. Right now all pure seed I make is spoken for by people experienced with this genera from seed and a TC guy I know.

Dewyleaves,

Rattler pretty much answered the question for you but FWIW I agree with all he said. It would definitly be easiest for you if you got alpina first. This plant is the most forgiving of all of them and will give you a chance to get your feet wet. After that you can look toward asplundii or the alpina x endresii hybrid. The next step up from there would be (in order of difficulty, based only on my experience) jamesoniana, praetermissa, endresii, unifolia, quelchii and lastly campbelliana. There are also a couple other hybrids out there, those can be expected to be as between their parents in terms of difficulty.
 
  • #11
[b said:
Quote[/b] (Pyro @ June 29 2006,1:27)]It would definitly be easiest for you if you got alpina first. This plant is the most forgiving of all of them and will give you a chance to get your feet wet.
LOL! Well, for some of us. Every seed, seedling, tuber, or adult plant is angry with me. They've all blacklisted and blackballed me. They Email each other and warn one another about me. It's a conspiracy, I say!
 
  • #12
lol Jim i know how yah feel, one of mine, asplundii i think, does not like its pot anymore, it liked it last year and did wonderful, with no change in conditions it has decided it much prefers the damp LFS of the bottom of the tray that i keep there to keep humidity up without keeping my neps standing in water and its doing great other than it refuses to produce tubers and i have bad luck getting these to establish without a tuber or two with the lollons and rollons. its a brat thats going to do its own thing whether i like it or not
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  • #13
Jim,

I have never known anyone who got it right on the first try with these guys. I offed 3 alpina before I got it right (and we won't talk about the reniformis, humboldtii and unifolia that I have offed as well). Like every plant there is a learning curve, the unfortunate part is that it is really steep with these guys. You either learn it fast or you lose the plant, there tends to be no middle ground which sucks and is realy good at breaking your spirit. Once you have it though it all just sort of clicks. You'll get it I am sure.

Rattler,

The more I grow these guys the more I am finding that what your asplundii is doing is more normal than not. I have recently switched my growing method. Now all my plants are pretty much in straight live sphag and I am seeing explosive growth.
 
  • #14
HUH?
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You aren't using the orchid bark nowdays? Mine are all in straight sphag, but they just aren't thriving. MAybe I should try U. asplundii more like U. nelumbifolia?

An abservation that may mean nothing....due to my illness I haven't been as meticulous as in the past with the changing of the water trays, and as a result I have a mass of white fiberous fungi threading all through the tank. Concurrent with this, I noticed many of the Utricularia literally growing towards this stuff, and once it reaches it, they explode into growth, even climbing the sides of oother pots where the white stuff is growing. It really is a remarkable observation, and it has to be the fungi that is attracting the rollons because different pots are reaching for it from different directions. U. nelumbifolia especially reacts well to its presence. I can't help speculating there is a mycorhizal relationship happening here. So, I am going to innoculate my U. quelchii with the stuff. It refuses to do anything except live. Might try it with the U. asplundii in wetter conditions than I have been keeping it. If it works, I'll market the stuff, muahahaha!!!

Let me know Pyro, I was about to go buy orchid bark and repot everything.
 
  • #15
Thanks for the help. I'll definetly look into U. alpina. I'll search around google to find care sheets.
 
  • #16
Tamlin,

While my plants are in straight sphag they are not nelumbi potted, it is a little more complex than that.

I noticed some time ago that almost all the Utrics (alpina is the one exception, it'll grow in everything I pot it in )from this section would only grow in the live sphag portion of my pots and never down into the bark mix so I decided to figure out a way to do away with the bark mix.

While visiting a friend of mine at his greenhouse I saw these new pots that he had, designed for obligate epiphyte orchids (the ones that are basically just roots and nothing else.) They a 3.5" on the side and probably about 2" deep. They are "coarse mesh" net pots I guess you could describe them. Basically they are like your typical waterlily net pots except instead of having the tiny holes they have really large holes. To get the idea picture the side of the pot with only 4 openings, 2 as the corners and 2 on the actual side.

Make sense??

Anyways. So I bummed a few off him and loose packed them with live sphag and threaded 2-3 strands out through the bottom. Then I "Slack pot" them into a standard 4" square pot and set the whole in a tray which has 0-2 inches of water in it. I top water about once a week. the water drains really quick from the net pot but a small amount is always wicked up from the tray so the media is never very wet. The sphag grows like a weed this way and the Utrics follow right along.

I am sure there are other ways to achieve the same conditions, this is just what works for me.

Your fungus observation is interesting but have you considered an alternative explaination? Just thinking that your description sounds very much like a slime mould and if that is what it is than the Utrics might be "following" the amaeboid forms as they congregate and eating them as they are encountered...
 
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