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  • #401
I think this tub is a special case. Over the years I noticed that U. reniformis acted like U. longifolia in that, soon after potting, new rolons would pop out the bottom holes. U. longifolia loves living in the water saucer. With the similarities and the fact that U. reniformis has those large swollen pain-in-the-butt rolons - it made sense to try a tray/tub. The blooming all summer on the windowsill was a really pleasant unexpected gift.

In general, I dislike having pots sitting in water. It's conducive to anaerobic conditions (depending on media & environment) & I have a somewhat irrational distaste for that state. However, if a plant continually shows a desire for those conditions, it would be silly for me to ignore their wishes. Most of the original Orchidioides (not including Iperua) seem to detest a no-oxygen media. Success with U. campbelliana & jamesoniana sitting in water (as seen in Mach's post above & my treefern & hygrolon plaques) doesn't seem to be an exception since the open/airy plaques don't develop anaerobic conditions - probably similar to the sponges in your post.

In the future, I hope to have an environment with automatic misting/sprinkling so there would be no need to sit the epiphytes in water.
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**Edit** After I closed this post, I looked at my windowsill. In addition to the large reniformis which I will soon be adding, there is a small container of U. geminiloba that I added last January. Since I knew it wouldn't handle the super-low household humidity in the winter (at least w/o acclimation), I placed a small division in a takeout clamshell container. When summer rolled around, I opened the clamshell to keep from creating a solar oven. Although I can't say it has 'taken off' with growth, the division has increased steadily in size - it now has 1" leaves on 2.5" petioles. This is still much smaller than my basement plant but since the basement plant has never flowered for me - I needed to try something (hey it worked with reniformis...!).

my U. campbelliana was a times growing under water. Leafy stolons all submerged.
 
  • #402
Hi Utric enthusiasts:)
Here is my really small U. alpina x endresii.

Mines seems to hate a 1part lfs+1part fine Gubbler orchid mix, 100%lfs, or a mix of lfs and perlite.
It lost all of it's leaves for the few following days after I received it and only started regrowing new leaves and becoming happy again when I put it in a mix of 3 part silica sand+1 part fine Gubbler orchid mix, 1 part peat, and a little bit of lfs. . .
I find it weird for most part, especially that it chose the (imo) least airy mix.
I keep the mix moist and it is kept in a Fish tank converted terrarium.
 
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  • #403
JMN16150, I'm not sure that there is a direct relationship between the loss of leaves & the type of media. Utrics will often lose some leaves after repotting (& it may take a week or two for this to happen). Either way, it will be interesting to see how your new plant grows with this media - keep us updated.
 
  • #404
Here is an update on the Utricularia nephrophylla growing in the seed starting sponge completely soaked. I cut a PVC pipe that fits over the glass container to keep the light out of the bottom water to reduce algae growth. So far so good. The Utric is starting to grow between the sponge and the glass but not down below the sponge yet. Also, it decided to flower.


DSC_0984 by randallsimpson, on Flickr


Utricularia nephrophylla by randallsimpson, on Flickr


Utricularia nephrophylla by randallsimpson, on Flickr

I needed to pull out the quelchii to trim the live sphagnum moss, so here it is before I removed the overgrowth and redirected the runners into the cube. I'm starting to get worried if the leaves get much bigger I'll have to find another growing area...


DSC_0983 by randallsimpson, on Flickr
 
  • #405
U. nephrophylla definitely has one of my favorite flowers. The beautiful pure white with the strong protruding 'eyes' really works for me. I feel it's one of the vastly overlooked species of the section (& also why many of my hybridization attempts have been with it).

Questions / comments:
- in your 2nd pic, the upper left quadrant is filled with a type of moss. The rest of the pot has a low-growing plant. After looking at Fred's liverwort pics, I suspect that's what it is - just a different species from the one I've come to despise. Is my assumption / guess correct?
- I believe that there's a 99.8% chance that your U. quelchii pot is mislabeled.
 
  • #406
I also got something growing, after 2 years of growing (maybe because I did so many cuttings) my U. longifolia is flowering, they live below my trees:

Do they self pollinate? either automatically, or do you still need to pollinate the flower, or they even need different clones?

14373_742364272537655_9037940726290587454_n_zpsa6ab8449.jpg
 
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  • #407
Questions / comments:
- in your 2nd pic, the upper left quadrant is filled with a type of moss. The rest of the pot has a low-growing plant. After looking at Fred's liverwort pics, I suspect that's what it is - just a different species from the one I've come to despise. Is my assumption / guess correct?
- I believe that there's a 99.8% chance that your U. quelchii pot is mislabeled.

Yea there are mosses/liverworts/whatnot in there, I'd prefer not grow with it. The mosses are the ones that really bother me.
I'll have to wait on a flower for sure but I'll hold off on sending any out until I get a positive or negative ID from it. Maybe this Apr/May I'll let it camp in the backyard for a temp drop at night to try and get a flower out of it.
 
  • #408
Excellent growing! U. nephrophylla is notoriously hard to bloom, right? I love your innovative set ups, it is an inspiration for me and I am experimenting with different alternative Utricularia growing methods because of your success.
 
  • #409
Do they self pollinate? either automatically, or do you still need to pollinate the flower, or they even need different clones?
On the U. longifolia, mine were self-fertile but not self-pollinating. If you pollinate them be careful as the seeds can easily go beyond any intentions. I stopped growing mine 3-4 years ago. Just last month, I discovered a seedling with 0.5" leaf growing in a pot of U. reniformis. I also have a recurrent seedling popping up in my N. tenuis. When I see it, I dig it out & replace with new media. In six months it's back. Rinse, repeat, curse.

Technically, U. longifolia is not in section Orchidioides but in section Foliosa - although I don't understand the rationale. To the untrained eye, the flower is similar to a colored variant of U. alpina & the leaves are usually similar to many of the others in section Orchidioides & very unlike the others in the hodgepodge section Foliosa. Years ago, I tried to cross pollinate U. longifolia & U. praelonga (both in section Foliosa) & nothing took for either cross.

U. nephrophylla is notoriously hard to bloom, right?
Not typically, although different clones vary widely. Several years ago, I received 3 clones from different people. One of the clones flowered soon after receipt (& kept flowering). The other two either were very reluctant or didn't flower at all (so they went away) 8^)

U. nephrophylla flowers are small so they tend to be under-appreciated. If they were the size of U. alpina, I suspect everyone would want or have one ...
 
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  • #410
Interesting, I will keep in mind that and separate them from the others, even so, hope I get a lot of seeds.
Exactly that is what I beleive, I have no experience on making crosses, but I see longifolia does not make a growth as other terrestrials, it makes runners, as you say the flowers are similar to orchidiodes, and even the leaves. Also, they like much more to grow away from the water but still very moist. I have calycifida in the same tray I have several other longifolia, and they behave really differently.
 
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  • #411
Made a surprise discovery this morning which just made my day (I know - doesn't take much :-O ). I was taking a quick glance for new flowerstalks in one of my tanks when I noticed one - but rather than a new emerging one - it was long. In fact, when I opened the tank, it had gone up the side and across most of the middle. As luck would have it, it happened to find the exact center of the crosspiece in the middle of the 75 gal tank - so it stayed hidden from me (& thankfully, out of the lights). When I looked more closely, it wasn't a new stalk, the U. humboldtii stalk (on which I'd previously crushed the growth point), had resprouted. I've never seen this happen & I know it didn't even start growing for 2 -3 weeks after the incident. With this new stalk coming along, the following species have the potential to be flowering at the same time (& I'm still holding out some hope for a U. reniformis or alpina stalk to pop up):

- U. humboldtii
- U. quelchii
- U. nephrophylla
- U. nelumbifolia (two different clones)
- U. asplundii (two or three different clones)
- U. campbelliana
- U. alpina stalk is now emerging (edited to add)
Here's a pic of the stalk - I'm really glad I didn't just chop it off - LOL
 
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  • #412
This happened to one of my G. hispidula stalks... it aborted, I snipped off the end, and it resprouted a week later.
 
  • #413
Interesting, I know this happens among orchids in the oncidium genera where the flower stalks may branch very wide if the tip is damaged
 
  • #414

My U. alpina x endresii grew a tuber! Does this mean it enjos it's current growing conditions or it just wanted to form a tuber?
Please excuse the crappy quality, didn't feel like getting the better cameras out.
 
  • #415
I would say it is probably happy with its conditions.
 
  • #416
My U. alpina x endresii grew a tuber!
For the species that form tubers, I think it basically means the plant is alive. Often, the plants are producing tubers but below the media surface so they aren't normally visible. I haven't seen any tuber-forming species not produce tubers.

This is probably a good question for those TF members who have a Hort education.
 
  • #417
I made a setup for my Orchidioides Utricularia today using a plastic tub and long-fibered sphagnum moss. My plants were getting dry pretty quickly growing on windowsills, and this setup has worked really well for my terrestrial utrics (using peat), so I figured I would give it a try. Yeah, my Orchidioides were growing in lower humidity than my terrestrials. It is just Utricularia asplundii and reniformis in there. I figured this would also save water since the top of the net pot my asplundii was in was drying out overnight. I also added a dozen or so strands of live sphagnum. I wish I had enough to cover the top with it. The asplundii broke into several parts while I was separating it from its original media but the reniformis largely stayed together.

2rpec0y.jpg


I liked this picture of the stolons of the two species touching each other. I didn't plant them that way on purpose; it just happened.

34e2is1.jpg


Hopefully the plants will do better in the higher humidity and live sphagnum. I will post updates in this thread.
 
  • #418
I found this VCPS article detailing growing Utricularia nelumbifolia from seed as well as an elevation chart for Orchidioides Utricularia as well as a few other species. It is at the bottom of the page.
 
  • #419
I may confirm some of them, jamesoniana and asplundii, correct height
 
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