Utricularia, section Orchidioides - info sharing & discussion

[RL7836]

Yesterday, I set up a bunch of small cups of Aquasoil for utrics, including U. nephrophylla, U. pubescens, U. warburgii, U. blanchetii & a small form of U. reniformis (so far). If U. geminiloba ever volunteers an aerial stolon or looks big enough to safely divide, I think I may need to try some of it also. Iirc, it shares it's lithophytic tendencies with U. nephrophylla - so maybe it would work....

[moof]

OK, an update on U.campbelliana. The flower stalk is much bigger now, but it seems the flower has taken out a lot from the plant. Most if it's leaves are dead, only one clump and a few small ones are left. I think it's normal though, such a small plant needs a lot of energy to form the flower whicg is quite large compared to the size of it's leaves.

[Av8tor1]

Well, I'm jumping on the tree fern bandwagon myself. I was not satisfied with the current growth of my U. campbelliana so I decided to drop back and punt.

Upon unpotting I was pleased to find nice subsurface growth. I found it interesting that the growth was limited to the top 1/8-1/4" of the substrate. I didn't notice any downward tendencies.

I had a 24" half section of tree fern trunk and an extremely slow growing sphagnum species (less then 1/2" per year) that seemed perfect for this application.





I'm letting the trunk hydrate a bit in a new sphagnum culture before placing it in it's new home, she was bone dry.

Wish me luck

[amphirion]

so apparently, quelchii was going through "me" withdrawls while i was away and desperately wanted me to come back home....so, guess what it did for me while I was away:



coming back from seeing campbelliana in the wild, i was surprised to find that it does not actually grow on porus media, like our tree fern, but on solid, SMOOTH tree trunks with the aid of epiphytic moss. a slight scratch on the moss indicates that campbelliana, as well as the moss is grown very VERY thinly across the tree trunk, just one plant layer thick...

that being said, if it aint broke, dont fix it.

[RL7836]

so apparently, quelchii was going through "me" withdrawls while i was away and desperately wanted me to come back home....so, guess what it did for me while I was away:

Very cool!! (now if mine would only do that!!) If the stalk aborts now that you're back, the plant might be trying to send you a different message ...

coming back from seeing campbelliana in the wild, i was surprised to find that it does not actually grow on porus media, like our tree fern, but on solid, SMOOTH tree trunks with the aid of epiphytic moss. a slight scratch on the moss indicates that campbelliana, as well as the moss is grown very VERY thinly across the tree trunk, just one plant layer thick...

Wow! Great info.... That sounds ideal for one of those water-filled clay containers that one of the orchid-folks told me about (Swords, RSS, both?). There is an orchid grower who uses sealed (on the bottom iirc) terracotta drainage tiles filled with water to grow epiphytic plants on the outside. The tiles sprout all kinds of small mosses. If I remember, I'll look around for the pics from that guy's site (unless someone beats me to it...).

Congrats on the U. quelchii stalk and looking forward to the tons of pics from your journey - as well as the stories ...

[RSS]

Here is one of them http://www.swampstick.com, I've been wanting to try humbo in one of those but have not gotten around to it. They use the old terra cotta water pipes overseas with great results.

[swords]

Cool I want one of these pipes too but this sites shopping cart doesn't work.


Here's the Swedish guy's huge orchid collection showing the terracotta pipes and slab mounts and also some Epiweb stuff as well as just tons of orchids:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lika_sweden/

Here's one from page 11:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/lika_sw...in/photostream

[moof]

Nothing new with the campbelliana stalk, the flower bud just got a bit larger - 4 months and still no flower! But I recently heard it takes even up to 6 months for the flower to develop, sounds crazy

Here's the terrarium, the campy sits on the xaxim slab:


U.quelchii developing flower, can't wait to see it!


Also some terrestrials will be flowering soon:


Peter