The Dracutorium

Hey! What's All This Then

Roots a touchy subject around these parts. Most of the time I bemoan the lack of happy roots but all of a sudden my Epc. Rene Marques and my Potarina are pushing out roots (and leaves) like there's no tomorrow. So the question is, is it time to repot these guy?

Orchid Pests

Mealy bugs, mites, thrips, scale, fungus gnats, all very nasty to be sure. The most dangerous however is the White Footed Hibiscus Weevil which has been know to consume an entire tropical hibiscus in a matter of hours, even cracking the stem for the precious fluids within. Not much information on the net but I've managed to get some data:

Just Not Fast Enough

Well, it's been months now and nobody's dead yet. In fact, the little buggers are putting out new leaves and lots of new roots. It's almost like they like it here. Sure, one of the minicatts in s/h has some roots that need trimming and a couple of the Dracula look a bit sad but not too bad.

A new flora cart is almost ready to hold a very bright Cattleya case and a comfy area for tall Phals.

The Dracutorium is being constructed with a built in evaporative cooler that takes fresh air in, humidifies it, circulates it around the case a bit, and then exhausts it out. The goal being a cool, humid area with brisk air movement and enough fresh air too keep fungal nasties at bay.

Alas, there's repotting to be done and that spells danger with a capital me.

Dracula Lives!

And what amazing flowers this thing produces. A little monkey faced flower in fact.

Terms Of Endearment

Well, it's been months now and none of the orchids have died. I expect to be posting pictures of Angel in bloom before long only months after having to cut all her roots off.

In other news, my Happy Tatar phal is still in bloom after 5 months.

Never felt better

Well, my Dracula lotax looks a little dreary. The fogger seems to be more vigorously misting for some reason so it's back to the old drawing board. Yes, I guess you can keep them too moist.

In better news, Pot. Hawaiian Charisma, Epc. Rene Marquee 'Tyler' and Bc. Hippodamia are making lots of new green roots. Even C. Lulu x Maui plum is grown new roots despite the fact that she has no exsisting roots or unshrivelled psuedobulbs. They seem really want to live, which is either a blessing or a curse around these parts, if you're an orchid that is.

For me, consolation comes from the fact that I don't own a reef tank. A blog called the dead coral society would be pretty sad indeed.

Tales From The Crypt

Dracula lotax!

Cute little bugger, innit?

Somehow, in the process of picking up a couple of Phals, I ended up with a Dracula lotax. I wasn't really looking for one but I've been thinking about the micro climates within my grow space. The area next to my ultrasonic fogger is a bit too cool and clammy for the rest of my plants.......so........since Dracula lotax is a cloud forest inhabitant I figured I could put the space to use. Currently, it's suspended in a fishbowl terrarium where a fan blows cool damp air (50% of a 14 photoperiod, half hour on/half hour off) on the outside of the glass and across the opening. The net result is temperatures in the high 60's, humidity is very high, and a gentle breeze rustles the leaves. Could be a perfect environment, could be doom.

On a happy note, the Catt. hybrids in hospice are still holding on. My three other Catts have green roots and new leaves forming. Might even survive long enough to make it to Catt. Orchidarium I hope to build in the near future.

Survivor - Orchtard Edition

And then there were three. Although the Epc. Rene Marque 'Tyler' looks surprisingly healthy. Aussie Gold, miracle dirt.

It very well may be; as always, my opinions on anything having to do with orchids are suspect. Not because I haven't studied up, quite the contrary. No, it's because circumstances keep conspiring to force me to do something. Sprinkle in a little bad judgement and voila. Consider the rule that Cattleya should be repotted only during periods of new growth; a rule I intended to hold dear. Alas the roots on two of my Cattleya hybrids were in such dire straights that they needed to be cut off. And the really bizarre thing is that some were rotted and others were dessicated, side by side in the same pot. The potting media seemed to be the culprit, aided and abetted by me since I failed to inspect it when they arrived. So I put them into hospice and repotted a Bc. Hippodamia that seemed to be headed in the same direction. Seemed like a damned either way kind of thing in any case. But then, my inner moron surfaced. The Epc. RMT was in a tiny little pot and looking not so bad; I repotted it as well. Why? Perhaps a little regression therepy might reveal a repressed memory on this but I think the aforementioned bad judgement is a pretty good explanation. Looks pretty good for now. Too bad Pot. Hawaiian Charisma's leaves are looking funny. Not wrinkles, just a little browning on the leaf tips; roots look OK and I water it correctly.... just another day on the ranch.

Death Comes A Creeping

I guess there's always room for one more...

Before setting up my little angel in hospice, I took a quick look at C. Lulu x Maui Plum. Lulu looked to be in a bit better shape but I popped it from the pot just for a look see. Oh lordy, lulu makes angel look like a healthy plant. After trimming all of the dead roots, what was left was a distressingly small number of healthy roots. Zero. One healthy aerial root but not a one in the pot. I gave it the spag and bag treatment and now it's in s/h with angel. I'm seeing a trend here.

Welcome To The Pool, Baby

Poor, sweet Lc. Haw Yaun Angel. You, a poor little seedling looking for a good home; me, a brown thumbed neophyte lummox.

This seedling arrived from Quater Acres in need of repotting but I didn't realize it at the time. You see, I assumed that since the nice folks at QA repotted the Pot. Hawaiian Charisma in the same shipment, that the others would have been repotted as well if required. The folks at QA must have assumed that they were dealing with somebody smart enough to realize that an $8.00 seedling is sold as is. I bet they also assumed that they weren't sending 5 innocent Catt. hybrids to their certain death. Anyhoo, once the prune like appearence became so obvious that even I noticed, it was time to call in the A team orchid rescue squad. Ah, no. Just kidding. It me, remember.

Fortunately, there are nice people who post useful things on the internet. Like this guy, who sold me a s/h kit and some chemicals. So, I took my little angel out of it's pot and it looked pretty bad. In fact, I figured that this would be my first orchid victim but nobody likes a quitter so I follwed Ray's advice. Here's what she looks like now


It's been bagged and sphaged, as the cool orchid kids say, and tomorrow it gets plopped into a s/h setup. Pretty sad eh? Four weeks to bring an orchid to death's door. I bet this is the saddest looking Catt. you've ever seen. I wish I could say the same.....