ORCHIDS

ORCHIDS

Although I grow a large range of Genera both Species and Hybrids , my favourites are the CATASETINAE family ( Catasetums, Clowesia, Cycnoches,Dressleria, Galeandra,Mormodes). I grow in very bright and hot conditions which gives very good results. I grow both Species and Hybrids in a number of other genera, these varieties are - Angraecum, Aerangis, Aeranthes, Ansellia, Ascocentrum, Bifrenaria,Brassavola, Brassia,. Cattleya, Coelogyne,Cyrtopodium,Asian Dendrobiums, Doritis, Encyclia, Epidendrum,Eria, Gomesa,Gongora,Laelia,Lycaste,Maxillaria,Miltonia, Miltonopsis, Oncidiums, Equitant oncidiums, Phalaenopsis, Stanhopea, Vanda, Zypopetalum.

I don't exhibit orchids ( I had 30 years exhibiting Cage Birds and that was enough for me) I only grow them for my own enjoyment now.I have 5 hothouses constructed with either fibreglass sheeting or Polycarbonate sheeting which is double lined with Plastic sheeting to retain temperature, two I heat during the winter and cool all 5 during the summer with air/water coolers.This enables me to provide the necessary conditions for all the different genera I grow.

Most growers here in W.A. use a bark or bark/Styrene mix for their plants, this is a very open mix and enables me to water regularly, which I do by an overhead retric system. I fertilise also through the retric system and have a tank ( 560litre) that I pre-mix the fertiliser; with a series of gate valves, I am able to serve each house separate if I need too. I use a high Nitrogen (N) during the growing season and a high (P-K) when they come into flower. The two main fertilisers I use are "Poly-Feed" ( made in Israel) high in (N) and "Phostrogen" high in (P-K) which includes calcium. I use both at the rate of 1/2gm per Litre.

Because we have temperatures in the high 30C(around 100F) during the Summer months I usually water and fertilise about every 2^nd day I find constant fertilising keeps the plants growing well. Winter here never really gets too low, sure we have an odd (0C)(30F) but mostly around (10C)(50F) and we also have a number of sunny days in between wet days, so we don't have winters like growers in other countries experience, I water about once a week.

Towards the end of Spring I place either 50% or 70% shadecloth over all 5 hothouses and take it off again at the start of Autumn (Fall). I have thermostats set up in each hothouse to control either air/water coolers or heaters, all houses have circulating fans running all year round to give plenty of air movement, important to help reduce fungus and pests.

CATASETINAE

Click on thumbnails to get full size picture

Catasetum	Clowesia	Cycnoches	Mormodes

These are my favourite genera, I think they present a great challenge to improve on colours, length of time the flowers are in bloom and shapes. They are - Catasetums ( this one can have 3 different types of flowers - male, female and hermaphrodite, either one type, two or three types on the same stem): Clowesia was originally wrongly named a Catasetum, until it was realised they were bi-sexual ( like any other variety of orchid) Cycnoches have like Catasetums separate male and female flowers, commonly called "Swan Orchids". Mormodes again the same as Clowesia bi-sexual, this variety is the hardest to grow and flower, susceptible to rot more than the other varieties. Dressleria this variety is not so well known and appears to need the opposite conditions to the others ( a cooler setup). Galeandra while not in the catasetinae family it is very close and is used in Hybrid breeding.

A lot of hybridising has been already done using most of the above members of this Genera, either within the same variety and also crossing one variety with another (i.e. Catasetum X Mormodes, etc) A lot of this has been done by Gene Monnier of JEM Orchids and Jumbo Orchids in Taiwan ( look up their site and photos in "links" ) Over the past two seasons I have pollinated and flasked a number of crosses of my own and look forward to seeing the results in the coming years. My first two seasons have been Ctsm X Ctsm crosses and this present season I have done a number of ctsm X Mormodes, Ctsm X Cycnoches, Cycnoches X Cycnoches and also Galeandra X Ctsm. Last year I also did a most unusual cross of Mormodes variabilus X Chysis Aurea while they are not in the same family, their growth and habits are similar, I have them at the replate stage and look forward to seeing the results later. While most of the crosses I have done over the years have been Hybrids, I also do species when possible.

UPGRADE 2001 - I registered my first cross in July 20001 and I named it "Red Dragon', the cross was Ctsm Dragons Teeth over Ctsm Susan Fuch's 'Burgandy Chips' or 'Vis Choice' ( a large Pileatum size and shape, deep blood red and if the cross is between Burgandy Chips it has a lot of bright yellow on the lip, if Vis Choice is used it shows a yellow brown throat.

Some growers here grow their Catasetums etc in heated houses during the winter and keep them growing continuously; I prefer to grow in a cold house for the winter to let my plants have their dormant period.

I always have a few plants that flower very late and also plants that have seed pods on them. If I left them in the normal Catasetum house, they would not hold their flowers or pods and rot off. I overcome this by taking the ones that are late flowers (generally Clowesias and some Mormodes) as well as any plants that have pods/capsules ( most pods take between 5 and 9 months) and place them in one of the other house that I heat ( around 16C/60F) which means they still get watered regularly. When they have finished flowering they can then be taken back to the cold house to drop their leaves and rest.

During the growing season they are in a very bright house facing Nth/East enabling them to have plenty of light ALL day, temperatures are kept down to around 35C(95F) with the help of the water/air cooler, I also have 50% shade cloth to stop any burning. I water and fertilise about every second day during this period I find this grows very large bulbs and consequently provides 1 or 2 racemes each time they flower.

Catasetums seem to grow Male flowers mostly ( some growers never see any females at all ) and of course without females you can never do any pollinating, I find in my house I seem to get about 1/4 females and 3/4 males, I have read a lot of theories on this; more light, lots of fertiliser given as the reason; I have come to the conclusion that it must be a mixture of Light,high (N) Fertiliser and watering as I seem to have the odd female in amongst many males so I havent found any real pattern to arrive at an answer to this question.

As I said before I prefer to not heat the house in the winter and when Autumn (Fall) arrives I start to reduce watering to enable the plants to go into their dormant period and I start off at once a week and then reduce to once a fortnight, I don't think leaving the plants completely dry like a lot of growers overseas appear to do is the answer, I think it has a lot to do with what you use for medium and I use 2 parts coarse bark to 1 part large styrene balls and I place a small amount of Coco Peat on top of the pot to retain a small amount of moisture, this allows the water to drain very quickly. Having them dormant is the ideal time to divide, I prefer at least 2 bulbs, I find this will usually guarantee flowers for the first season.

For those who wish to know more about these amazing orchids, then I suggest you read "The World of Catasetums" by Arthur W. Holst. He goes into a lot more detail and I would recommend it as a great reference book for you to check on any problems you may experience. It contains a very large collections of colour photos and drawing to enable you to identify unnamed plants you may have.

The book is published by Timber Press in the USA ISBN 0-88192-430-X.

For those readers in Australia you can purchase this book through 'Orchidaceous Books' -http://www.orchidaceousbooks.com.au/

Also its available from 'Barnes & Noble' & 'Amazon Books' online for the rest of the World.

For another persons view on growing Catasetums, go to the LINK page and click onto "Catasetum Culture article' written by Tom Kuschall of Greenlane Orchids in the USA.

Angraecoids

Last year (1999) I started to collect Angraecoids and now have about 25 different Aerangis and also a number of similar other varieties (Neobathia, Mysticidiums, Aeranthes, Jumella, cyrtorchis, Grammangis, Oenia, Angaecum etc) that all require similar conditions, temperature, and feeding.

These are all African varieties and a number are only found on the island of Madagascar .

I have tried some of them in pots, but have found they do exceptionally well when mounted ( cork slab, Bottlebrush, Paperbark,) for that matter any hard wood especially those which have a patterned bark to enable the roots to run into. I have just started to use pieces ( 6-7 inches long, by 1-2 inches in dia., I hang it with a wire hook at the top) of 'Paperbark' which appears to be the best type I have tried out so far. This has a solid centre with a bark which looks like sheets of thick brown paper wrapped around ( an Australian Native Tree). The root system of these varieties really likes to wrap around and travel under the bark, which also holds a % of moisture.

I grow these in a hot house which is heated in the winter and shaded and cooled ( water cooler) in the summer months, I find they like plenty of light and I spray the plants with a mixture of weak fertiliser/superthrive each morning, apart from the general fertilising and watering I do in that house, which is every second day in the Summer and twice a week in the winter.

Most of these have lovely sprays of white flowers and given the right conditions and attention flower quite easily, also with growing on wood you also get an added benefit in seeing the root growth run itself all over the piece of wood.

I recommend these varieties for any orchid grower who is interested in something different from the standard varieties most grow.

For those readers wishing to learn more about these interesting Species, I suggest you read either or both of these fine books. "A Cultural Manual for Angraecoid Orchid Growers" by Fred E. Hillerman a small book with brief information and lots of photos and/or "An Introduction to the Cultivated Angraecoid Orchids of Madagascar" by Fred E. Hillerman and Arthur W. Holst. This is a very informative book containing a lot of information and photos, written by two knowledgable orchid writers

Both books are now out of print, but Ochidaceous Books sometimes have secondhand copies of these books, contact them on - http://www.orchidaceousbooks.com.au/. Or you may find a copy at your local Library that you can borrow.

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