Help
Can someone please give me specific culture data for CORYANTHES vasquezii. Also a picture of a mature plant, not just the flower. Mine is not doing too good and the culture data I have received has been vague.

TIA

wayne rohrer wrote:
Help
Can someone please give me specific culture data for CORYANTHES vasquezii. Also a picture of a mature plant, not just the flower. Mine is not doing too good and the culture data I have received has been vague.


I don't have any pictures, but all Coryanthes plants look pretty much
the same., with long, plicate leaves and grooved, more or less conical,
pseudobulbs. They need to be kept warm and consistently moist in a
humid atmosphere. They should be grown in baskets with sphagnum to
allow their flower spikes to grow downward. When in active growth,
they benefit from regular fertilizing with an acidic liquid fertilizer.
I use a generic version of Miracid at half strength.

In the wild they are often colonized by ants. Clearly this is not a
desirable condition in a greenhouse. The acidic fertilizer serves as a
substitute for the conditions the ant colony creates, or at least
that's my understanding of the situation.

J. Del Col

In the wild they are often colonized by ants. Clearly this is not a
desirable condition in a greenhouse. The acidic fertilizer serves as a
substitute for the conditions the ant colony creates, or at least
that's my understanding of the situation.

J. Del Col

That's interesting. I had cymbidium that had its best blooms on it
while ants were living the pot. Afterwards I didn't know whether it
was the acid from the ants, aeration from their activity, or more
organic type fertilizer from their waste.

Nancy G. wrote:
In the wild they are often colonized by ants. Clearly this is not a
desirable condition in a greenhouse. The acidic fertilizer serves as a
substitute for the conditions the ant colony creates, or at least
that's my understanding of the situation.

J. Del Col

That's interesting. I had cymbidium that had its best blooms on it
while ants were living the pot. Afterwards I didn't know whether it
was the acid from the ants, aeration from their activity, or more
organic type fertilizer from their waste.

Probably all three. In addition, ants are fiercely territorial and
will drive off or kill any insect pests that threaten "their" plant,
unless, of course, the ants are honeydew feeders that "farm" aphids or
scale.

Some --Myrmecophilia-- (Schomburgkia) orchids have a beneficial
relationship with ants, too, as their latin generic name implies.

J. Del Col

Happy harvesting wrote:
I've found the same cultural specifics as related below work well except I've
found unlike Stanhopea, Coryanthes spikes will run across the top of potting
media before heading down. Haven't lost any to that.

I had a Coryanthes macrantha that had been dormant for about a year after
subjecting it to poor conditions while doing a major reno. I finally decided to
repot and that's worked. I divided into 3 pots incase there were still problems
and all three are now showing growth.


I had the same thing happen with a couple of Stanhopeas. They had been
in the doldrums, so I repotted them, and they were off to the races.

Thanks guys.
I have it potted in aussie gold, in a window that gets evening sun. I felt it was too bright and moved it. I will pot it in the sphagnum moss and hang it up.

Thanks for the help

Wayne
"wayne rohrer" wrote in message ...
Help
Can someone please give me specific culture data for CORYANTHES vasquezii. Also a picture of a mature plant, not just the flower. Mine is not doing too good and the culture data I have received has been vague.

TIA