New Tolumnia Tequila Sunrise

      I am slightly embarrassed to say, I dragged my good friend to the Bronx Botanical Garden (a 3 hour total train ride) just to get this beauty.

     As some of you may know, I have been looking for a tolumnia for over a year now. Yes, they are available online but I was scared to go through because of previous bad shipping incidents.

     There was only a handful of tolumnias for sale, most of the orchids there were phals. Even with extortionate prices, the shop was full of buyers. I checked the discounted shelf first in hopes of getting a nice plant for cheaper, but it was full of literally dead plants being sold for $30+.  The Botanical Garden shop was also selling many mislabeled tolumnias. I was thankful that I did some research beforehand and was able to determine which were labeled right.

     As seen in the above picture, tolumnias are rather dainty orchids. The pot itself was 1.5" across and the tallest fan was 2" tall. Three fans comfortably fit in the pot. The  1.5' spike held 6 unscented, half-inch blooms - now holding 5 because one wilted from repotting stress.

     Even though it could have grew comfortably in its pot, it was extremely clear the tolumnia was not repotted for a long while. The bark was heavily decomposed and gave off a rotting, moist, wet-dog like smell. I was a bit surprised to see it was potted in coarse bark, being the roots are so fine.

     I bough the orchid with intentions of mounting it. Whenever I see mounted tolumnias, my heart melts! I googled some mounting techniques for tolumnias and did the best I could - The plant was placed on cork with a tiny bit of chopped sphagnum underneath, some live moss on top of the roots, and tied up with monofilament. I placed a ruberband around the cork to hold the spike stake in place, and am now just waiting for attachment. Once the roots attach to the mount, off comes the monofilament and rubberband.

     Yes, there are many roots sticking out. I thought it would be best this way due to tolumnias prefrence to dry quickly. I mist twice a day and soak the whole mount every other day for 10 minutes. So far, the mount dries efficiently, almost completely within an hour.
 

      As mentioned before, I am waiting to move to college this fall where I will have an 'official' setup and proper lighting. As of now, it will hang off of my wall where it receives okay light - hopefully enough to keep growth going.

Random growth updates.

BL Yellow Bird

    BL Yellow Bird has actually become more yellow, and the second bud has finally opened. The purple splotches are still very prominent but this is very attractive to me.

Repotted Phal NoID "Ikea"

Trimmed roots of Phal NoID "Ikea"

     Phal "Ikea" finally dropped its booms. Both spikes were still very healthy, green and looked like they were going to bud again, but I would rather the plant focused on growing the two leaves it started. I heavily trimmed the roots, actually. They were very broken and unmanageable.  Ikea seems to man-handle their plants. :P

Phal NoID "Miker with 2 new buds

      Phal "Mikur dropped all its blooms after 2 months. Two more have developed and one is on the verge of opening.

Oncidium Heaven Scent 'redolence'

     Onc. Heaven Scent is growing another P/B. Not much more to say. :)

Removal of keiki 1 and rootless keiki 2

     About 2 weeks ago, both keikis on phalaenopsis NoID "mommie" were becoming thirsty, wrinkled, and floppy. I removed keiki 2 from the weak, dying mother  and  reasoned that cutting it off of the plant would push more energy towards keiki 1 (which had a higher chance of survival, due to an already developed, yet small root). I felt too guilty to just throw the keiki out, so I cut the whole spike, threw it in a small cup of water, placed it in a forgotten corner, and let nature take its course.

     One week later, I come back and see that abandoned keiki 2 is doing better than keiki 1, that is still attached to the mother. I took the plunge and cut keiki 1 off, also.

The keikis re-plumped their leaves while in the water cup, as if they were never wrinkled and parched. 

Cut spikes with keikis - keiki 1 right, keiki 2 left

I have been holding the stems in a cup of approximately 6oz water, laced with 3 drops Physan and 2 drops mixed fertilizer. I also lightly wrapped the base of each keiki with unraveled cosmetic cotton balls. I moistened the cotton with the solution above and added a drop of Superthrive to each cotton bunch once it was wrapped on the keiki.

Rootless keiki 2

Keiki 1 with some rooting.

     I am extremely, extremely pleased and surprised at the results Im getting! Within 1 week, Keiki 1 started growing another leaf and pushed another plump root, while keiki 2, which used to be rootless is showing very tiny root nubs!  I am honesty flabbergasted, since I expected nothing from my 'experiment'.

     I cant say what exactly is causing the good results - The Superthive? The fact that the stem is in water? A mix of everything?

Keiki 1 with older .5 inch root and brand new root nub.

Previously rootless, half dead keiki 2 - now with two tiny root nubs (left & center green nubs) 

   I have placed both keikis back into the forgotten corner, and bagged them to keep humidity in my dry closet. Lets see how far this method can go.

Root Progress on Phal. NoID "1"

     There has been a lot of salts crusting on phal 1's roots and just in general at the base area. I have salt-softened water in my whole house and when rain is not available, I just water with the tap. I doubt that fertilizer is causing the salt build up, simply because I sparingly and rarely fertilize. Many times, I just forget for months! It is more likely the water is messing things up.
     I have been flushing the plant with rainwater as much as possible and even manually scraping areas where it is clearly crystalline and crusty.
     While flushing, a few fresh, bright green roots showed through the pot - so exciting! There was a bit of root trouble last time I unpotted,  but it seems like things took a turn for the better instead of rotting away.

     Good news, I am looking into purchasing a new camera (with macro!) so I can take better pictures for the blog. Today's post is a clear sign that I could use a better camera - I tried taking a picture of the salt crusties and just couldn't get a clear shoot!

BL. Yellow Bird in bloom.

     Yes, this Yellow Bird is half purple! It was a bit of a surprise, since the images I googled of Yellow Birds show bright, buttery yellow blooms. Im excited regardless.

     There has also been some nice growth progress on the two baby pseudobulbs. There is a leaf emerging from one PB now, and the other has doubled in size.