Wondering if anyone grows Dimorphorchis? I’d like to try but they seem hard to find. I do well with Vandas in water culture. Wondering if anyone has sources on these? Seedlings, compots, I’d ever be into flasks. Thanks for any suggestions/leads/tips.
Dimorphorchis lowii, D. rossii, other 3 species
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Can you explain more vandas in water culture?
Yes please! I tried Vandas in water culture and it was a total failure.
Aw sure, it’s been a miracle for me. I think it’s technically semi-water culture but it’s basicall you grow the root in a clear, usually tall glass vase with wide mouth. You spray the roots down every day with RO water, but every few days they get a soak in RO water, every other time (approximately) in very very weak fertilizer. Sometimes you give special dashes of Cal-Mag or Kelpmax or some such exotic nutrient. They need pretty strong light.You have to clean the roots very well of their prior media, you have to adapt the plant over some time. I’ve been must successful with small seedlings. It’s a long process. Oh I should mention, it’s important for the roots in this setup to dry out after spraying/soaking. But once they’re adapted, you can also leave for up to a month by pouring in just RO water 1/3 or so up the roots, with no ill effects at all. My best of 3 Vanda coerulea Is currently in the prime of its 3rd full, glorious blooming in this calendar year. I’m a little proud of it!
I learned initially from The Orchid Whisperer on YouTube. She is the best source I know for a beginner. Which includes me.I get lost in watching her videos and truth be told I have a general disinterest in the kind of hybrids she grows but her manner and methods are just so deeply and formidably pleasant to witness.https://m.youtube.com/results?sp=mAEA&search_query=orchid+whisperer+water+culture
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Lovely color blue 
Is that urbanianum just below it
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Is that urbanianum just below it
?I guess a purpuratumLovely color blue
Is that urbanianum just below it
Bingo!
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Lol seems weird that this fascinating genus is so hard to come by in the U.S.
I tried a couple of seedlings a few years back, one died almost immediately and the other lingered for a couple of years but eventually wasted away leaf by leaf.
Dang I’m sorry to hear this. From my research, I think it would do well in water culture or semiwwater culture, or LECA. There’s conflicting info about light levels; some say highest possible, some say it counterintuitively needs shade, like Paraphalaenopsis. What were your conditions? I think I want to try a flask.
I had mine in baskets of LECA in my greenhouse. Light exposure was about the same as what my multis get, I didn't put them up high since they were small. My experience with them doesn't necessarily mean they're hard to grow, I just have my greenhouse fine tuned for multifloral Paphs and anything else can adapt or die lol
That’s pretty cool. I try to bend my conditions to suit special plants. It took me 30 years of off-and-on trying to grow Vanda coerulea from seedling to bloom but now I seem to have that down and I think Dimorphorchis might actually be easier, as V. coerulea seedlings spend years needing daily root-misting before they can tolerate soaking in water for travel. I’m looking around for flasks. Can only find two species for sale, seems kind of sad that no one is cultivating the other two or three.
I grow both, Dimorphorchis lowii, D. rossii, luckily due to my climate outside handing from the trees. I find them like vandas. however they are very slow. I used to bring them inside in Winter, but now, I leave them and they grow through the winter. We don't get a frost but occasionally the night temp drops to less than 10c, day time 22c. I do not water them save once a week in in Winter, they are on the dryer side, My climate is like Miami, here in Queensland.
Thank you so much for all this expertise! I’m after a flask.,..
littlefrog
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I had a couple large dimorphorchis that I think I left outside this winter. Took them to shows and nobody wanted to purchase them. They were old plants, just too big. Even bloomed one.
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I love the color of the the periwinkle orchids. The others are lovely also, but I'm partial to blues.
Oh no! You mean they’re frozen? That’s sad…but the prices I’ve seen on large plants are prohibitive to me at this time…NOT saying they’re not worth it, just that it’s intimidating and o don’t know your price point. Either way, I’m sorry to hear and hope they’re still alive.
