phal cornu cervi alba (flava)

[cnycharles]

this plant has been flowering off and on since this summer. I didn't take it to our orchid show so I thought I'd reward it's flowering with another pic here. the flower was just glowing in the unusual sunlight we have today. (unusual in that we have sunlight)

once this plant got situated, it really doesn't need a lot of water being grown under lights and with no extreme heat. the chc's hold water in the bottom of the pot and the plant seems to like not having the upper roots being overly wet. I wouldn't want someone to try and duplicate these conditions somewhere else since I've read of those who grow cornu-cervi and it's allied species/varieties in s/h culture, which didn't work very well for me. I believe phal species need more base warmth than I can provide year-round to be happy and healthy

if you look really closely, you can see where there normally would be red pigment blotches on the sepals and petals; instead there is only yellow pigment in those cells, and since the background tissue is also yellow, you can't see a difference like if you had the two kinds of pigments (yellow and red)

 

[biothanasis]

Charles this is very beautiful!!! I am so glad for the growing info you provide here...!

Is temprature important whether to grow s/h or in pots with orchid mix? Or just the suplementation of water??? So whatever method one uses, the watering must be adjusted???!

 

[cnycharles]

well, lots of phal species grow in fairly warm areas. if they are on the side of a tree the roots can be wet while the plant and importantly the base of the plant can probably be a bit warmer I'm assuming. if you have a plant in s/h culture, the evaporating water from the top of the media gets cooler and can cool the plant down. so, the air temp can be one point, and the plant base a cooler point. if you have warmer temps or in a spot where sun or base heat can warm the water, then the plant is warmer. under lights there isn't as much reserve 'warmth' (great oversimplification)often from radiating or solar heat as if in a warm greenhouse or outside where it is warmer. the plants in s/h under lights may be cooler and the water itself may not be too much/too little, just that the wet media with water evaporating off of it can cool the plant too much if your air and everything else isn't quite warm enough.

now, again the cornu-cervi that I have that is happy, has moisture at the far base of the roots, but not so much near the top. that works for me, since it isn't too hot here. cornu cervi may appreciate more moisture, but only when the plant itself is a fair amount warmer; when it gets warmer, then it will respire or take in/move out moisture and grow more. usually increasing the temps will mean that more water will be needed. so, it's two different things comparing how happy a phal species might be (or even hybrid) in wet s/h culture because of a chilling effect, and how much moisture it requires to grow depending on the temperature around the plant and the plant itself. since right now many of the plants growing under my lights have low heat stress right now and there is usually little light striking the plant leaves, they don't need as much moisture

if I were able to supply base heat for the plants that like warm and I had in s/h culture in winter and cooler times, they likely would be much happier and grow better. I've seen here how well some of the slippertalk member's orchids including phal species grow and flower that are in warm areas of europe and are in s/h culture, so that's what I base some of this on including other northeastern u.s. growers who have had issues growing phal species in s/h if they weren't able to keep their growing area temps up to a certain level

oh, I forgot to answer one of your questions. at least for what I've seen of my plants, I can grow some in 'regular' potting media that don't seem to like s/h culture, at least in the winter when it is cooler. I probably don't keep the plants in 'regular' media sopping wet so that they would be cooler like in s/h culture, which I'm thinking is what the problem is. of course I've read here where for s/h culture to work best it's better to regularly flood the pots down with a hose; I don't do that since I don't have that much reserve area for overflowing water, and that could be part of the problem. you definitely do have to adjust the amount and timing of watering depending on which type of potting media you use.

hope I didn't answer too much with too little illumination

 

[NYEric]

Nice. Where'd you get that from?!

 

[biothanasis]

Hmmm ty for the info Charles!! So, one has to find their own adjustment depending on the conditions they can provide to make them as similar as possible to the ones the plant needs! But this can be very tricky, since if one would like to add humidity, they could not only use a moisture retentive mix cause this would just rot the roots eventually!!! But this is also the real challenge for the grower...

 

[cnycharles]

Nice. Where'd you get that from?!

I bought it from nenita sorella of sorella's orchids out in the northwest (washington state or oregon). she has very nice plants, where I got my first surviving phal lindenii from. she grows/imports mainly philippine species

thanasis, you could use a mix that retains more moisture to help retain nearby humidity, if you were also able to put something in that would increase the amount of airspace in the media. though, if you had really dry air that was outside the pot where you had your very moist media or mount, you would need to use plastic or something like a tank to hold the humidity in. sometimes I put a plant that likes a bit more humidity in a very large clear aircone pot and use peanuts or something around the base/sides of the big pot so I only have to use a normal amount of media around the roots. that can help keep the local humidity around the roots/plant a little higher while letting some air move around the top of the pot. sometimes the plant is mostly inside the big pot... also do this sometimes if the plant is small but grows upwards fairly steadily like phal maculata. can keep adding a little media around the base of the plant as it grows upwards and sticks out more roots as it goes, sort of like the cornu cervi also does

 

[NYEric]

Thanx. More plants, this will be the end of me.

 

[paphioboy]

Nice cc I agree with the culture tips. cornu-cervi likes to have its roots more exposed to the air and can be watered less than otehr phals. Also takes much more light.

 

[biothanasis]

Thank you for the tips Charles &paphioboy...