How do you grow your bellatulum ?

[Stone]

90 and 98 are "cool"?

I always consider "dracula cool" as never exceed 80

Yes I agree. The figures can be misleading. Just like Vanda coerulea (which comes from much the same areas) I would not call bellatulum ''cool growing''. Yes they can get cool or even cold at night during the dormant season but look at the diurnal highs!, certainly not cool, more like warm to hot! Its very difficult to provide the huge daily swing in temps which these species have evolved with. I suspect that's one reason why the Vanda is such a difficult subject as well. If you imagine bellatulum growing on/in rocks and subjected to daily highs in the 90's, how cold does it really get down at root level? I would guess cold at the leaves but ''mild'' temps at the roots at all times. Therefore I would work on a 60F minimum for most of the time with an occasional drop to 50 but not much less and as high as you can manage during winter days???????????.......But I'm still a beginer with this species.

 

[Trithor]

Mike, I think that would depend on how deep the roots penetrate into the substrate as to how quickly the temperature drops in the root zone. The dampness/wet will also influence this. We never checked root zone temps, but the plants themselves in the early morning at arround sunrise were certainly at arround 8C (dont know what that is in F). The bellatulum were growing on what looked to be dry stream banks with their roots in what can only be described as coarse river sand with little or no humous at all. They were only found under low branches of quite thick shrubbery, so although at first they appeared to be growing in direct bright sunlight, they were actually in a dappled light/shade. A further influece on temperature would be that as the sun went down, these 'gullies' were 'washed' with cold air dropping down from higher up the mountain slope.

Regarding godefroyae/niveum, I can only imagine that the difference in requirements must be more substrate/nutrition rather than climatic. As has been pointed out they grow in close proximity to each other, so climatic conditions should be near the same. That is not to say that light levels are not very different. I am hoping that now that I have changed to a low K fertilizer that I will see an improvement (just hope that I dont see the reverse in the godefroyae) The bellatulum by virtue of how they were growing would have had to be exposed to very low salt concentrations, which would support the observation that they grow better with no fertilizer at all?

 

[Stone]

Apparently they can penetrate pretty deeply!
http://www.theorchidman.com/2/ae542...f01#/gallery/looking-for-paph-bellatulum/p19/
So presumably that would even out the temperature extremes which the tops experience = cooler during the day and warmer at night. And I guess you could say that about all the brachys and others which grow the same way. Rocks are very efficient heat banks.

 

[wonderlen3000]

Tried bellatulum several times and they all die. =(

 

[reivilos]

Update of #3 two months on:

#3 is the one that stays yellow longer:

I can't provide as much heat as before since the heater is off. But I'm pretty sure heat is the way to grow the ones I have.

N° #4 grew 2 leaves.

 

[Stone]

How much light are you giving this plant? Many of my paphs had that droopy look last summer and I was not sure what was causing it. Since I put them in the hot box they are all growing again but their leaves are nice and firm and growing like a nice upright fan shape as they should be. They have much less light now because its winter so I think too much light was my problem last summer?

 

[Justin]

12" below 4 x 4" T12s. temp avg 69F kept moist in bark mix

 

[naoki]

That's pretty small amount of light, isn't it? 10 years ago, I was using T12, and I placed it 3" below tubes (so 16 times more intensity than Justin). Or do you mean T5HO? My new plant (the old one died during the move from NC to AK) is about 10" below 4x4' T5HO (around 8-900fc). It has been growing and flowering OK. I guess that this species could be easy in the beginning, but it may be difficult to make large specimen plants.

Has anyone had success with Dr. Tanaka's method (of no repotting in a big pot)?
http://www.orchid.or.jp/orchid/people/tanaka/Brachcult/enbrachcult.html

 

[Stone]

Has anyone had success with Dr. Tanaka's method (of no repotting in a big pot)?

I'm going to try it but I need to wait until I have a good sized healthy plant to transplant. Maybe next year?
http://www.slippertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=26424&highlight=brachypetalum

 

[naoki]

Excellent! I have forgotten about your thread from last year.

 

[reivilos]

Update of the last two, four months on:

[/IMG]

All (+4 others) grow upright leaves.

First one is dead and burried. It was sick in the first place. It looks like a common "disease" of bellatulum: the leaves seems to be eaten away by something from the leaf to the crown.
The leaves seem "flattened". I don't know how to explain more clearly. I should have taken a picture.