My Pleione trail for 2012

[Marc]

As allready stated in Hakone's topic I'm going to give the genus a Pleione a go in this and hopefully the coming years.

I'm starting of with five bulbs of Pleione formosana. I received two big bulbs which have 2 new leads each and then there are three smaller bulbs that have a single lead per bulb.

I've potted these in a Bonsai dish / pot.

For preparation I started of with cleaning the bulbs I got. I started of with removing all the earth, small critters and other stuff that originated from their original growing area. The roots were all trimmed back to 2-3 cm's.

I used two small pieces of a terracotta pot to cover the drainage holes of the Bonsai pot. Then I added a thin layer of broken lava stone for extra drainage. The substrate itself consist of bark, perlite, chopped spagnum and a bit of river sand.

I started of with a layer of substrate in the pot, a bit more then half of the heigth of the pot was filled this way. Then I placed the bulbs in the pot taking care there is enough room around them to facilitate growth of new bulbs later on in the season. The room between the bulbs was filled with the rest of the substrate untill the bulbs were more or less covered for 50-60%.

I'm looking forward to seeing them bloom in the coming months.

Here is the result:

 

[Dido]

lloks good wish you luck with them

 

[Lanmark]

I'm interested in Pleiones, but I haven't taken the plunge.

 

[Ruth]

How often, and how do you water them?

 

[JeanLux]

Good luck Marc!!!! I try them again and again; with not too much success! At least the actual bulbs survived for 2 years now, but did not bloom !! A first spike is showing up (in my gh)! Jean

 

[NYEric]

Oh..."trial". Ok dont forget they mostly grow cool.

 

[Marc]

Good luck Marc!!!! I try them again and again; with not too much success! At least the actual bulbs survived for 2 years now, but did not bloom !! A first spike is showing up (in my gh)! Jean

You've got mail

How often, and how do you water them?

For now I don't give them any wather, I made the substrate a bit moist when planting them to prevent the perlite to draw water from the bulbs. But for now they will wont get anything.

Only after the blooming I will start watering. Till then the plant is living of the old bulb and only when roots start to form you should start watering. At least that's what I've been told / read on various pleione culture pages.

Oh..."trial". Ok dont forget they mostly grow cool.

Yep small spelling error by me . The pot is currently on a N / NW facing windowsill of a room that isn't heated. The window is also open most of the time so I don't expect it to get a lot warmer then outside in the coming period.

 

[Evergreen]

They look great, good luck!

 

[Lanmark]

Yep small spelling error by me .

Here I was thinking you would eventually be transplanting them outdoors along some trail. :rollhappy: :wink:

Please do keep us informed re how your trial proceeds. I'm quite interested even if no trail is involved.

 

[John M]

Looking good. That's a very open potting mix. You'll have to water very often to satisfy their needs, once they get some new roots. You're correct; they won't be able to absorb any water until they grow new roots towards the end of the blooming period. I have quite a few of these (P. formosana) and I love the variation from clone to clone. Your collection there should put on quite a nice show for you.

 

[Marc]

They look great, good luck!

Thank you

Looking good. That's a very open potting mix. You'll have to water very often to satisfy their needs, once they get some new roots. .....

When I made the mix I looked in the shed for some new garden / pot soil or some peat. But unfortunately my girlfriend used up everything we had that same day for some regular pot plants.

I'm planning repotting them this weekend. Need to buy some soil and / or peat to make the substrate a bit more "soily".

 

[monocotman]

pleione culture

Marc,
it looks like you are doing all the right things. I grow mine in a very similar compost mix and they do pretty well. They are still sat in an unused fridge in the garage for the next few weeks.
(I've grown them for maybe 15 years and have several hundred bulbs, mostly hybrids, maybe 50-60 different crosses, mostly from Ian Butterfield)
You should be able to sit the pot outside in a shadyish place for most of the summer. I find they prefer this to inside either a house or a greenhouse.
They seem to like moving air around them.
As you say, the only really tricky thing with pleione culture is to make sure you avoid too much water in the compost early in the season.
Allow the bulbs to shrivel slightly whillst flowering and just after.
Once the leaves are growing fast then they can be watered and fed well to encourage large bulbs.
If you decide to expand your collection then look out for the large flowered clones from the grexes 'Rakata' and 'Shantung'. They're still amongst the best and cheaper to buy than more recent crosses.
They are also easy to grow compared to many species and increase at a much faster rate. You don't really get the full effect of pleiones until you have a potful in flower.
Ian Butterfield has the best selection of pleiones anywhere ( and very decent prices) but absolutely no web presence.
You need to write to him later in the year to obtain a paper catalogue.
His address can be found on Paul Cumbleton's pleione web site on the 'suppliers' page.
Regards,
David

 

[John M]

Hey David,

I got a large order from Ian Butterfield about 16 years ago. He sent some really good bulbs and I had a great collection. Unfortunately, one autumn, I left them outside when the weather report was calling for +3C and it actually went down to -8C! It was a weather report from a local radio station, which I think was an old report and which got read on-air again by accident. I lost every bulb! Very disappointing. I've since got back into Pleiones; but, only with formosana. I do have trouble getting the bulbs to grow large. I put them outside, water well and feed regularly. Are you saying that they need a lot more feeding than regular orchids? Do you have a recommendation for a fertilizer that I could use? Thanks!

 

[monocotman]

pleione culture

Jon,
I am at a bit of a loss as to what you can do to improve the size of your bulbs.
I use bog standard white powder feed when I remember - it can be haphazard. I feed with high potash tomato food later in the season when the bulbs are starting to develop.
I try to keep the plants alive for as long as possible. This year was an excellent year for growth and they didn't die down until late October/early November.

David

 

[John M]

Thanks David. When you say "compost mix", do you mean that there is a soil component to it? If so, perhaps that is giving the right nutrient boost that my plants seem to be missing. The thing is: when got my original bulbs, they were huge, like small apples. Now, I'm lucky if they get to a large enough size to bloom the next year. I have no trouble growing them and I don't lose any. In fact, they multiply like crazy with new bulbs and plenty of bulbils; they just never grow as large as I know they can.

 

[monocotman]

pleione culture

Jon,
I have no soil in the mix - it is reconstituted NZ spag, perlite and small grade orchid bark in roughly equal proportions. You can reuse it for a second season.
It sounds to me like your original bulbs were 'oversized'. It is possible to produce huge bulbs by feeding at every watering.
The comments I've seen suggest that they don't flower any more than smaller bulbs. However I've never done this myself.
How many of your mature bulbs flower?
David

 

[John M]

If it's a mature bulb, it flowers. So, the answer is 100%. However, many bulbs that are from the original huge bulbs finish growing at a size that is so small, it produces only a single, small flower; or no flower at all. The original huge bulbs produced one or, often two stems, each with one or two very large flowers. I had a lot of these very large bulbs that produced two stems, carrying 4 large flowers in total. I never see that now.

I think I'll try feeding with every watering during the summer growing season. In other years, I've fed about every two weeks at about 1/4 strength. I guess that's not enough. Thanks for your advice.

 

[Marc]

On another forum a user even recomend feeding with a product called "Blaukorn". Didn't really look into it yet but it more or less looks like a slow release fertilizer like Osmocote.

Product info in dutch:
http://www.compo-expert.com/fileadm...f/technische_fiches/COMPO_Folder_Blaukorn.pdf

 

[Hakone]

"Blaukorn" is on the use of outdoor area as fertilizer. When used in the pot, the risk of salinity is much higher. Your pot is small .

 

[Marc]

"Blaukorn" is on the use of outdoor area as fertilizer. When used in the pot, the risk of salinity is much higher. Your pot is small .

Thanks dor the heads up. Allthough i wasn't planning on using that product. I'll just use my regular feed.