# Laelia alvaroana



## naoki (Mar 15, 2013)

This is the first time I grow rupicolous Laelia, so I don't know what I'm doing. But this one grows quickly and flowered! I got if from Olympic Orchids as a relatively small seedling with 2-3 bulbs, but it has 7 or so bulbs now within a year. Are other rupicolous Laelia species more difficult than this species? I'm thinking of getting more rupicolous Laelia species.

I'm not using the typical rupicolous Laelia media, but it seems to work. Repotting, which I have to do soon, could cause problems (I've heard that they don't like to get disturbed).

Growing condition: 2.25" deep pot, sphagnum moss, 3" between the top of the leaves and T5 HO, in a grow tent (so 100% artificial lighting), RH 65% day, 80-90% night, Temp: 60F night, 86F day, fertilize at every watering with 50-60ppm N (rotate Jerry's Grow, Grow More Urea Free, MSU) + KLN 2-5 drops/gallon, KelpMax 2tsp/gal every 2 weeks.


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## Paphman910 (Mar 15, 2013)

Nice flowers! Did not expect it to grow well in moss!


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## ehanes7612 (Mar 15, 2013)

i have one of these blooming too..its one of the easier ones..the roots just like to dry out and when they arent growing they dont need much water..for repotting i would just put the current pot into a bigger pot ..perhaps cut off some of the older pot so the roots can grow out the side under the top of the medium


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## cnycharles (Mar 15, 2013)

nice flower. is the light 3" or 3 feet from the top of the leaves to the light? if you can get the roots to dry out just as they like, then any media can work (theoretically)


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## SlipperFan (Mar 15, 2013)

Paphman910 said:


> Nice flowers! Did not expect it to grow well in moss!



I agree! Interesting.


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## Ozpaph (Mar 16, 2013)

nice colour


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## naoki (Mar 16, 2013)

Thank you, all!



ehanes7612 said:


> i have one of these blooming too..its one of the easier ones..the roots just like to dry out and when they arent growing they dont need much water..for repotting i would just put the current pot into a bigger pot ..perhaps cut off some of the older pot so the roots can grow out the side under the top of the medium



Thank you for the tips, Ed! But with sphag moss, I shouldn't be leaving the old moss, right? Since it is in a grow tent with pretty buffered environment (both humidity and temp are automatically controlled, so it's pretty close to a growth chamber), it seems to grow continuously. So I haven't given any "dry period" yet.

I also have L. liliputiana and L. lucasiana in sphag., and they are doing OK (they are still young with only 3-5 bulbs). But they are not growing as fast as L. alvaroana, so I suspected that L. alvaroana is easier.

I got the recommendation of using sphag. for young rupicolous Laelia from Ellen of Olympic Orchids.

Charles, it is 3-inches between the top of the leaves and the T5 HO bulb, and it's getting about 2000-2400fc for 15 hours.


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## naoki (Jan 5, 2014)

This year's bloom. I repotted it in spring 2013. The roots were really fragile (easy to snap). I contacted Mauro (who is a master of growing these species), and came up with something similar to his potting method. One layer of medium size lava rock at the bottom, 5-10mm of sphag layer next, then chick-pea sized lava rock:sphag= 1:1 as the main mix. I reduced the fertilizer strength to 10-20ppm N. It seems to be working ok. The size of plants is more than twice as big as the last spring. Also, the flower was sequentially opening, and only 1 flower was open at a time last year. But this year, the flowering sequence progressed quickly, so all flowers were open simultaneously.




Cattleya (Laelia) alvaroana on Flickr




Cattleya (Laelia) alvaroana plant on Flickr

The photo from 1.5 years ago (below, June 2012) is in 2.25" tall pot, and it is in 3" Rand's air cone pot this year as the size reference. It started from just 3 small pseudobulbs 1.5 years ago, and this plant is a rapid grower.




Q: is there a way to make the photobucket photo smaller on ST without changing the original size?


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## Rick (Jan 5, 2014)

Very nice Naoki,:clap: and I'm glad it is doing better for you too.

I have a friend in our Nashville OS that has a ton of rupiculous Catt species and hybrids. He had always potted in open rocky substrates, but started his own version of a low K diet. He has not been disappointed with the results either.

A lot of his other high sun plants like "mule ear" oncidiums have gone to town too.

As in other discussions the use of an open inorganic potting matrix will multiply the effect of reducing overall fertilizer strength since the open mix will not retain as much of the feed as before, and reduces overall contact time with the roots.


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## cnycharles (Jan 5, 2014)

Very nice. Laelias were one of the first things I dabbled in after my first catts and phals


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk


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## Eric Muehlbauer (Jan 5, 2014)

You use Jerry's Grow? I didn't know it still existed!


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## naoki (Jan 6, 2014)

Rick, after learning about fertilizer and root environment from you and others here, I'm pretty surprised that they are ok with really low concentration of fertilizers.

Charles, I can't grow big Catts (limited space), but the smaller Laelia is interesting to me.

Eric, Jerry's Grow is left-over from around 2000. I was using it in NC before I moved up to AK in 2003. But my small collection of Paphs couldn't handle the low humidity in AK, and I was too busy with my work. So it was stored until I restarted growing orchids in 2012.


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## Eric Muehlbauer (Jan 6, 2014)

I posted about Jerry's Grow on the methanol thread. My paphs hated it.


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