# How do you grow your bellatulum ?



## reivilos (Apr 13, 2013)

Hello,

I'd like to share a few observations on bellatulum.
I grow indoors, and they are my fastest growing paphs.

I notice they don't like to much light, and requires high humidity and heat.
Under 18°C they do nothing.
Last winter (early January) I put them in saucers above my heater (20 °C).
I haven't fertilized any.






Those in the above pic are from different strains and different producers.
Here is what happened ever since:
- First one was given to me last November almost dead, with many roots but a single 1cm leaf. I put it in coir.
- Second is a Cam's Cloud. It started a new growth.
- Third is a bellatulum I got in Jan 2011. It started a new growth. Mix of perlite, charcoal, bark and sphagnum.
- Forth is the bellatulum I posted a while ago. It's starting a new growth while the flower is wilting.

Olivier


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## Erythrone (Apr 13, 2013)

Well... 

I must say I grow indoor and that my bellatulum is my slowest growing Paph...

I give it more light than for many Paphs et don't put it on the heating mat... like the other..

OK. I think I should change a few things...


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## atlantis (Apr 13, 2013)

Thanks for your cultural info. *Reivilos* 

I´ve taken some good notes.


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## cnycharles (Apr 13, 2013)

do you think niveum likes the same conditions? thanks


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## SlipperKing (Apr 13, 2013)

I grow mine in S/H. It went from 1 or 2 growths to 8. It hasn't rebloomed but it ain't dead either! It has been in this pot (cup) for 2 years, I probably need to knock it out and see whats going on down below.


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## Stone (Apr 13, 2013)

Oliver, do you have them sitting in water all year?


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## The Orchid Boy (Apr 18, 2013)

I grow mine in a 2" clear pot and I've only had it a few months but it's putting out a new leaf. And is doing well. I let it dry out more than my other paphs. I put it in a clear pot with about 1 part charcoal and 1 part bark. In a clear pot I know exactly when to water.


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## reivilos (Apr 18, 2013)

Niveum I don't know I don't have any yet.

Actually they're not sitting in water, there is leca at the bottom of the pots.


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## Dido (Apr 18, 2013)

cnycharles said:


> do you think niveum likes the same conditions? thanks



they dont need any special things, they are one of the easyest kinds I have. 
Only bark and sun like other kinds, maybe on the cooler side in winter.


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## Trithor (Apr 19, 2013)

Niveum and bellatulum obviously do not grow under the same conditions as gogefroyae. My gogefroyae (ten plants) grow well, while my bellatulum and niveum sulk and get smaller each year?


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## Stone (Apr 19, 2013)

Trithor said:


> Niveum and bellatulum obviously do not grow under the same conditions as gogefroyae. My gogefroyae (ten plants) grow well, while my bellatulum and niveum sulk and get smaller each year?



What min temp do your godefroyae recieve?


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## Trithor (Apr 20, 2013)

I only heat my greenhouse on a few nights in mid winter. The air volume in it is quite large compared to surface area, so the temps remain above 12 degrees until the early hours, with the occasional dip to around 5. So I only heat when we have a forecast of a strong cold front moving in. I went to go and see bellatulum in the wild a number of years ago, and was amazed how cold it was at around dawn. It was definitely not T-shirt weather. Over the 5 days that I was in habitat, I would say that three of the mornings were below 10 degrees. I would have to check my journal to confirm exactly what the temperature was ( incidentally virens was a surprisingly similar situation)


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## Stone (Apr 21, 2013)

Trithor said:


> I only heat my greenhouse on a few nights in mid winter. The air volume in it is quite large compared to surface area, so the temps remain above 12 degrees until the early hours, with the occasional dip to around 5. So I only heat when we have a forecast of a strong cold front moving in. I went to go and see bellatulum in the wild a number of years ago, and was amazed how cold it was at around dawn. It was definitely not T-shirt weather. Over the 5 days that I was in habitat, I would say that three of the mornings were below 10 degrees. I would have to check my journal to confirm exactly what the temperature was ( incidentally virens was a surprisingly similar situation)



Thats interesting. Quite cool for godefroyae! Tell us more about the bell habitat. Light, tree cover, soil, whatever you can remember. And which country? Time of year?


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## Trithor (Apr 22, 2013)

Stone said:


> Thats interesting. Quite cool for godefroyae! Tell us more about the bell habitat. Light, tree cover, soil, whatever you can remember. And which country? Time of year?



I realy dont believe that an occational dip in temp adversely affects the plant. I am not saying that they like it, just that it does not seem to affect them too much. Also the temp dip is not for a long time. Just like they can handle high temps if they are well watered and have good humidity, they handle the converse with the opposite conditions, a bit dry and lower humidity.
Over the years of growing, I have tried to plan family holidays to areas near paph habitat, and so while my family enjoy the beach or other touristy attractions, I head off to the mountains/habitat for a week or so. I have visited habitat of concolor, bellatulum, niveum, barbatum, purpuratum, rothschildianum, virens, stonei, philippinense (4 different locations), appletonianum, javanicum and lawrenceanum. Unfortunately after all this there are a number amoung these that I still am unable to grow correctly. I am aware that part is because I am unable to replicate the habitat required in my growing area without affecting the whole collection adversely. I think it is about averages, unless you can afford to set up a whole range of environments.
As far as bellatulum goes, I do remember it being very chilly as I had neglected to take a jacket with me as the valley temps were in the high 20s at night. I will have to dig out my journals and look for the details of that particular trip. I was thinking of working on a book, but after all my transparencies (medium format 6x7) were destroyed in a burglary some years ago, I gave up on the idea.


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## goldenrose (Apr 25, 2013)

I have read that if you can't give bellatulum a temp drop evenings it's going to struggle & probably be a goner.


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## Trithor (Apr 26, 2013)

goldenrose said:


> I have read that if you can't give bellatulum a temp drop evenings it's going to struggle & probably be a goner.



That is interesting, it definitely goes against what I experienced in the habitat. Perhaps someone else who has visited bellatulum habitats can give us some input. I think if I remember corresctly, Holger was in the same area at about the same time? I must loof for one of Birks books and see what he commented.


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## goldenrose (Apr 30, 2013)

right from Birk's book-
"TEMPERATURE: Prefers cool end of intermediate house.
BLOOMING REQUIREMENTS: Needs cool, dry rest in March. Will not bloom if grown too warm, and in fact, may cause ultimate loss of plant when grown in warmer conditions, especially at night.
HABITAT: found on east or west facing stony outcrops, at 1100 - 4300 feet, ....
CLIMATE: ..... Temperatures range from winter high and low of 90 to 52 and is summer, 98-70.
COMMENTS: This mottled-leaf species needs to be grown cooler than many other paphs. While it can tolerate warmer days, it needs to be cool at night to stay in good health. " ......


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## Trithor (Apr 30, 2013)

Ahhh, I need to go back to school and learn to read, or perhaps I just need glasses. Sorry I misread what you had replied ( thought if you gave it cool evenings, it would die) very dim, sorry Rose. Yes when I spent a week stumbling around looking for bellatulum, I was quite surprised how cool it got at night. Some years after that I had a similar thought concerning virens. I had always thought that mottles were warm, but although they do grow low and warm, they also grow high and very cool. You would almost think they were a separate species.


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## Rick (Apr 30, 2013)

Trithor said:


> Niveum and bellatulum obviously do not grow under the same conditions as gogefroyae. My gogefroyae (ten plants) grow well, while my bellatulum and niveum sulk and get smaller each year?



Kind of funny to hear since we've been shown some pics of godefroyae growing within eyesite of niveum on the same islands in Malaysia.

Most all the brachies are limestone growers, but bellatulum is restricted to inland habitat while most of the others (at least some populations) can be within spray distance of ocean water.

When I was growing high K, all the brachies I played with were either boom and bust or slow/burnouts regardless of all the light/temp regimes I tried. Since low K all the same species I tried in the past are much easier faster. I also have some thaianum seedlings growing at a good rate too. 

Note that Oliver is getting good results not fertilizing at all. I think it was Quiet Australian who had great P. concolor results fertilizing only for the warm/wet quarter of the year, and then not at all for the rest of the year. Slipperking is growing low K.

I think brachies are actually pretty adaptable to a lot of environmental conditions, but not good at handling Ca/Mg/K imbalances.


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## Rick (Apr 30, 2013)

goldenrose said:


> CLIMATE: ..... Temperatures range from winter high and low of 90 to 52 and is summer, 98-70.
> COMMENTS: This mottled-leaf species needs to be grown cooler than many other paphs. While it can tolerate warmer days, it needs to be cool at night to stay in good health. " ......



90 and 98 are "cool"?

I always consider "dracula cool" as never exceed 80


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## Stone (Apr 30, 2013)

Rick said:


> 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.


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## Trithor (May 1, 2013)

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?


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## Stone (May 1, 2013)

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.


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## wonderlen3000 (May 7, 2013)

Tried bellatulum several times and they all die. =(


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## reivilos (Jun 19, 2013)

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.


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## Stone (Jun 19, 2013)

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?


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## Justin (Jun 19, 2013)

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


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## naoki (Jun 20, 2013)

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


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## Stone (Jun 20, 2013)

naoki said:


> > 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


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## naoki (Jun 20, 2013)

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


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## reivilos (Aug 26, 2013)

Update of the last two, four months on:



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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.


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