# upstate ny pterostylis



## cnycharles (Oct 26, 2012)

a few years ago some of us imported some australian terrestrials native orchids and tried them out. it didn't work well for some of us, and none of them survived for me. a fellow north american native orchid enthusiast david mellard of georgia offered a few of us some free aussie terrestrials and a lot of information about how to grow them. he gave me some pterostylis curta, which are very easy for him in a greenhouse. a year ago I tried to interpret his culture for my windowsill, which didn't work...

this year, I kept them absolutely dry, potted in dry standard potting media and didn't water until they started sprouting above the media. I put them outside to get some sun and rainwater, and they look pretty good!






plants/pots











I think all of the tubers have come up, which is pretty amazing considering my past (lack of) success ratio  . they are potted in standard potting mix, and i've covered the media with some of the asian cyp media that you can get from robert's flower supply, just to keep the soil in place and keep the bottom orchid leaves from resting on the soil


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## quietaustralian (Oct 27, 2012)

Looking good. 

I have spoken to Les Nesbitt a couple of times recently. I suggested that if a large order was consolidated, it would be much cheaper per tuber but he isn't interested in selling overseas. 

If you guys are still interested in buying tubers, I'd recommend Heinrich Beyrle in Germany (link below).Heinrich has succeeded with some plants that have proved almost impossible to grow in pots, even by Australian growers.

http://www.myorchids.de/main1.htm

Regards, Mick


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## cnycharles (Oct 27, 2012)

yes, Les explained to me just how much it would cost to just get an export permit, extremely prohibitive. also, each step of the inspection and permitting for a particular order is also extremely expensive

thanks for the link. I had received information about this grower and checked it out briefly, but since early august things have been very busy so I didn't continue to investigate


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## KyushuCalanthe (Oct 27, 2012)

Hey Charles, they look good. Nice to hear that David is sending plants out to folks around the country - his huge pot of P. curta must be distributed across all of North America by now. I've been growing a handful of Australian greenhoods for around 6 years. They spend most of their growing cycle on a north facing, shady windowsill with the average temperature around 5-10 C all winter long. 

I give them no special treatment except a bit of soluble fertilizer now and again, but especially at the beginning of growth since this is when the plants are fattening up. I've found that if you grow them lean at this time they won't grow very large and may not flower. So, it is key to keep them moist and fed in the fall and early winter.

Another hard lesson I've learned is that you need to repot them often for best results - yearly is best. If you keep them in the same mix year after year they go into a decline after a couple seasons.

Good luck! Getting plants out of Australia is, ah, well, for rich people with good connections. Madness.


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## biothanasis (Oct 27, 2012)

Good luck with these!!! The are very nice!


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## tonyw (Oct 28, 2012)

Nice to see the pterostylis which I understand after an inane name change are now diplodium. I find these relatively easy in my climate and my my P curta are just starting to form buds. I also grow P. coccinea which are in flower now, obtusa and truncata. I grow them in a gritty soil mix in clay pots plunged in sand. I keep them dry and cool all summer but I start them in to growth at the beginning of September with a light watering. Early growth builds the rosettes before the cold weather sets in. I have them in a covered frame with bottom heat which keeps the roots at just 5 c but the air temperature gets down to as low as 2 c. I have attached some pictures of them and I hope you can see that in the case of P. coccinea the flowers arise directly from the bulb with no rosette. Bulbs that form rosettes are not flowering size.


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## cnycharles (Dec 11, 2012)

*plants update*

Thanks Tony for the pictures, very interesting to see them growing well.

here's how the two pots look today


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## Ozpaph (Dec 12, 2012)

looking good


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## biothanasis (Dec 12, 2012)

very nice!!!


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## NYEric (Dec 12, 2012)

Looking good. I will have to take a photo of their sisters who live in NYC.


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## cnycharles (Dec 12, 2012)

I think I see flower spikes starting out today, (didn't see last night) so I think I'll put my spot-led light over them to give them some more oomph. I have mostly watered them once they started emerging, by putting them outside when it was going to rain, with something right over the top to keep the media from splashing around, except for the one time I gave them a good feeding. The pots are getting a little light again right about now probably at least two or more weeks after the last watering, so they need some more again


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## cnycharles (Dec 15, 2012)

*spikes and oops*

I also noticed a few days ago that there were some flower spikes quickly starting out. When I picked up the clear aircone pot, I unfortunately saw a reason for not potting tuberous orchids in clear-sided pots 





flower spikes reaching for the spotlight I just placed above them






one of the tubers saw more light coming through the side of the clear, aircone
pot and is trying to grow through the plastic. I wonder if it will rot or not, 
or if I should try to excavate and do 'something'? there is one trying to do the
same thing on the opposite side


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## NYEric (Dec 17, 2012)

I'd clear the media from the top of it. I am moving my pots to a brighter spot; the plants seem to be larger than yours but not spiking.


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## Leo Schordje (Dec 17, 2012)

So far it looks like I have had 100% mortality with mine. 

And I can assign cause, one mistake after another. Largely do to the fact that I have too many plants, and if anything needs to be treated different than my Paphs or Phrags, its gonna die.


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## cnycharles (Dec 17, 2012)

sorry to hear that, leo; was basically my result with things. David finally told me that I should just pot them up and not water them at all until I saw green tips coming up, and then I didn't water until many of them had green above, and the soil was completely dry when I potted. also I didn't really water very often. I was probably watering too much but then intermittently last year and also this year I have kept the pot from any kind of sunlight which didn't help last year (bright hot sun then nothing for many days) so they have been much cooler. I've also kept them in completely different areas than my other orchids, so they didn't get too much or untimely water. Some of the first times they were watered, it was by putting them outside when I knew it was going to rain. so maybe getting first water as rainwater helped rather than their getting water (though clean) with chlorine in it
I am growing them this year all on windowsill except for a week when they were outdoors getting rain in the early fall


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## cnycharles (Dec 27, 2012)

*new spikes/buds*

these flower spikes have been jumping right out of the pot! after I put the cfl spotlight over the two pots, I decided to leave the lights on for a long daylight period. actually, I left them on for a few days at a time without a break in daylight. the spikes in the larger pot have been emerging/growing more quickly than the smaller, and the spike in the center has really been growing very fast





lights, pots and spikes





whorls and spikes





an alien awaiting the opening of it's 'pod'


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## ericst11 (Dec 27, 2012)

very cool


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## Ron-NY (Dec 27, 2012)

I grew these for years in my kitchen greenhouse window. They are doing well for you Charles! Congrats!


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## NYEric (Dec 28, 2012)

Nice, I got some new lights so I'll move my pots to a new, better lit, area tonight!


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## Rick (Dec 28, 2012)

Pretty cool Charles. They look happy.

I get to visit with David every few months since he's a judge at the Atlanta Center south of me.


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## KyushuCalanthe (Dec 29, 2012)

They are coming along nicely Charles. What temperature are you growing them at?


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## cnycharles (Dec 29, 2012)

whatever seems to happen during fall and early winter on a northern kitchen windowsill, which is very dependent on the outside temps. though, I placed a piece of white cardboard between the plants and the glass when I put up the spotlight, so it's likely in the high 50's -low 60'sF for the soil, though the flower spikes that are growing upwards towards the spotlight shield are warmer as the cfl gives off some heat

update actually it's pretty toasty underneath the light, with the cardboard shield in place (when the light is on)

the first dragon is about to start yawning, so i'll have to take some progress images


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## NYEric (Dec 29, 2012)

I'm moving my pots to the new supplemental light area I have built. I'm hoping that gets them to spike!


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## KyushuCalanthe (Dec 30, 2012)

cnycharles said:


> whatever seems to happen during fall and early winter on a northern kitchen windowsill, which is very dependent on the outside temps. though, I placed a piece of white cardboard between the plants and the glass when I put up the spotlight, so it's likely in the high 50's -low 60'sF for the soil, though the flower spikes that are growing upwards towards the spotlight shield are warmer as the cfl gives off some heat
> 
> update actually it's pretty toasty underneath the light, with the cardboard shield in place (when the light is on)
> 
> the first dragon is about to start yawning, so i'll have to take some progress images



Sounds like what they would like. Based on the progress of your plants I'd wager they get a fair bit more warmth than mine which always bloom in late winter, peaking in early March. I think the key with these is to grow them cool with a strong diurnal temperature shift.


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## cnycharles (Jan 3, 2013)

I took an update pic of the spikes on 12/29, and then again four days later...






spikes/buds on 12/29; note the left spike is much shorter than the middle one






taken yesterday (1/02); the left spike is now quite a bit longer and is taller 
than the middle one! I had moved up the light a few inches (and forgot to move
it back down) to get a standing picture of the buds, and in the few days the 
one spike grew up above the other one! I have an orchid society meeting this 
sunday, and would love to have an open flower or two for people to check out 
so i'm leaving the lights on overnight


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## JeanLux (Jan 4, 2013)

Almost there Charles !!!! Jean


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## biothanasis (Jan 4, 2013)

Great!!!!!! Remind me of Arisarum vulgare buds when they develope too!


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## cnycharles (Jan 8, 2013)

*starting to open*

I think that I dried things out a little bit too much! The first flower has browned off, and the one that was next in line is developing a bit, but the third flower (from the largest pot) is flying past the first two and is starting to open. I gave them a solid drink of water a few days ago and they are taking off





all plants/pots progress




















front of second-largest bud, in smaller pot





back view of largest bud

I was very concerned about keeping the soil too wet, since many of my former aussie terrestrials had rotted, though some of that problem may have been because of extreme heat on the pots on my windowsill. I had seen that the soil of these two pots was getting a bit dry, but didn't think that they would be that reactive to dry conditions.... live and learn! They don't really dry out all that quickly, and I don't think i'm watering more often than each 1.5 weeks, if not two weeks

I just wanted to add that one of my fellow orchid club members also received some pterostylis curta tubers from David Mellard, and he is growing them much cooler than I am. He told me sunday that he had them in four or five different pots and media, one with all perlite (so that he can dig them up and check out their progress). He (Krum) told me that he hasn't watered yet, and that for some the leaves are just starting to poke above the top of the media


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## Dido (Jan 8, 2013)

congrats on this succes


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## KyushuCalanthe (Jan 8, 2013)

Dat da way ya do it! :clap:


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## Leo Schordje (Jan 9, 2013)

very nice


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