Baker culture sheet for Cattleya dowiana

[terryros]

I have always respected the detailed orchid species culture sheets produced by now-deceased Charles and Margaret Baker. I just happened to search the other day and found that the sheets are now available online from Troy C. Meters for $1 each. Cattleya dowiana was one of the initial 10 that I selected (the minimum number of sheets you must purchase) and I was surprised to see how cool the temperatures were at the geographic location they are using for dowiana. It is not legal for me to post the sheet, but high temperatures are shown to range from 75-80 F during the year with low temps ranging from 58-62. This is quite a bit cooler than what Chadwicks imply or what a few other online sources seem to indicate. Many of you are more expert with dowiana than I am so what do you think about the temperature requirements for dowiana growth and flowering?

 

[Ray]

It's interesting how "facts" can influence our thinking.

The Baker's data is stated as "CLIMATE: Station #78762, San José, Costa Rica, Lat. 10.0N, Long. 84.2W, at 3021 ft. (921 m). Record extreme temperatures are 92F (33C) and 49F (9C). -- Charles Baker". The Chadwick info states the species is native to Colombia and Costa Rica, but there are some pretty diverse conditions in those locations. Then there is an AOS article describing it in Panama...

 

[terryros]

So, perhaps the different strains of dowiana in different locations have different cultural conditions?

 

[big923cattleya]

There are at least 2 populations if I am recalling things correctly. I want to say for years dowiana carried a reputation of being very difficult to grow successfully long term. I am going back to the early ‘80’s.
Then I want to say, another population was discovered. I seem to recall fuller flowers of better color, slightly better lips and a bit easier to grow. But I am relying on memory from 30 to 40 years ago.
I personally tried dowiana three times on Long Island in an intermediate greenhouse. Their reputation is to be warm growers, 65 minimum nights and 85 degree maximum days. My greenhouse back then during the winters was 53-55 at night, probably way too cool.
A warm growing Cattleya is exactly that, a warm grower. Not a HOT grower!! In my experience, Cattleyas are not tolerant of stretches of 88-95 degrees. I think that they are not happy with nights under 65 degrees over long periods of time.
I figure Cattleya violacea to be another warm growing species. I had more success with them in Florida but I positioned them near a fan blowing 24/7/365. Plus I watered often when it topped 85 degrees. I also grew all of my orchids under 60% shade cloth. For months on end, weather in SW Florida could be described as “oven like”!!! I can’t imagine many orchids craving that type of climate. And at 25 degrees South latitude, the sun was directly overhead from early May through late September. Then shade from vegetation was limited.

But I imagine the vendors/growers from their native habitat would best know how to grow these species.

 

[Ray]

So, perhaps the different strains of dowiana in different locations have different cultural conditions?

I think that may apply to many plants.

If you look at some descriptions of orchids, the temperature advice is “cool to hot”. What in the world is that supposed to mean?!?!

Rather than meaning the species is tremendously flexible about its growing conditions, I have found that it indicates that different populations of the same plants do better at one extreme or the other.

When I was a relatively new grower, Ward Helphingstein (Ward’s Orchids of Louisville KY) recommended that a grower is always better off purchasing a plant from a grower geographically north, rather than south, due to the difference in cultural temperatures.

 

[mormodes]

The thing about the Baker data is that it's from weather stations. Charles *always* said these are usually in conjunction with an airport. He made no bones about it. And sure enough if you go to those coordinates it's an airport. At the time these data were the best (and I mean best) we had. It was good enough for OrchidWiz to use it in their program. Look at the culture at orchidspecies . com - cold to int. What's that actually mean? So take everything with a grain of salt. For example the AOS has a culture sheet describing dowiana, its loss and rediscovery as well as the discovery of C aura in a certain location in Colombia. Google that location and it either doesn't exist or it's misspelled town outside of Medellin. We are all on our own.

 

[big923cattleya]

Great reply mormodes!
It is not as if the Bakers could travel and actually visit the native habitat for each and every orchid species. That sounds like enough work for several lifetimes!
I imagine it was intended to provide guidelines, suggestions if you will.

So much of what I learned from the beginning referred to cool, intermediate and warm growing climate zones. It could be very hard to determine exactly what those terms mean. Back then, I do not think I ever ran into a Hot zone or a Cold zone. I mean right off the bat, cold and cool do not mean the same thing. Nor do warm and Hot!!

In my collection today, I rely a whole lot more on root diameter in order to help
me pick the proper media. I look at how slender the roots of Oncidium (Colmanara) Wildcat are. That plant will never be happy for me growing in just any old mix. I use 2/3 seedling grade bark along with seedling grade charcoal and perlite. I water them much more often then I would a Cattleya of equal size. I find watering frequencies for orchids so hard to grasp. My plants suffered until I learned from experience. I know of people who have never learned.

Me too!! I kill every Cattleya schilleriana I buy. Do I learn or stop buying them? Heck no!! I keep buying them.

 

[terryros]

Since it is highly likely that most of us trying dowiana are in a greenhouse or indoor plant room pretty removed from the natural environment of the native species, what we need is for a successful grower of dowiana to have a years data with something like the SensorPush device that Pete and Leslie got me connected with that would show us weekly/monthly/yearly maximum, minimum, and average temperatures near the plants. Far better than general statements about warm or cool or even giving an overall maximum and minimum temperatures.

 

[cnycharles]

I used the baker culture sheets a lot in the past when I was growing way more plants than I have now. In the distant orchid collecting past, rich bigwigs who had collectors go out and collect from the wild often would stick everything in a ‘hothouse’ and most everything would rot. Eventually orchids would be classified as warm cold hot dry wet to give a beginning of a try to separate them into groupings that would die quite so quickly. And there were no satellites or airports to collect data, often just word of mouth from a collector or adventurer. With thousands of very different growing orchids from vastly different zones, it was necessary to try and define even more.
The culture sheets though May not be perfect temperature indicators, someone with a little insight can find much helpful information. When does it rain? When does it stop? Is it cold or hot when it’s raining/not raining? Is this plant inundated when it does rain for months? Is it very sunny, very cloudy etc. There is much to find on the sheets

 

[geoffsharris]

Both Costa Rican dowiana and Colombian aurea are relatively warm growers. For these plants and many others, look at the elevation range to get a much better idea of the ideal temperature range. Aurea grows adjacent to warscewiczii in Colombia with a modest elevation overlap. The fact that aurea grows at lower elevation and tops out at a lower altitude despite adjacent terrain that is otherwise suitable for Cattleyas speaks volumes that it is likely temperatures that are limiting it from moving higher. 65-85F is the target. The other part is that both make roots mostly after completion of a growth and bloom. So if you rot the roots in the winter, the plant is totally going in reserves before making new roots in July-Sept. repotting should be done after blooming in July. They both come from areas with a distinct dry winter season and then a second little drier season in July during blooming. My experience has been keep the 62F+ in winter (65F even better), really good air movement and rely mostly on adequate humidity in winter to maintain the roots with essentially no real irrigation from Nov-Feb until new growth has really started. Too low humidity in winter can also cause root loss. < 58F, with cloudy days and wet roots is the sure fired recipe to kill these species.