Cups in pots 2018

[monocotman]

After a couple of years less than perfect culture due to family issues the cyp collection is now less than half the original size.
The plants still surviving are now mostly growing well.
They are mostly macranthos hybrids.
2F86546C-6BDA-4A58-8ED7-C095E9A7710C john quaife, on Flickr
This year I left the plants in the cold greenhouse over winter. It has made a big difference to the colour of the new shoots when growing in the spring. They are much greener. It must be the light iover wiicannot.nterdit the title.. They used to sit in the garage with better frost protection.
David

 

[monocotman]

A few hybrids

First up is Sabine. Maybe 20 flowers this year and growing well. Must be able to tolerate a bit of abuse! Never gets very tall, like its fasciolatum parent.

601BD2F1-E96A-4B75-AE04-9E51F9FC6159 by john quaife, on Flickr

David

 

[monocotman]

Michael alba and friends

More like Michael green.
46237641-953B-4F47-A7F4-5EEE3EF14FD9 by john quaife, on Flickr
This plant has shrunk a bit over the past two years but is still hanging on.

Next is Gabrielle.
Probably my biggest plant with over 20 flowers. Not quite as big as it can get.

8768C71F-8D27-4A7E-8D54-074FC5E725EB by john quaife, on Flickr

Lastly we have Inge. This is only half the height it can reach but at least is alive.

314771E7-36C3-49CE-A660-1054BD96B34F by john quaife, on Flickr
Hopefully things will stabilise now but cyps do have a habit of dying with annoying regularity so who knows?
David

 

[Paphluvr]

All very nice and, to my eye, very well grown. I particularly like the Michael Green and the Inge. Would love the see a closeup of the flower of Inge to show the markings better. Well done.

 

[Linus_Cello]

Don’t think I’ve seen the Michael alba for sale here in the USA.
All wonderfully grown.

 

[NYEric]

Wow! That's a lot of CUPS! Thanks for sharing.

 

[monocotman]

The curse of predictive text! Plus I cannot edit the title! I tried.
David

 

[TrueNorth]

They all look very healthy. What medium are you growing them in?

 

[KyushuCalanthe]

Great to see them all recovering so nicely. Macranthos hybrids are strong, aren't they? I love Sabine - the flower and stature.

 

[JeanLux]

Beauties !!!! How do you feed them David? Jean

 

[monocotman]

They grow in almost 100% perlite topped with leca. I feed with the normal garden centre stuff, full rate for hybrids and quarter rate for species. Maybe twice a month now and a bit less later in the season when they have settled down. If you want more details search for the cyps in pots threads from previous years,
David

 

[monocotman]

Mac hybrids

Tom,
You are right. The macranthos hybrid seem to be best most forgiving of less than ideal culture. Maybe they are more rot resistant. That is what some to take most to orchid heaven,
David

 

[Linus_Cello]

Tom,
You are right. The macranthos hybrid seem to be best most forgiving of less than ideal culture. Maybe they are more rot resistant. That is what some to take most to orchid heaven,
David

Hmm that's funny, I view pubescens hybrids as being more hardy.

 

[My Green Pets]

If your plants die randomly in spite of your care, what chance do any of us have?

 

[monocotman]

Cyp death

I’ve tried to understand what causes these plants to die.
First up they have little resistance to rot especially when young.
If a new shoot keels over due to wind damage and then starts to rot then a plant may well be lost. The rot gets into the rhizome and kills the new shoots and then that is curtains.
In addition if a plant gets to be large, say 20 shoots and just one of these is damaged then again rot can go through the whole plant. It needs to be spotted quickly and the affected area cut out and treated of the plant is to be saved.
This is why Michael Wienert recommends splitting up large plants into smaller sections.
Even if you lose one or two of them there should be more left.
However splitting up a dormant cyp is not easy if you want to keep most of the roots. They are tough and the dormant eyes and rhizomes all intertwined.
Also they are really sensitive to dry conditions. They can not tolerate any sort of a drought.
So this is the conundrum. They can die when young and they can die when old!
David

 

[Ozpaph]

you have done a great job - they look magnificent.

 

[naoki]

Very nice, and thank you for sharing your knowledge, David!

 

[cnycharles]

They look nice from here!


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[SEMO-Cypr]

Gorgeous plants, how long have you been growing?

 

[monocotman]

I think it is about 15 years. Many if the surviving plants are at least 10 years old,
David