Learning more about brachys

[Djthomp28]

Some members of my local society expressed interest in learning more about how I grow my brachypetalum paphiopedilums. I have a few nice specimens, but I am far from an expert. So, while I am happily going to put together either an article or a presentation on my approach, I would like to incorporate other best practices. In addition to pulling from my experiences and communication with a few growers, I am primarily referring to:

• Baker & Baker culture sheets for the species, where available
• Genus Paphiopedilum by Guido Braem
• Tropical Slipper Orchids by Harold Koopowitz
• Slipper Talk Forum 2011
• Slipper Talk Forum Tanaka Potting Discussion
• Tanaka Method for Growing Brachy
  

I have a couple of questions for this group.
1: What other resources would you recommend (talks, Slipper Orchid Alliance, AOS or Orchid Digest articles, etc)?

2. Any tips for growing these spotted beauties that you would like to share? Any questions that you have

For additional context, whenever I give talks, I focus on culture and what I have seen work. Taxonomy is not my thing.

 

[CarlG]

Well, Guido Braem's "The Genus Paphiopedilum" vol 1 has some useful info. The Bakers were collaborators, so there's climate data included.

I've found that Paph. concolor can take a great amount of sun - Cattleya light, at least, and in the Philadelphia lattitude, if exposed gradually. I think (before I killed it) niveum could take the same...

 

[merc]

i am no expert but i am no longer losing brachys like i was when i first started collecting.

1. slippertalk has been an amazing resource! there’s something to be said about all the support and encouragement i’ve received.
2. my brachys like oyster shells and rocks (permatil). i was using a generic pre-mixed paph media that contained sphag and experienced a lot of root loss. i noticed fatter roots and thicker more succulent leaves the less organic materials there was in the media.

 

[big923cattleya]

Over the years I have found niveum, concolor and delenatii amongst the easiest to grow and flower. Even under lights they do well. But in short order it becomes hard to keep the mealy bugs off of them. Leucochilum, bellatulum, godefroyae grow fairly well for me as well, but are slightly more reluctant to flower.
I use plastic pots only and tend to keep those pots as small as possible. My media of choice is seedling bark, seedling charcoal and seedling perlite.
Those markings on the leaves can be a good indicator if the light is correct. You want to see a nice bright green leaf color with clearly defined markings. Too bright or yellow green and the markings fade because the light is too bright. They seem to bloom well in lower light but the green leaf color gets very dark looking and the tessellations disappear or become muddy looking.
That is all I have Dj.

 

[Ray]

Over the years I have found niveum, concolor and delenatii amongst the easiest to grow and flower. Even under lights they do well. But in short order it becomes hard to keep the mealy bugs off of them.

That tells me you are not eradicating the population from your entire collection, and/or acquire infested plants and stick them in "genpop" before they have been evaluated.

I'll bet I hadn't seen a mealy in 20 years in my greenhouse in PA and avoided it here for 6 years, until I bought several phals with a media-borne infestation from a well-known grower and AOS judge. I kept them at bay with a periodic OrganiShield spray over winter (kitchen nook windows), and wiped them out completely with acephate once they moved outdoors.

 

[big923cattleya]

Okay Ray. You convinced me.
Prior to bringing all of my plants back inside in mid September I will contact you regarding mealy bug control.

 

[Djthomp28]

Thank you all for the responses.

I also find that these are canaries in the coalmine, so to speak. After eliminating mealies, if they are introduced through new acquisitions, they often find their way to brachys. A systemic is often the best way to control them because of the tight leave axils. Following up with a growth regulator like Enstar has been a very effective additional level of control. Before plants come inside for the winter, I do at least two rounds of a systemic and then Enstar once or twice.

 

[Tom-DE]

I spray all my plants including the non-orchids with real insecticide (not the homemade stuff) in the fall before I move them back inside...

Let's come back to the topic here... I am hardly an expert....for a few Brachypetalum(hybrid or species) I have now or I grew in the past, I always open up the mix more by adding more charcoals and sponge rocks/perlites in the mix. Do not bury the plants (you know what I mean).

 

[Tom-DE]

and my question is--where can I buy quality brachypetalum species/hybrids?

 

[Skoester]

Darlene, I hesitate to add anything here because I’m such a newbie compared to most everyone and have only been growing brachypetalum for the last year, but I’m having good success with them blooming and thriving so far. I’m in the PNW where it can be fairly cool. I believe Dave (Paph Paradise) mentioned growing them on heat mats which I’ve done since I started with them. Since that’s been my practice from the get-go I can’t say how much of an impact it has had, but they seem happy.

You may recognize this godefroyae I purchased from you last year.

 

[Skoester]

Darlene, I hesitate to add anything here because I’m such a newbie compared to most everyone and have only been growing brachypetalum for the last year, but I’m having good success with blooming and thriving so far. I’m in the PNW where it can be fairly cool. I believe Dave (Paph Paradise) mentioned growing them on heat mats which I’ve done since I started with them. Since that’s been my practice from the get-go I can’t say how much of an impact it has had, but they seem happy.

You may recognize this godefroyae I purchased from you last year.

Starting out with nice plants from you, Dave, Theresa (Hillsview) I am sure has also contributed to the success. Also have some nice leucochilum from Krull-Smith that are now budding.

 

[Djthomp28]

Darlene, I hesitate to add anything here because I’m such a newbie compared to most everyone and have only been growing brachypetalum for the last year, but I’m having good success with them blooming and thriving so far. I’m in the PNW where it can be fairly cool. I believe Dave (Paph Paradise) mentioned growing them on heat mats which I’ve done since I started with them. Since that’s been my practice from the get-go I can’t say how much of an impact it has had, but they seem happy.

You may recognize this godefroyae I purchased from you last year.

Wow. I love seeing this thriving under your care.

 

[Tom-DE]

I really enjoy reading this thread, all the growing tips and culture experiments are very educational.
Bump this up for others to read, and hopefully, you will share your experiences with others...

 

[Roots]

Bump this up for others to read,

Thanks for doing this. It looks very informative. I am looking forward to giving it a good perusal later on.

 

[Walter Meshaka]

Some members of my local society expressed interest in learning more about how I grow my brachypetalum paphiopedilums. I have a few nice specimens, but I am far from an expert. So, while I am happily going to put together either an article or a presentation on my approach, I would like to incorporate other best practices. In addition to pulling from my experiences and communication with a few growers, I am primarily referring to:

• Baker & Baker culture sheets for the species, where available
• Genus Paphiopedilum by Guido Braem
• Tropical Slipper Orchids by Harold Koopowitz
• Slipper Talk Forum 2011
• Slipper Talk Forum Tanaka Potting Discussion
• Tanaka Method for Growing Brachy

I have a couple of questions for this group.
1: What other resources would you recommend (talks, Slipper Orchid Alliance, AOS or Orchid Digest articles, etc)?

2. Any tips for growing these spotted beauties that you would like to share? Any questions that you have

For additional context, whenever I give talks, I focus on culture and what I have seen work. Taxonomy is not my thing.

Very helpful. I only wish I had something to add.

 

[Djthomp28]

I appreciate the collective knowledge of this group. Thanks to everyone who shared and commented. I would love to hear others thoughts.

@Walter Meshaka - Questions are somethings just as valuable as answers. Questions get the conversation moving and prompt us to think of things we would not think of on our own. So, if you have questions, please feel free to ask.

 

[Djthomp28]

Here are some things that to keep in mind with brachys:

• One of the reason brachys are challenging is because they are stingy with root production. So if the roots fail, they can take a while to build back up - leaving the plant vulnerable. So, take care of the roots -
  • Well drained mix - I use bark (small + medium), perlite, charcoal, and oyster shell
  • Give drier, not completely dry winters, especially if it is cooler - below 60
  • If in doubt about watering a brachy, give it another day
• Some like it hot, some like it warm to intermediate. I am hesitant to say that any brachy likes cool weather but some are more tolerant to season changes than others -
  • Seasonally warm to intermediate - concolor, bellatulum, wenshanense
  • Year round warm-hot - thaianum, niveum, leucochilum, godefroyae
    • my niveum and thaianum perform best with heat mats over the winter because my growing areas drops below 60 at night. This is especially for young plants.
• Thaianum is my biggest challenge to move from seedling to clump, here are some tips from my exchange with Xavier referencing avoiding root crash with brachys -
  • high phosphorus (every 3-4 months using a 10-52-10 or 9-45-15)
  • Supplemental calcium carbonate (lime topic dressing)
  • Mancozeb to supplement the Manganese/Zinc

 

[Linus_Cello]

From Alan Koch's slide at the Paph Forum (my additions in parenthesis):

Brachypedilum Section

Most found growing at sea level (can take 50 F if dry)
Found growing on limestone or roots in limestone
Loves to be repotted
Keep them closer to the ground in your growing area (cooler area in summer)

During the talk, Alan mentioned CalMag and chicken grit (oyster shells) as sources of Ca