The fastest time from flask I've ever seen

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kman

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Mendocino Coast, California
My entire orchid growing history has been in coastal California, and since the early 70s the coast of Northern California. I've always wanted to grow Odontoglossum, as the conditions here are quite amenable for the cool growing species and hybrids. The San Francisco bay area has some work famous breeders, so last January I got a flask of Bob Hamilton's breeding, a tetraploid hybrid. The came out of flask on January 17, 2024. I have been continually surprised how fast they have grown. But this really was not expected - this last Wednesday one started to flower. 399 days out of flask. With three others in spike.

Odont.jpg

Small flowers and only a few, but a view if you will into what the future holds for these plants, some of which will be going into 6" pots next month.

One never knows with flasks. This was a great surprise.
 
Great job!
What is your normal daytime high temperature they are tolerating?
Short answer: 75 degrees, quite often less.

Longer answer: This greenhouse is oriented east-west. We are about 1/4 mile from the ocean directly to the west. I have these in light shade at the far west end of the house, with large sliding doors that I open when it is sunny and warm. The prevailing winds can be chilly and moist, even on a warm summer day, and they blow right in and keep these and other cool loving genera like Disa very happy.

Second, the night temps are always at least 20 degrees below the day temps, with high humidity as well.

And they grow in clay pots, which keep the media much cooler than plastic and allow for daily watering and fertilizing.

It took awhile to get this nailed down, but I do believe the conditions are as good as I can do at this point.
 
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