Monday, May 6, 2013

Epidendrums

Epis are supposed to be easy, but we have had more trouble with these than anything else. We've had 4 and we've nearly killed all of them at least once. We got them from Cynthia (the Orchid Goddess lady we got the Phrag from) as bare root cuttings. First we tried to get them to grow roots in a baggie with damp paper towel. Then we potted them into little pots with bark, but they were so small they kept falling over and their medium kept falling out. One of them got scale and was in quarantine for a while. We knew that they liked a bit more organic matter and that some of them can be planted in the ground, so we sprinkled a bit of potting soil on top of the bark and it sifted in. They started to do well for a while and the coral colored one got really big and flowered. Then it started to look like the leaves were shriveling and turning yellow. We unpotted it and sure enough the roots had mostly all rotted because there was too much dirt in the pot and it was packed in too densely. We potted it back into a clay pot with bark only medium and it grew really well again, only to either get too much sun or a disease, because all the leaves turned yellow and fell off. Now there are just the little sprouts that  had started and rooted. The red epi was finally doing really well growing and looking good, and then when it was sending up a flower spike something ate it off! We have no idea what, but that was really upsetting- another year to wait. The purple epi we got from another friend Fred we gave away to my friend Louise because we are moving in a month or so and need to cut down.

Conclusion: don't treat them any different than an Oncidium or Cattleya and get over confident that they are forgiving. I would recommend a clay pot or plastic pot with holes in it and bark. If you feel the need to mix in any dirt make it a tiny bit and then maybe have some lava rocks in your mix. I fertilize these same as everything else with Dyna Gro- Grow every week when in active growth and with Dyna Gro- Bloom when it starts putting on a spike. They seem to like more Oncidium light levels.

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