Growing orchids on a hat.

I'm sure it'd work in more temperate environs if you had room in your growhouse or window to hang the hat on bad weather days.

I recently added a Dendrobium cucumerina and I think I will add Isabelia virginalis. I moved the Sophronitis-put one on the same mount as the rigidum(which coincidentially is throwing out a new growth now). New roots coming in-wouldn't be surprised if the old roots don't like this as the plants were previously in bark chips. Will just water frequently. How does one know when plants are blooming size?

 

Cool! The soph. Was actually two pieces...each has about 4 growths.

This one is a barmah vented canvas drover, but a couple companies make similar hats. It needs a wide stiff brim (to protect the plants). If I were to do it again I might go with a lighter color to absorb less heat. This hat came waterproof but it never hurts to add some Nikwax to it. But probably not crucial as when worn it dries in a few hours unless I get caught out in a downpour.

 

Anyow have experience with nanodes porpax?

 

Thoughts on Nanodes porpax? Or similar?

 

Kelly: good to know! Did you try it brighter and dryer without success? Isabelia is mentioned by people as growing well with the cattleyas, and in next to the restrepias, for example! I came across one note on porpax being grown like a Cattleya. While it is fairly agreed on that soph. Cernua likes fairly bright light people vary alot on how wet they say the plant likes. Andy suggested it and prenticei, someone else claimed soph. Might not work. We will see!

Some Tillandsia that work well I did not think would. Aeranthos is mentioned in some writings as needing more water etc. But in fact it is the toughest tillandsia ive tried. Tillandsia pruinosa is commonly mentioned as needing it cooler and more humid. Etc. Etc.

 

Yeah-this hat is quite comfortable-has a full brim that measure at least 3 inches around. I currently work as an outdoor educator/naturalist so pretty darn important. Also pretty durable as well to the elements. With all the plants-it is noticeably heavier though.

So i managed to figure out how far you must go to sunburn orchids on this hat.

I dumbly left it in the car on a cloudy day-would be fine but the day turned sunny.(I ought to stash it in a external toolbox that stays cool-but almost always it just comes with me) so a shaft of sun managed to bleach a number of leaves of the prenticei and pretty much all the nugentii(which I think is likely toast :/ ). The car did not heat up much. It took about a day or so for it to show up. The tillandsia next door burned leaf tips with a clear line of sunburn marking the light shaft as well so it must have been really intense. Luckily no one else was affected-even leaves/plants right next to where this happened. Something about glass and zero airflow probably did it-hats been out in full sun all day on days up to about 85 with no issue with orchids. This includes ventures down to the bleach where I'm sure UV index/lumens were particularly high. I did a few hikes on 90 degree days almost all in the sun with Tillandsia, some species showed some stress/sunburn(esp. any leaves touching the canvas) but many did not. The problem for a lot of Tillandsia is that some species lose water too fast on the hat yet will rot when watered frequently. I've burned plants off hat as well(brought a little wasselli strand from windowsill to outdoors on a spate of cloudy days-the first sunny day was all day sun and it since dropped all its leaves-probably a goner?) -and I think if hat is worn it is actually less likely you'd sunburn a plant on it since you rarely stay out in the sun for long periods of time and their is always at least some air movement. i've tried timing introductions to the hat to allow the plants to experience cloudy/days where I won't be out all day for a bit. That also lets me remove a plant that I notice is suffering before it dies completely.

I got ahold of a little Isabelia virginalis a week ago and added it. Hasn't died yet, but I'm sure it will be a while till I see positive signs.

 

Also, has anyone mounted multiple species needing similar requirements ti the same mount?

 

Kelly: Interesting. I am not quite sure how quickly orchids can cover mounts when they get going. I moved a sprig of Sophr. cernua and the Dendrobium cucumerina section that is a couple inches across I have onto the same mount as the Dock. rigida. The rigida has been sending its growths all in one direction and has been on the mount for just over a year(in that time-it has sent out 3 new growths and is now sending out another-this one looks a bit different in that it has cross hatching instead of starting as a a enlongate blob-maybe a more mature leaf?) ...all smaller than the leaves from the parent division though) so I wanted to save real estate on the hat(it is in a prime spot that is the safest spot on the hat from bumps etc.) The one difficulty might be that if I divide anything off of this mount(probably the cucumerina) it would likely be a pretty small piece and I'm sure some of the roots would be buried in the scrubbie pad and need cutting off. Hoping the Sophr. sticks to the bottom section of the mount where it is more shaded. The mount has orchids over a lot of the surface now. Perhaps the rigida will use more of it now that the microclimate is likely more favorable over larger sections of the mount.

I think the limiting factor on where this will work would be summertime temperatures. I suspect in areas with hot weather the hat would have to be relegated to an around the house hat in the summer(don't think any epiphytic plants could survive baking 100+ for long), and I also am curious what would happen in a hot and humid climate. I think most of the plants on here are CAM even in culture so they probably are not cooling much by evapotranspiration anyway-though.

 

The sad thing is that I actually looked up this species out of curiosity it might have been a legit suggestion. LMAO

 

Very nice! Im guessing that you need to cut the dinema polybulbon back to prevent it from overrunning The mediocalcar?


So here you can see Den. Cucumerina sophr. Cernua and Den. Rigidum sharing a mount. The rigidum has basically sent all growths towards the right so originally the left side of the mount was bare. Im thinking cernua likes it a bit wetter than the dendrobiums so it is mounted lower down.

 

And closer

 

So some updates.

Isabelia is throwing 3 new growths. The piece I got was rather uninspiring(lots of old leafless bulbs) but perhaps they will be covered with new growth soon.

Cucumerinum is sending out new roots and leaves.