Polyrrhiza lindenii

[ceciliaL]

I very recently have been given a ghost orchid mounted on a stick. It is in the greenhouse and I have been misting it daily. I just read through some articles that said the ghost orchids need to have stale air. Can anyone tell me what this? Or what I need to be doing?
Thanks,
CeciliaL

[articuno75]

This type of orchid is suppose to have little to no air movement, or "stale" air. I love this orchid and am still doing research on providing primary conditions to be able to maintain this beauty in my house. This orchid has to have very high humidity levels. There are some threads here about your orchid and there are some culture information that you can find on the internet. Oakhill has some information on them as well. Good luck with your very special "chid" .

[ceciliaL]

Thanks for the help. I look at Oakhill. What about misting ?
Would love any help you can give.

[articuno75]

There are several ways to care for this, species. I really don't know which one is the best. But I do know that everyone states stale air is good. Jerry Meola might be able to help. He has friends that raise this type. This plant has a difficulty level of EXPERT. A lot of growers find it difficult to care for this little gem. Most of the care that I found were people growing them in apothecary jars with pebbles on the bottom and a little bit of water. Enough to just cover the stones. This provides the necessary humidity. Others that I found were in terrarriums. The trick is watch for mold, mildew and bacteria ! Now I have heard from others that you can provide ample air but from what I've read about this these will not bloom. You would have to mist and awful lot to provide that humidity, depending on your conditions. Temperature is another thing. You have to make sure your temperature is just right so you don't cook the poor thing or that you don't make it think it's freezing to death.

[arleneg]

I've read and heard of the same thing arituno75 mentioned. I know two members of my local orchid society who has one in their collection. They haven't been able to make it bloom. However, it just keeps growing roots.

At any rate, if you get your Polyrrhiza to bloom, please let us know how you did it.

[clarita]

I've grown these indoors and down souht. The term "stale air" concerns me. Fresh air and minimal movement may be a better term. If you have high RH in your gorw area then watch the misting. They tend to rot quickly (lack of strong air flow). I grow them on bare wood for the same reason. They take more light than you would imagine.

[ceciliaL]

I have it in a greenhouse with a humitifier that goes all the time. Two fans also go all the time. One is close to the ceiling the other is lower. This is stick mounted orchid & I don't want to disturb it. It is very cold in Arkansas right now but have a electric heater in the greenhouse. The temp stays around 65 most of the time. It easily could be mover
where the fans would not blow on it. I was think of trying to place it in a large jar 5 Gal.
size with pebbles in the bottom. Would this help? Light is not a problem as the greenhouse ampled light.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

I have (or had) one from Oak Hill. It came with all the tiny roots sticking up into the air, none were attached to the stick (very poor on their part). It is in a greenhouse with moderate humidity, daily mistings, and after a while I found pieces of the root system lying on the bench below the stick. With the few roots left on the stick, I have placed it into a ziplock sandwich bag with wet moss in the bottom of the bag, and the bag cracked slightly open. Makes it a bit difficult to mist, but I manage. Next time I order from Oak Hill, I'll get a couple more, they were relatively cheap, and start with the added humidity.

[ceciliaL]

This says like not going to be easy to get it to live. So far I have not lost any roots or at least I don't think that I have.

[articuno75]

This is what I was going to do if I were to get one:

2 1/2 or a 5 gallon aquarium (you are right on with that one CeciliaL)

Pebbles or river rock

A top of some sort to cover (you can get a glass top for these small aquariums)

A small florescent light for the top

OPTIONAL: A small fish air pump, the smallest available. Again there are two sides to the story. Some say air, some say none. I was going to rig the pump to where air tubing was to run under the rocks with a bunch of "pinholes" in the tubing. This would also allow diffusion of the air thus lowering the amount of force of flow of air. "Little to no flow, but fresh." If it don't work, I can still yank it out. But this will also help control mildew settlement (hopefully).

There are still things I have to work the bugs out of this set up. Temp control, placement and fungus fighting are what I worry about. BUT in other forums I have heard of success with this setup!!!

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

I saw some one that put the pumped air into a container of water with one of those fish bubblers, then the air coming out thru another tube went into his terrarium. This way the fresh air being pumped into the terrarium was saturated with water, keeping the humidity very high.

[ceciliaL]

This says good to me. Think I am going to try this setup. I'll let you know how it works.
Thanks again for all the help.

[articuno75]

Please let me know if it does. I wish you all the luck.