growing TOLUMNIA ?

[NJPaphguy]

Is anyone growing Tolumnia? I'm curious about them, would like to try growing them, but I keep seeing the word "HUMIDITY" anytime I'm seeing Tolumnia for sale. Is this really a major issue with these orchids? I have plenty of light for them (SE/SW exposures) but don't know if I can provide them with major Humidity if thats what they require.

Can anyone help with this ?

Thanks.

[dtje2000]

I have a boatload of them and I don't see that they are any more humidity-needing than the Catts, Dens, and Phals. Then again, all of my 'chids are outside...hopefully some of the indoor growers can give you some advice. Tolumnias are adorable, and what I consider a great-bang-for-the-buck plant.

[Stelios]

I have a few of them growing just fine so far in the house. The humidity is 59% now that is night and it was 67% during noon. I have read that they like even more but so far they are not sowing signs of dehydrations. The secret i think is how you water them. I keep mine is very small clay pots. I have a styrofom peanut chopped mixed with sphagnum moss as potting medium at the bottom half of the pot and small lava rock chips as the top half of the potting medium. I water them twice a week depending on weather and take care not to have any water staying in the leaves' joints to the stem. I mist them daily in the morning. I have them stand near the window i keep open all the time (unless cold outside) as where they originally grow there are strong winds drying them rapidly.
Everyone has it's own technic and potting medium preference though. So maybe more experienced members can provide better advice.

[Anton]

The fact you are in Florida dtje2000 says it all.

For the rest of us, yes, they need extra humidity, but NOT OVERWATERED.

DO NOT USE sphag moss with them, have them mounted on cork, bare rooted. I find misting them twice a day sufficient to keep them happy. Where I live, in South Australia, we are in low, single digit humidity most of the year so they need a bit more help.

They are rewarding little plants which need plenty of light, but not direct sun and allowed to dry out between mistings. I feed mine twice a week due to them being bare rooted.

Spray them until the roots turn green, then they have consumed as much moisture as they neeed and don't need any more.

I rarely soak them except in our horrendous summers which get up to 40C to 45C for up to 3 weeks straight and humidity 0%, and then only until the roots go green. The main reason for soaking is to get the cork damp so that the roots can still draw in moisture between drinks otherwise the dry air pulls too much out of them and they get stressed.

I lost around 8 last summer, those I still have survived because I instigated the soaking regime and was lucky enough to revive them. The "runts" were the ones that went quickly, the more established ones recovered quite well.

Hope this helps.

[lmartiny]

I grow outside and have little experience with them. I had one mini and it thrived and was going to rebloom then got the crud and I lost all but one small section and it has since put out a new growth. I've just bought another mini so too new to know. They do want to dry out in between waterings. My first one did find on neglect and as I got into geeks here and learned more, and tended more, I think I nearly tended it to death.

[phalaephila]

I live in Las Vegas (really low humidity), and have a couple on a south windowsill above the kitchen sink. One is blooming now, and I expect spikes from the other shortly. These two tolumnia are growing in small clay pots with just a bit of bark, and I water them every other day or so. You should be fine in New Jersey - I say go for it.

[terry_sealey]

I have had a dozen of these for almost two years and have still to find out how to get them to flower. I live in the S.W. of England zone 8b.

Last winter I kept them under HPS lights indoors at between 19-25C sprayed several times a week (potted in fine bark mix). They grew well but showed no sign of flowering

In the summer they went into a shaded greenhouse with plenty of light, watered 2-3 times per week and again they grew well but no spikes.

This winter I have put them into a large propagator inside a greenhouse temps at around 14-20C humidity will be higher than under lights.

I grow and flower catts, dens, phals, cyms, oncidiums, paphs, phrags and vandas and I grow plants from seed but I can't get these plants to bloom

[Brooke]

I grow quite a few - some are mounted, some are bare root in small clay pots and some are potted in tree fern fiber.

I give them full sun, water the mounts and bare root plants once a day and the tree fern pots about every three days.

If anyone wants a fun deflasking project, Tolumnias are for you. They will start blooming at about 10 months of age.

Brooke

[cyngreen]

I have a few mounted on cork with spaghnum. I hose them down about once a week(more in the summer) and they get fairly bright light in the greenhouse. They bloom in the fall through early spring. They are all spiking up right now. I have had them in tiny pots with no bark or other medium and they still grew and bloomed. I water with water that comes from a livestock pond...that probably has some natural fertilizer in it... and fertilize very infrequently.
So very cute and so easy to grow!

[terry_sealey]

Originally Posted by Brooke

If anyone wants a fun deflasking project, Tolumnias are for you. They will start blooming at about 10 months of age.
Brooke

Rub it in why don't you