got a stan possibly in the process of spiking

[lunaticvulpine]

ok so i ordered from tropical orchid farm and my new stan. warscewicziana is i think in the process of putting out a spike. problem is. its in a normal plastic pot. is there a chance that it cant grow through the medium and will try to grow along the surface or will i have to move it to a basket to be safe? right now its potted in fine fir bark so im not sure what it will do. any insight on this wouldbe realllly helpful.

thanx
Gaston

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Have you tried removing the plant from the pot? If it has been growing in the pot for a while, there is probably a root ball that holds everything in the pot together, and you can just flex the pot and the roots will free up from the pot. If it looks like it will come out OK, remove the plant from the pot, then take a hot glue gun, preferably a good sized one that has a reasonably large tip, and melt holes into the pot as large as you can. Maybe you can look at the spike and see how big the holes will have to be to allow the spike to go thru them. Put hole in the pot in abundance, especially on the side where the spike is headed. You can do the job with a soldering iron, but be prepared for a lot of stink.

I have a lot of small Stanhopis that are potted. I don't have room for baskets right now, so I want to keep them potted. Since some may be getting up to a size where they might bloom, I have put them in shallow plastic pots, and have used a hot glue gun to pepper the bottom of the pot with holes, as densily as I can, to the point that the bottom of the pot looks like a basket. The only problem with this is that the pots are drying out really quickly, especially since I hang these where there is lots of air movement, so I have to water every other day minimum, and the smaller pots every day. None of these have bloomed so far, so this is an unfinished experiment. My current holes are about 5/8" in diameter, and I am not sure these are big enough. Cynthia

[lunaticvulpine]

ok sooo i didnt do that i moved it. wood basket with spagh bottom and coco husk filler


that little nub thing is growing out of the new p-bulb so im not sure what to call it. also the new p-blulbs leaf is kinda damaged so i was thinking.. maybe its a new growth altogether?

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

Interesting growth. My new growths are normally facing up and sort of a more round cross-section. If this is flattened and continues to grow side ways, I vote for spike. I'm trying to remember what the spikes looked like on my Spindleriana. Take a look at my picture.
http://www.pbase.com/schnitz/image/30638650/large
If you have a fast connection, chose 'Original'. OK, being refreshed by my picture, I would say the flower spikes were flat, and the new growths were very skinny, and like spikes, as the new leaves are tightly spiraled up inside the new growth, no flat quality at all. Now I have seen lots of new stanhopia growths, but I have always missed the start of flower spikes, and only noticed them after they were a couple inches long. Looks like it might be a flower spike to me.

By the way, I measured my holes. They are only a 1/2" in diameter. When I finally have a potting shed, I will put a very large soldering iron on a heavy duty transformer, so I can run it at a lower temperature for melting big holes. Cynthia

[lunaticvulpine]

Cynthia

im' not really so sure what it is right now as that wierd growth hasnt done much but then again i havent checked it in a few days but i guess i will when i have time later on today.

also just out of curiosity howlong does it normally take for your stan spikes to bud?

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

By the time I notice them, they seem to progress very fast. But since I don't see them in the early stages, I have no idea how rapidly they grow then. I broke down my big basket of Spindleriana this year, so I don't have anything to bloom this season unless some of the new Stanhopias are close enough to blooming size, and I don't think they are. Cynthia, Prescott, AZ

[lunaticvulpine]

ok. i checked it today and its starting to curve down into the medium now so i guess i really do hope that its a spike ive never seen a newly bloomed stan. i always see them after two or three days. also i think my tricornis might be preping to spike as well. so im doubly happy

Gaston