My first DIY mounting: Psygmorchis

[ArtGeekMark]

This is the outcome of my first DIY orchid mounting venture! I got this Psygmorchis pusilla in a flask at the Central PA Orchid Society show at PSU last month. A grower/vendor gave me it for free when he realized the flask had been contaminated and a grey green mold begun to grow. I cleaned off the plants and had them sort of "quarantined".

There were many plants in that little flask but I ended up losing 4 little plants apparently to dryness, so since there were no signs of mold reappearing I went ahead with mounting most of them (11 actually) today to a tree fern slab with some spagnum. I also put 6 remaining plants in a terrarium just to experiment.

[Daethen]

Looks pretty good to me.

[BluPeaches]

That looks pretty good to me too.
I love the leaves and shape of this little plant.

[ArtGeekMark]

Update: Guess what has three, posibly four, spikes & one bud already?! Me'thinks this plant loves it's new mount, the foliage is even more vibrant now.

It's nothing spectacular to see yet but I'll post a photo of the buds & blooms soon (besides I left my camera over at my parents house yesterday so I couldn't take a photo yet). Peace.

[plantloverlisa]

What an interesting plant, looks like miniature palm trees! Great job.

[BGGraham1]

Sweet! Can't wait for the pics!

[orchids4me]

So by your edit mssage lol these are very tiny type minature plants . I need to looks these up I've not seen these before. Can't wait to see the blooms. Can you if you will.... Put something in one shot for us to see for a size comparison when you do photograph its blooms?
Thanks
Emmaye

[ArtGeekMark]

I couldn't wait , I'm too excited it not only survived the moldy flask and my first mounting attempt! Three spikes and so far one bud!

[BGGraham1]

very cute! Emmaye asked if you could put something in the shot so we could see the approximate size. Like, maybe a quarter or a dollar bill or something?

[ArtGeekMark]

orchids4me & BGGraham1, for some reason I didn't see orchids4me's post about something for size comparison until this afternoon and I had already left home, but I will definitely take a photo with something, a US Quarter or something, as soon as I am able to! Sorry I didn't see your question until today orchids4me.

Very Nice! Good growing, Dude...these are pretty, healthy and happy...

[NiNiDazzle]

What are it's growing conditions? I have one and it's just been plodding along.

[ArtGeekMark]

I have it mounted to tree fern with a wad of moss with fishing line.

We have it outside for summer hanging off the corner of a hanging slat basket for our Bulbophyllum medusae under a crab apple tree in bright shade which also gets occaisional dusk sun dappled through a nearby maple.


It gets rainwatered as well as watered with superthrive laced water, in this recent heat, watered frequently. It dries out between waterings, the tree fern I bought on ebay is very course compared to the tree fern my leptotes & sophrontis both already came mounted to unfortunately, so it dries out the quickest of my three (what I like to call) "mini-mounts" (the other two "mini-mounts" as well as my Neofinetia mounted with moss in a seed-pod are all also "hitching rides" on the hanging slat baskets of our other bulbophyllums, Elizebeth Anne Buckleberry & Wayne Oyama.

[ArtGeekMark]

Just for reference here they were just before I took them out of the moldy contaminated flask and cleaned them up, quarantined them a while, and eventually mounted them two weeks later. I got them at the orchid show at PSU last May when the vendor noticed mold in the flask and let me have them for free to try and rescue.

[NiNiDazzle]

Mine might be getting too much light then. I have it in med light right now. Maybe I should move down to low/med and see how that goes.

[ArtGeekMark]

Here is a shot for size comparission per request.

[ArtGeekMark]

Last night the bud finally bloomed! I'm so happy; from rescuing it from a moldy contaminated flask I got for free from a vendor at my first orchid show to cleaning and quarentine, remounting, bud to bloom!


I was a bit irked something ate the top corner of the bloom before I could get a photo, or perhaps the bloom was malformed? But hey, it's more neat than a dying miniture orchid covered in green mold.

[Puddy1]

Such a tiny beautiful plant. Congratulations! Great job

[1joyceh]

Outstanding job!!

[ArtGeekMark]

It bloomed again today for the third time this year since getting it in May! (it's second bloom since mounting it, my first mounting try ever)

[NiNiDazzle]

It looks great! How many of them do you have on the mount? Mine is lonely all by itself.

[ArtGeekMark]

Originally Posted by NiNiDazzle

It looks great! How many of them do you have on the mount? Mine is lonely all by itself.

I have 8 on this mount, and 4 in a terrarium as an experiment. If I remember correctly I lost another 8 from the free but moldy flask I rescued them all from.

[GreenOrchid]

This is a cool little plant. Amazing that it bloomed so soon out of flask. I will have to see where I can find one. Great job!

[pikkumyy]

ooh wow, very cool, i've heard that psygmorchis are short lived, is this true?

and that is an amazing mounting job, and congratulations for bringing it back from the brink

[GreenOrchid]

Any suggestions where to buy one?

[ArtGeekMark]

Originally Posted by pikkumyy

ooh wow, very cool, i've heard that psygmorchis are short lived, is this true?

I have heard & read that a few times as well but have heard very little else about it. So far mine is still doing well but it seems one of it's latest spikes blasted and a leaf went bad since moving indoors for the Fall/Winter. We've been having excessive rain & flooding in my area the past few weeks, our house has a lot of humidity because of some minor repeat-flooding in our cellar.

Originally Posted by GreenOrchid

Any suggestions where to buy one?

Well I got mine at a sale table at an orchid show, but I have seen them on eBay now and then being sold. There are a few decent grower's around the web that members on here talk-up quite a bit and members have seemed pleased with, so they must be pretty reputable. Good luck & happy growing!

[1joyceh]

sorry to hear about the cellar Mark...I feel your pain, don't think my sump pump can take much more...raining now.....east of us closed school today because of the flooding again...sigh..

[ArtGeekMark]

I am sad to report that it is indeed true psygmorchis is apparently shortlived indeed. Both clusters of mine which I had divided: most on the mount shown above, and a few plants in a terrarium with a miniature begonia, spikemoss (fern), and moss have all died for no apparently reason. They just withered all at the same time in the same manner, even the terrarium all by itself. It was a fun little plant I got to bloom three times after saving it from that moldy flask for free at my first orchid show, I will miss it and I am still bummed it didn't live but part of me feels I didn't fail and that's just how it goes.