Fun with Pleurothallids
I have been growing orchids belonging to the subtribe Pleurothallidinae for several years. There are some 40 genera in the section. My interest was fanned after seeing some in Bill Letcher’s (fellow NOS member) orchid collection. They are not your commonplace orchid, however most are fairly easy to grow. If I can grow and flower them, anyone can. What attracts me to them is the small size of most plants, and the small flowers, some only 2mm across, needing a magnifying glass to view them.
About 10% of the world’s orchids are in the subtribe Pleurothallidinae. There is a wide range of conditions they grow in. For me, the easier types I have found to grow are the relatively warmer growing Pleurothallis, Stelis,Restrepia, Dryadella, Scaphosepalum, Myoxanthus and Zootrophion. I have tried other cold growing genera such as Dracula, Masdevallia and I even purchased a flask of Trisetella (a cold growing species). Later, after telling Wayne Harris of my purchase, he shook his head and said ‘good luck’. Unfortunately, he was right.
I live at Woombye and grow my orchids in a weldmesh house with 50% shade. In summer, I grow my Pleuros on a bench underneath my Oncidium plants at the Eastern end.
The plants sit a little over 12” off the floor and this gives them a fair amount of shade. In summer, I water them every morning and give them whatever fertiliser my other plants get. My Pleurothallidinae aren’t housed in ideal conditions. It is hot in summer and can be cool in winter - down as far as 3°C.
I was managing to get flowers but not as many as I would have liked. About 2 months ago, some family visited and our 5yr old great nephew came out to the greenhouse with me to have a look. At the time I had hung some pleuros including my Masdevallia Marguerite (x2) from the bench which gets the morning sun. They were hanging just above the gravel. More to myself, I mentioned that I was having problems flowering them, so my nephew said “put them up
higher Mal”. So he then set about handing all the plants to me while I hung them up high. They ended up getting much more sun. As it happened, it was only a short time later that they started to spike and flower. In future, in the period between summers end and winters start, I will hang more Pleurothallis and Masdevallia up higher. As I put this together, (19/8/19) it’s starting to warm up, so it won’t be long before they go back under the bench.
If you are having trouble flowering your plants, shift them around so they get more or less light and shade, whatever are the light requirements of the particular genus or orchid you grow. DON’T BE AFRAID TO EXPERIMENT. Many of these orchids don’t have a large root system and don’t have pseudobulbs, therefore the potting medium needs to be kept moist (not sopping wet), watering more frequently and increasing air circulation (by a fan, etc.) in the hot, summer months to keep them cool. Most have a thin stem from which the leaf emerges. I give them a small amount of fertiliser, about a half teaspoon per gallon of water. I use mesh pots as some plants (Scaphosepalum) put their flower spikes through the mesh. I use a mix of sphagnum and small polystyrene and a very small amount of perlite.
Author: Mal