Your last bits on the ugly orchid and the gloves made me laugh 😆

Congratulations!Nice talking.

Hi! Very cool video! I'm from Italy and it's very difficult find information on Catasetum alliance here. I have some Catasetum orchids that i recently acquired ... They are in their rest phase. I would like to repot them using your PET method (because they are in terracotta pots, that dry out too fast)... Can i repot the bulbs now? Or better to wait until the end of winter, before the growing season? Thanks

I can only imagine how exciting this trip was for all of you. Thank you so much for everything you shared on this video and the previous ones ❤❤❤

I enjoyed Watching Stephen☺️👏🌟

I enjoyed watching this video. Brazil looks like an amazing place. Thanks for sharing. 🤗💐

You have the best, most informative guests! Many things go over my head 🤯 but I also learn such interesting things! What a special trip for you!

In fact I see no reason for taxionomists to cgange plant names.

Does regular applications of systemic antifunfal (banrot) Prevent thus?

Thank you once again for your informative video! I think I will cut off my catasetum leaves too rather than waiting for them to drop them naturally, because it took like 2 weeks to drop the bottom leaf hahaha

Hi, do you have a division of Blossfeldiana for sale and do you ship to Germany ?

I'm not familiar with that. Is it a disease?

I enjoyed this video. Along with the good/bad things that sometimes happen. I rewatched your video with Fred Clarke from last year. That video has it all! My plants are in front of a window in a cool room, so no water now. Because I live on Lake MI, the days are extra short because of lake effect clouds - 9 hours maximum light. I may try moving some of them to under lights where it’s warmer and longer light. 🤷🏼‍♀️ Experimenting until I get it right growing orchids in the winter and inside of the house.

Stephen, how do you water in the tents? Are you just watering by hand?

I enjoy the Orquids house Congrats 🌸🙏👍

Hi Stephen😁🙌The grow tents are a blessing😌🙏

you live in southern usa. Is this all necessary? I mean your not in finland or in canada.

Stephen, Would'nt be more stabe to build your shade house out of sheets of weld mesh.Mine is just held together with fencing clips, I can send a photo on your FB if you like

Wow, that's a pretty dramatic haircut. I'd almost be tempted to hang the lights under them to have the heat from the lights keep the roots warm and shade the Catts underneath less. What do the temps look like in the tent during the coldest nights? Also, what sort of media do you have your Neobenthamia growing in? I have one that I got mounted to a tree fern slab that doesn't look nearly as nice as yours.

Hi Stephen, thank you for your video. It is a good reminder for me to cut leaves on my Catasetum. I have also noticed that the pseudobulbs of a few young seedlings that I received in the summer are very soft to the touch. I have not been watering for a week or two, but did not expect them to get so soft. Is something wrong with them?

if the crappy HOA would have let you put up an actual shade house you wouldn't have to stuff them in the garage.

Ooo you remind me time to trim the light hogging leaves!! I was thinking about it and didn't do it...and maybe some bulb energy will make them want to spike better 😂

High light for the Catasetum even when they are dormant?

So sorry-gorgeous bloom. Glad you got to experience the better days…💜

Well that’s sad!

Very interesting. I needed this. Thank you

It was very interesting to see your update. You have a wonderful collection of orchids. I am looking forward to your future updates and news about your project of growing rupicolous cattleyas from seed. I followed your Rudsta design, only for my phals I have much weaker Barrina lights. My cattleyas seem to be doing fine. Some of them bloomed or are going to bloom. I am only concerned about my c. walkeriana which had emerging buds, but they aborted very quickly. It was a big disappointment.

Try raising the phals up. That one in the terracotta pot looked low.

I grow all of my plants (orchids, aroids, carnivorous plants, terrarium plants) under lights and my thought on your previous cabinet video is that the lights were too intense for phals, just based on the color your Nepenthes has. It’s difficult to compare different LEDs so wattage is the easiest (imperfect) way to compare. For novelty phals, I usually will max at 10w per light, placed at about 8 inch intervals to cover the shelf in equal light, and that’s on the high side for them. I wouldn’t be surprised if you could get away with completely removing the lower light and the residual light that makes it through the top shelf would be enough for low-moderate light plants! But also a couple of cheap 10w shop lights would make them very happy. Not that I would ever try to dissuade someone from growing more Rupiculous Laelias but I have a soft spot for Phals, too 😅

I wonder if you strung a piece of shade cloth between the lights and the Phalaenopsis to get the light lower. Some species seem to be very susceptible to temperature and humidity..I have killed every Phal. lobbii that I have bought.. just can’t get the conditions right.

A most enjoyable video! Thanks so much 🪴

I really enjoy an experiment so I want to see what happens with the Brazilian rocks. My Lc Dinard has set another sheath, and there is something going on in another leaf. It looks like it could be bud related but I'm not sure. Orchids seem to continually be teaching us, or at least trying to teach us.

I enjoyed watching the video. Thanks for sharing.👏🤗

I run a similar set up but I'm already thinking about designing v2. I would look into putting a few ac infinity cabinet/computer fans in there. If gas exchange is limited the plants will run out of CO2 immediately at the leaf surface and not be able to take advantage of the lights. Cattleya are much more metabolically flexible than many other orchid types. One thing to note with the LEDs is that you can easily saturate the photosystems in the chlorophyll in unnatural ways. This can sort of "constipate" the plant in terms of converting light energy to sugars as well as nitrogen reduction in the plant. 5g/gallon magnesium sulfate and 1-2mL/ gallon molasses can help move plants along if you see them stalling under the lights. You will notice that Ray is already selling a modified K-Lite with some more ammonium because we are now beginning to appreciate that just because plants love to uptake nitrate forms of nitrogen that doesn't mean that nitrate is the "best". Ammonium stimulates the microbial nitrogen cycle and is less energetically intense to convert to amino acids as long as its not overapplied. Nitrate nitrogen requires a lot of energy (and water) to reduce inside the leaf so that it can be turned into an amino acid. The backlog of nitrates and ammonium in the leaves causes an energy drag in the plant and your plants will become much more disease prone and tasty to insects. I've been experimenting with this for the last few years and have started to replace my nitrogen allowance with small doses of amino acids. Once I'm out of my normal K-Lite I will be buying the new formula. Nitrate fertilizers outside of the plant also oxidize organic matter in combination with microbes which can rob your plants of non gaseous carbon sources which are also important for maximizing photosynthesis. Sorry for the wall of text and I wish you well with your cabinets

I'll be fascinated to see what happens with the sandbox & rocks.

My phals, all 25, and those of my office mates' that I help reflower, LOVE a north window and no more than that. I'm further north than you, and it keeps them cool enough at night in winter to prompt reflowering. The babies and phal samera live 10 feet from a south window. So far everyone is happy. It's very dry where i am, no more than 30% usually.

Hey hon you sure you killed the spider Mites? Several of us are still fighting them! They are not going away with typical sprays! These are tough mites! I'm spraying with straight 91% alcohol and all it's doing is keeping them at bay! 😱 these are like super mites! But yea I get you should grow what works great in your conditions. I do! 😊

Thank you for always making such informative videos! Out of curiosity, what's that one plant that's in flower throughout the video?

I cannot find the stuff that you placed in the container.. synthetic o something.

Hi Stephen, thank you very much for the video with potting tips and soil mixture discussion. When you plan to give a dry rest to your laelia milleri, are you going to cut on watering and reduce temperatures or just reduce watering? I have a number of hybrids with about 25% milleri in their parentage and not sure about reducing their watering because the temperature in their area does not have seasonal changes.

Thanks Steven

I'm just wondering what the ratio of hydrogen peroxide to water is. Also this video was absolutely great full of valuable knowledge 👏 thanks

Nice haul! I too, recently decided to try the carbonized rice husk. It seems we may have sourced the rice husk from the same source (Amazon). I think the material is much smaller than what is being used in Brazil. I assume what is being used in Brazil is derived from a long grain rice. The potting media I’ve seen being used consists of rice husk, peat moss and perlite. This is the method I’m trying. The smaller material is a little too dense, which I compensated by adding more perlite. I found an Etsy vendor that is selling husk that is similar type/size from what you see in Brazil. I’ll see what that looks like and how that works.

Hi Stephen😌🙌Yes, I also notice that Cattleya and my bifrenaria tyrianthina have been growing new canes/bulbs over Summer,but it's only in the winter season that they produce the most roots, so they definitely have two growth seasons; one for bulbs and one for roots. My bifrenaria tyrianthina has big white roots bursting into growth as do my Cattleyas, especially are very visible on my mounts. I have mounted 3 Cattleyas and they have a much better root system beginning👏🌟even my rhynchostylis gigantea which didn't even produce any roots at all has a thick healthy root grasping onto the mount. You did the right thing potting your rupiculous Laelias into a sandy mix👍Just by imitating nature they thrive don't they. I enjoyed watching and I took notes of all your handy growing tips😌🤲💞🌱

Nice plants, I hope they do well for you! I did get a little nobilior seedling recently, I'll be interested to see how it goes.

i think pyrolyzed materials are really good idea for orchid potting media- so far I have not found a cheap source for it however. i always see the carbonized rice hulls on instagram so I'm excited to see how your seedling does it.

Years ago I tried to grow a couple of these outdoors, and failed. I suspect I repotted them at the wrong time. They struggled for a long time before they gave up. Yet we have to remember that there are over 50 species in the *Series Parviflorae* and IIRC Andy (from Andy's Orchids) mentioned it took him a while to learn how to grow them, and that they are different needs between them.

Beautiful 🌸👍

"it's November 5th today, which is a Tuesday" it shall forever be known as black Tuesday.

Hey Stephen very interesting stuff going on! That rice husk is something I never heard of. I may have to read up on it some. It's hard to find what is best to pot R. Laelia's in. Most come stuffed in a teeny pot with very little moss. Any time I repot it's death for them. 😂so I have to find a different way. Some pot in small limestone. I can see the theory behind that. But very interesting! I got some cypress mulch and giving it a whirl now. 😂