Oncidopsis Nelly Isler : Background Info and Growing in the Home

Hi everyone, it's Annabel, and welcome back to my channel!
In today's video I'm going to chat about how I grow my Nelly Islers in a warm environment within the home- with some necessary discussion about one of it's parents- the Miltoniopsis :-)
The Nelly Isler is a hybrid between Oncidopsis Stefan Isler x Miltoniopsis Kensington. There is a large percentage of the Miltoniopsis in it's parentage, therefore I treat it as a Miltoniopsis, however in my climate the Miltoniopsis hybrids I have are more vigorous!
Species composition is Oncidopsis Stefan Isler (Onc. leucochilum + Onc. noezlianum + Mps. vexillaria + Onc. harryanum) x Miltoniopsis kensington (Mps. vexillaria + Mps. phalaenopsis + Mps. roezlii).
Link to OrchidRoots info on the Nelly Isler hybrid composition: bluenanta.com/d...
Links to my previous Miltoniopsis videos:
Miltoniopsis summer update:
• Miltoniopsis Summer 20...
Miltoniopsis biology, growing in the home etc: • Miltoniopsis Care Tips...
My Orchid Room
Temps- 18-30C
Humidity 60-75%.
Artificial lighting supplemented with daylight.
Lighting
Cool white '6000K' under cabinet lighting- Screwfix
GEMMA 50w LED modular COB grow lights: www.gemma-led....
GEMMA 100w LED COB plant light: www.gemma-led....
GEMMA have kindly provided a 10% off discount code for anyone who is interested in purchasing any of their lights! This is valid until 01/01/21. Just pop OrchidRoom in at the checkout :-)
Shelving
Wire shelving, Hartleys direct: www.hartleysdi...
Metal shelving IKEA: www.ikea.com/g...
Pots
DIY Self watering pots, DIY Semi hydro pots
DIY Self watering pots made with IKEA Nekjon outer mask www.ikea.com/g... and various 15cm clear internal orchid pot
Wick for self watering pots www.amazon.co....
DIY semi hydro pots, various brands. Square pots used from www.oasishomea... with semi hydro holes drilled in for reservoir.
Self watering pots with water level gauge: Lechuza mini deltini www.amazon.co....
or other brand: www.amazon.co....
Mini USB fans from Amazon: www.amazon.co....
Media
LECA Canna Aqua Brand or IKEA www.amazon.co....
Sphagnum moss by Besgrow
Vanda baskets purchased from Roellke Orchideen and Peter White Orchid accessories
Find me on Instagram / annabel.minton
Be sure to look out for more care tutorials to follow! Please post suggestions and questions in the comments! I'm really happy to chat to fellow orchid lovers and hope you've enjoyed this video :-)
Thanks for watching! :-)

[@charlotteannestudio]

Thank you for this :-) I'm so in love with my Nelly. Had it for a year now and it's just coming into bloom again. Oh boy, you're right about the speed of growth though.... the new shoots have been coming for 10 months now and still not mature. Getting there slowly but it has really tested my patience!

[@megank9865]

So glad I decided to watch your video before my Nelly Isler arrives in the mail. Thank you for the wealth of information 💗🤞

[@TheOrchidRoom]

Thanks! I hope it is useful! 🙂 let me know if you have any questions when your Nelly arrives! And congrats on the new purchase 🙂

[@megank9865]

@@TheOrchidRoom Thank you so much again, I'm so nerviously excited about it. I got a notification from Australia Post saying that my new Nelly should arrive tomorrow, and after watching both yours and Ninja_Orchids videos on TDS and pH, I've just finished testing my tap water/seaweed solution and tap water/strike back for orchids solution and all is well 😅 So, my main challenge will be summer temperatures, especially if we get lots of 40+°C days outside. Even with the A/C running constantly, the orchids do suffer and the summer flowering phals will drop all their blooms. Thank you 💗

[@pixmahler5859]

TERRIFIC video. Thank you very much, Annabel!

[@brendaNFarmville]

Thank you I just purchased one and its doing very well. My environment is more on the cooler side.

[@liverocks62]

Hi Annabel, last month I bought 4 new Nelly Islers, I got a good deal. I have lost all my 3 Nelly Islers I previously bought on several occasions. I am starting over with these new ones with a similar mix as yours and I plan to use leca as a bottom layer. I think I lost them because the roots was staying to wet. Well one day I will be successful😁

[@jess24martin20]

Oh my god look at this colours I don't have this one direction look like put this on my wishlist now so beautiful.

[@jamescostablanca3716]

A very special thank you for this very informative video concerning Nelly Isler. I shall take into account all your advice in the hope of maintaining this beautiful plant in my collection. I'm going to try self-watering pots, which I've never used to date, as I think I under watered them in the past for fear of over watering.

[@TheOrchidRoom]

No problem, really hope it was helpful! Sorry I didn't reply to your other post earlier, did you repot in the end? During winter you may not need to use the self watering reservoir if it's staying quite moist anyway but I've really found these systems to be pretty life saving for during summer! Otherwise I'd be watering every day! Really hope it works for you, let me know how it goes!

[@laurafedora5385]

I’m getting one next week, so excited!

[@ratgirl44]

Thank you for the great info!

[@heaven7360]

Mine is a fairly young and smallish size and it put out two spikes and lots of flowers. It really surprised me. Yes, the leaves are sensitive and I have to remember to water it a bit sooner than most others. If you like yellow flowers, there's a Burr. Sunkissed "Butter Cup". They're very different looking than Nelly Isler but I think the foliage is a bit "tougher", less fussy.

[@TheOrchidRoom]

Oooh the yellow burr. Sounds lovely! I will have to keep an eye out! I've been looking for a yellow Miltoniopsis for ages but they don't seem very available here 😢

[@heaven7360]

@@TheOrchidRoom I love the flower very much. It really has an unusual looking bloom...it's understated, but has a lot of character. The blooms though don't look like Miltoniopsis blooms though. Here's a photo & some informationwww.orchidweb.com/orchids/oncidiinae/hybrids/oncostelopsis-sunkissed-butter-cup The Burrageara is listed as an Oncidinae hybrid group. It's hard to follow the way of the hybrids~~

[@vilialice]

Hello, I just ressently discover that Nelly is not an odontoglossum and the care is very very different, in between my Nelly lost near all her roots. I try to put her in a mix of inorganic and organic media (sphagnum moss, small grade bark, perlite and vermiculite with a drainage layer of lava rock) hoping it will be ok. She go to the bath room there is quite moist air a lower temperature and good light. I'm sorry but I didn't understand well the moment we must cut the flower spike? We wait bloom and cut after or just one flower bloom... A bit confused. Thank you for the video. I think will watch again for better understanding. Have a nice day!

[@jokennedy2943]

My favourites! 🌺

[@gemmaambrose2954]

Great video only just found your channel can I ask where you purchased from in U.K. please?

[@OrchieDee]

Lovely video :) ... I've made peace with the fact that my Nelly Isler is very likely mislabeled 😢

[@TheOrchidRoom]

I saw your video on it but wasn't sure enough! The bulbs are very chunky for a Nelly Isler, but maybe it's just a super vigorous individual? But I think if it was a Nelly isler yours would probably have flowered by now, because they're just flowering machines! Maybe you need to get another 'Nelly Isler' to compare 😁 and if you do then have two Nellys then double the fragrance! 😍

[@KimberlyAnnMaria]

Very pretty.

[@TrishsOrchidLife]

I wish I had seen this before I put my Nelly Isler in bark/moss mix. I have moved to moss about a month ago. And am now in the “wait and see” position. She is not droopy or dropping her leaves sooooooo

[@TheOrchidRoom]

I think you can get around any media by just adjusting your watering 🙂 A miltoniopsis can definitely grow in bark in the home for example, you may just need to water more frequently so it never dries to the point where there is no moisture left at all. Nelly islers seem particularly sensitive to dry media, I nearly killed my first one by trying to do the whole wet dry cycle with pure bark, and the roots dried out to the point they actually died 😅 Not a proud moment but she recovered, and I learned that didnt work in my environment 🙂 Of course, that may well work if I had higher humidity, I dont know. I'm sure your nelly will do just fine as you get to know eachother 🙂

[@TrishsOrchidLife]

The Orchid Room I have her in self watering so she will not have to get dry. I am thinking of putting a humidity tray as well due to the air in my house is not humid enough for her I do not believe- even with the humidifier in the room. I grow in the front room of my home and the door is being opened throughout the day so the humidity levels fluctuate. Thoughts?

[@TheOrchidRoom]

@@TrishsOrchidLife If it's in self watering it doesn't really matter if it's a bark or bark moss mix, if the moss is networked all through the pot and touching then it's the same difference 🙂 Self watering is a great option for lower humidity environments as the orchids can easily replace what they lose through transpiration due to the low humidity 🙂 I don't know if humidity trays make that much difference, but the self watering setup will definitely help it out, doesn't hurt to try the humidity tray either way though.

[@paprikagirl5496]

Can you please outline your sphagnum moss mix and methodology in self-watering pots? I tried this and the result was that the moss was much too consistently soggy. If you've already covered this in a video perhaps you could point me to it? thank you!

[@TheOrchidRoom]

Hi, Yes I've mentioned this in a few videos, mostly in repotting vids. I'll post a few that come to mind. Here for oncidiums at the end point where I make up the new mix : kzbin.info/www/bejne/nqikZmWkoaehrdU Here in relation to self watering mixes in general and using airier mixes with more bark and LECA for my encyclia : kzbin.info/www/bejne/h4jNnH-flLF-qtU . If you then want to see the encyclias progress I do a repotting for it here and discuss switching to inorganic alternatives and the reasons : kzbin.info/www/bejne/bp6uiqOlYrB0hqc There are others where I discuss inorganic self watering mixes using synthic. The two I show the mixes for are the synthic trials and the repotting a new eBay miltoniopsis video. My nellies are now all in this inorganic mix. Ultimately I'd say you could make up to a 50:50 mix with other materials to create an airier mix, as long as there's sphag networking throughout the pot and also making contact with the self watering wicks. The brand of sphagnum you use definitely makes a difference, the besgrow new zealand sphagnum is much fluffier than other or Chilean sphagnum. Materials you can mix with include pumice, great for airation and also wicking, LECA, bark, perlite, lava rock (won't wick but will provide lots of airation). Or whatever else you want 😄 of course it will hugely depend on your environment and the orchid in question what that ideal mix is so it's a bit of trial and error, but that's half the fun right? Hope that helps!

[@shivasundari2183]

Eathanaal Nov-2-ku melay en kooda pesaporathillai. Eappadi na ungalukku manathu varum !! eannidam irunthu neenga vilagum munbe naan vilagetuven na.

[@MelissaWalker82]

Perfect timing ;)

[@TheOrchidRoom]

Are you repotting into pumice? I reeeealllyy want to try an inorganic media but semi hydro was such a fail for these guys I'm scared 😅

[@MelissaWalker82]

The Orchid Room I did leca on the bottom 2/3rds and pumice for the top bit. I am crossing my fingers! Her bulbs are plump so I should know if something isn’t to her liking if that changes. I have her in one of my beloved glass flower pots so I can see everything.

[@TheOrchidRoom]

@@MelissaWalker82 Let me know how it goes! 😀 Was it one plant or two in the end? Sounds like you got a very healthy specimen 😁

[@MelissaWalker82]

The Orchid Room wellll it was one but now it’s two. I didn’t intend to split it but the join was extremely thin so it was a bit floppy and I was investigating whether it was attached when it detached. I potted them together and the smaller half has the new growth so hopefully they both do ok. She is opening buds so no dehydration yet :D

[@smallshebear]

Hi Annabel Have you experimented with the Nelly Isler in an inorganic setup? If so do you have any pointers?

[@TheOrchidRoom]

Hi! Yes my Nellie's all got switched to inorganic with the oncidiums and miltoniopsis, they're in mixes of LECA, pumice and synthic, they need lots of moisture and no dry top layers whatever inorganic setup you go for 🙂

[@smallshebear]

@@TheOrchidRoom Thanks! I got a lovely one as a hostess gift and am getting around to repotting her now 😊

[@TheOrchidRoom]

@@smallshebear Having said that the Nelly Islers were fussier than my milts in this vid, I then had to revise this opinion after the repots- all my milts stalled a bit and my Nellie's took off 😂 Can't figure it out, but they seem quite adaptable once they get established. I tried them before in straight semi hydro and they wouldn't grow new roots and I nearly killed them, but this was a few years ago back when I very first got them. Which tainted my view on SH a bit until I figured the dry top layer thing out 🙂

[@TheOrchidRoom]

@@smallshebear I hope yours does well 😀

[@victoriamarvelli8125]

Try the synthic instead of the moss. It’s inorganic and works the same!

[@TheOrchidRoom]

Ohhh great idea! Have you tried synthic? I saw MOGs trials with it but wasn't sure it worked in that set up...? But potentially in combination with other inorganic materials could make a nice wicking mix for a moss alternative..?

[@TheOrchidRoom]

I went back and checked her videos... I think we can overcome some of those issues. I ordered some- Let's try some synthic! 😀

[@victoriamarvelli8125]

I haven’t tried it, but my friend is using it and swearing by it! I’m going to try it next for sure. Glad to give you a suggestion, and can’t wait to see what you come up with.

[@Stefh2104]

Καλησπέρα από Ελλάδα!! Σας παρακαλώ να βάλετε και την Ελληνική γλώσσα στην αυτόματη μετάφραση γιατί δεν ξέρουμε όλοι καλά αγγλικά και είναι κρίμα γιατί λέτε δεν καταλαβαίνουμε τι λέτε... Σας ευχαριστώ πολύ.