Orchid Updates! Jewel Orchids, Zygopetalum, Cymbidium & Cool Growers | Aquarium medium for Orchids?

[@liverocks62]

So happy to see you uploaded a new video while you are really busy. I love the review on the vaxer grow medium. Thank you.

[@laurafedora5385]

Two Zygo spikes is like heaven on earth! 😆 My Zygo is in spike, two years in a row started spiking in January, last year bloomed in March, so I’ve got a month to go. Definitely one of my favourites! Beautiful flowers, wonderful fragrance 😍 I don’t do semi-hydro (so, for those who grow in more traditional media), I grow my Zygo in cymbidium mix and it seems to like it, it’s drains and is airy and yet maintains good moisture.

[@ioanatanase4626]

Thank you Annabel for update on your Zygo! Really happy plant now that it's growing two spikes. Nice to see the rest of your cool growers and terrestrials. 😍

[@TheOrchidRoom]

No problem! Your comment made me go check on it and I found spikes, was quite shocked 😆💗

[@ShyDog827]

Thanks for all the info . Without it and the visual demonstrations , I doubt I would even attempt growing this unique sector of plants. Watching you go through all the trials and errors takes the fear out of it all . So many thanks for your work👍👍

[@BasiePlants]

Oh, the Jewel orchids look lovely. My Ludisia discolor is just getting too big. I have no idea how I will repot it now without breaking all of it. As you know, I got alba now

[@KP-gw5zv]

Thank you for sharing and giving us the updates of these orchids. Exciting to see the Zygo doing well and in spike. Your jewel orchids are so lovely. Really excited to see the blooms on your Cymbidiums. I know that I could handle the cool growers as I have the perfect place for them but I am still seeing which ones I would like. Thank you for the awesome video and have a real great day.

[@NinjaOrchids]

😍🧜🏻‍♀️ my zygo has 2 spikes on the way! After 2 years of fighting and thinking it won't bloom anymore 👍🏼 good to see your's doing so well and yay for the spikes 🤩

[@TheOrchidRoom]

Yay, it's zygo time! 🥳 🎊 🎉 Glad yours is doing well too!!

[@michaelmccarthy4077]

Oh, that's amazing your crinitum is spiking! 👏 👏 👏 I suppose I should be watching mine for spikes. It is definitely a common misconception to let Zygos (except, perhaps, maxillare) dry out. The other big misconception is that they are "low light" orchids. Nope, grow them with Oncidiums and Brassias. I think you'd like Z. triste. A much smaller Zygo, same care, flowers are brownish with a grape colored lip. Smells peppery floral.

[@TheOrchidRoom]

Thanks Michael!! 💗 I still don't think it's the healthiest plant, still has some leaf spots, but it's definitely an improvement on totally leafless! 😆 Anyone would think I was growing something deciduous looking at my plant 🤦‍♀️ But think it is getting there, maybe now that it's got some decent roots, the next set of growths will be better off. I think alot of the misrepresented orchid/aroid care info out there could be some people starting off drawing the wrong conclusions on culture? Correlation not causation etc- "I didn't repot for 5 years and then it flowered, so it must not like repotting and need 5 years in a pot to bloom..." meanwhile, the light has changed and it's now a mature plant. Maybe that's a bad example, and maybe some of it is based on victorian orchidmania/ greenhouse culture that doesn't translate to the way we grow them now. I don't know, I'm learning to try things myself before repeating them as facts 😆 It's an interesting topic, why some information that is presented as fact doesn't always add up with plants. It's like there was a disconnect between botanist understanding and the mass market plant trade, when it wouldn't be tough to provide basic facts, maybe about air and water, maybe about where they grow in nature, that sort of thing. Maybe the Zygopetalum culture opinion clash happened where they started to become mass produced and some info got lost, or maybe it's to do with the species / hybrid diversity 🤷‍♀️ Interesting topic!

[@CheeryOrchids]

They are all amazing!🤗 i really admire your work Annabel😊

[@kouprakrisnaabhay3206]

Hi Annabel, newbie here from France. Love your videos and what you did so far with the zygo. Was able to keep one from dying out of ten, maybe...will do what you did. Could you please make watchlist of "updates" only, it would be super cool! Keep up the good job. TY

[@roncastro7195]

Great to hear you Annabel......thank you for all of the info

[@michelleslifeonrepeat]

Just in time for me, thanks Annabel

[@TheOrchidRoom]

💗🙂

[@michelleslifeonrepeat]

My Alba is going straight up so I need to repot and trim it down. Good to see.

[@sleepgas]

Annabelle wishing you happy holidays I hope you're doing well and I miss your videos

[@MelissaWalker82]

Everything looks lovely. ❤️

[@marygorchidsmore2058]

Hi Anabel, Great video as usual! I like the aquarium media and will try it. Just spotted you have pollinated your jewel orchid, good luck with them. Can you please keep us updated on what/how you'll do with them? Happy growing and take care.

[@normantorok5919]

very interesting. would be interested in more about the cymbidiums :)

[@TheOrchidRoom]

More care info and details on their potting in the repot video 🙂

[@normantorok5919]

@@TheOrchidRoom thx! I'll give that vid a look. cheers!

[@TheOrchidRoom]

No problem! 🙂

[@gloria225]

Hi Annabel I have watched your videos and they are very informative. More so because well I think I am right in saying you are the UK. Can you please give more detail on how you potted up your jewel orchids as I have already lost one macodes petola and would really appreciate a video or info on how you mixed your aquarium substrate etc. Your jewels look amazing. Help please and thanks in advance.

[@tropicalplantsfinland]

Don't worry on my part. I'm myself now having to take a few weeks brake on posting videos. Way too much things going on in my life. Hope the year has started well for you. 😊

[@hillbillyorchids]

Looks awesome! I just took the Zygo plunge! Wish me luck! 😆

[@hojabotanica]

Hi Annabel, nice video! With what did you cross your ludisia discolor alba? I see seedpods 👏.... Do you know more or less how many days take the pod to mature?

[@laurafedora5385]

My Zygo is in spike again! 😍😍😍😍

[@TheOrchidRoom]

💗🙂

[@Ian-pf2pw]

Great update! Your zygo looks awesome I will try this inorganic setup next time before I kill another one on my watch 🥲 Funny thing, I thought they normally bloom on imature growths

[@TheOrchidRoom]

I think it depends on the species 🙂 The crinitum usually blooms on mature, I think many hybrids often bloom as the growth matures, unsure which species in them makes them do that, they're usually hybridised with different Zygopetalum-like relatatives 🙂

[@mariakarathanasi9799]

Good afternoon, Annabel, very nice video and very informative, I was woundering in what medium do you grow your cymbidiums?. I grow my outside we have very mild winters and i grow them in a bark mix but they dont seem to be doing very well. Thanks again for sharing and have a great day.

[@TheOrchidRoom]

Hi Maria! They have always been grown in various LECA/ semi-hydro mixes.If you check out the repot video linked in the description you can see what medium they are all in 🙂 Hope it helps!

[@mariakarathanasi9799]

@@TheOrchidRoom OK will do thanks and have a great weekend.

[@mariakarathanasi9799]

Good morning Anabell, just finished watching your cymbidium video great info I was wondering what fertilizer do you use I have rain mix, but am thinking of using the slow release kind what do you think? Mine live outside and im always forgeting to feed them (not a very good mum). Thanks again for sharing and have a great day.

[@TheOrchidRoom]

I just use rain mix at a higher concentration in summer- slow release could work but you won't have control over quantities or know how much of each nutrient you are delivering weekly in active growth 🙂 but if it's a question of forgetting to add fertiliser then slow release could really help them out iver summer and be easier for you to manage- they are really heavy feeders! So it would be hard yo give them too much if you're following the direction. Slow release in semi-hydro is another matter and not really a good idea, as the premise of slow release is they release the nutrients when wet. So you'd get a huge rush of nutes for the first few weeks.

[@mariakarathanasi9799]

@@TheOrchidRoom Good morning Anabell Well thanks for the info,. Since i will be growing them in semi-hydro they its best for me to use the rain mix only. I will just have to be more deligent in my watering. Thanks again your so kind answering me so quickly I know your very busy. Have a great day. I will let you know if they bloom in their next season. Have a great day.

[@juliapaust4840]

Hi Annabel, very cool cool growers )). I wonder, what t° do you set for cymbidiums now in Winter? Not colder than 5° and not warmer than.. say.. 15° ?

[@TheOrchidRoom]

Hi Julia, thankyou! 🙂 I talked about temp lows and conditions when I grew them outside in the greenhouse so you could always check that video for more detailed info on that setup and their old environment 🙂 For now they are in the conservatory- minimum 18C, max 25C over winter. Before I grew them outdoors, -2/-3C to +8C and bone dry when freezing temps hit. Never got such good spikes as this year 🙂 Was too harsh an environment, but they survived and bloomed.

[@juliapaust4840]

@@TheOrchidRoom that's fantastic! I might try one then, first on a balcony, then in Winter at home. They are really gorgeous. Thanks for information! 👍👍👍

[@TheOrchidRoom]

They are definitely resilient! They got too big for me to keep inside at the old house so I had to chuck them out in the greenhouse, expecting the worst and they did great 😆 I just had to be careful to leave them quite dry over winter, they were in a sheltered greenhouse so no frost on leaves or anything. They did bloom but the shows weren't great, it wasn't ideal, if I could have brought them indoors for winter I think it would have helped! So they are being pampered this year with life inside 😆

[@carom.6504]

Hi Annabelle, great video, thank you! how is your phal wall doing? Caro, Montreal

[@TheOrchidRoom]

Hi, Thankyou! Yes it's doing well, I showed it in my phal video a couple of weeks ago if you're interested 🙂

[@carom.6504]

@@TheOrchidRoom Thank you for the reply, I will go and have a look. have a wonderful weekend!

[@dancealiasable]

What does the encyclia smell like as I have one too. I find jewel orchids are easy for me to grow in plain leca and next to my phalaenopsis no special treatment and they do fine through my summer and winter here in Melbourne Australia. Seramis is very hard to get here so I usally only use leca for all my orchids and plants.

[@TheOrchidRoom]

Encyclia video will be out soon 🙂 The fragrance changes daily so I'm withholding judgement

[@danielm.1441]

What would you say to perlite as a medium?

[@danielm.1441]

I ask as I've got a gomesa radicans in quite chunky medium at the moment (hydrocorn, it's like LECA but less spherical and maybe a little chunkier on average), but I'm not sure it's happy in it. I have lots of perlite but not much else at the moment.

[@TheOrchidRoom]

Hi Daniel! It's fine short term, long term it gets quite compacted as it's soft, so not so good for orchids longer term as they grow more roots and fill the pot- if you check my cymbidium repot video you can see the roots after a year or so in a perlite mix 😉🙂 It worked great. I mainly used it to bulk LECA back then as cymbs need such big pots!

[@danielm.1441]

@@TheOrchidRoom Thanks!

[@sleepgas]

Where are you? You are missed! I hope you are ok

[@Marco37102]

👌👏🥂

[@TheOrchidRoom]

💗🙂