Orchid Borealis

Anthogonium is a monotypic genus (meaning only 1 species is known in the genus).  There are some studies of large scale molecular phylogeny of the Orchid family (e.g.,  Górniak et al. 2010 , van den Berg et al. 2005 ), and this genus is one of the basal lineages within subfamily Epidendroideae.  The subfamily Epidendroideae is the largest subfamily within Orchid family, which contains the majority of commonly grown orchids such as Cattleya , Cymbidium , Dendrobium , Phalaenopsis , Pleurothallids, and Vanda .  But the relationship among the basal lineages of Epidendroideae are conflicting between the two studies, so it is difficult to say which other genus is most closely related to Anthogonium . Anthogonium gracile is a fairly widely distributed species; from North East India to Myanmar /Southern China/Vietnam region. A distribution map (occurrence data) and drawings can be found in Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF) .  In that map, one occurr...

 CXA3070 + TE holder Introduction and COB advantage: I have posted about other LED lighting options for plant growing.  The high-efficiency T8-LEDs from Sunritek are fairly impressive.   Philips XF-3535L involves a bit more work, but it is very easy to assemble.  Here I'm showing how I assemble a Chip-on-board (COB) based project.  It is the workhorse and the performance leader of DIY-LED world at this moment. From my point of view, the 3 advantages of COB LEDs are the easy assembly, high efficiency, and affordable cost.  You can make a highly efficient fixture with the individual LEDs, but generally it ends up costing much more than COB based units. I think the majority of DIY LED people have migrated to use COB technology now.  Some of the grow light makers are finally catching up and started to use this technology.  If you prefer a pre-made COB grow lights (but you need to pay at least 2x of the DIY cost), following companies offer COB...

I have been watering orchids with hand pumped sprayers.   I used several models including cheap ones from HomeDepot, but this model  26021XP 2-Gallon ProSeries from Chapin is quite a bit better.  It is easy to clean inside because the opening is pretty big, and it seems to be pretty durable (>2 years).  But after 2 years of use, I feel the pump is getting a bit weak (I have to pump more frequently).  It probably needs to be cleaned up. This sprayer has been working ok, but it does take quite a bit of time to water all plants because the flow rate isn't high, and it is kind of tedious to pressurize manually.  So I asked a question at SlipperTalk in order to make the irrigation easier.  I got several good recommendations.  After looking around the recommended options, I decided to get a submersible utility transfer pump ( Wayne EEAUP250 1/4HP , about $120 from Amazon ).  I have a 50 gallon barrel to store rain water next to the main orch...

I have been trying to grow  Disa uniflora .  I could make them flower in the first year, but it didn't make a new growth for the next year.  In an attempt to improve the environment for them, I made a small ebb-flow hydroponic system for my second year of Disa growing.  Most parts are from Lowes/Home Depot.  This system makes it easy to give sufficient water to Disa .  The EC of the water seems to go up after a while, so I do have to change the water in the reserver occasionally, though.  Currently, the plants get water twice a day. The summer is the difficult time for these cool growing Disa .  The survival rate wasn't as high as I hoped for and there were quite a bit of death over the summer.  But I may have some survivors which might flower for the next year.  So it is a little bit of progress forward.  The next step may be that I need to add refrigerated unit like what Tennis did in his informative page . I don't have e...