Plant Info... Please

[Tanya]

Few years ago, I have bought a bare root oncidium type of orchid. It had tag but I lost it, all I could remember is that the last name is "tiger's paw". It bloomed once but not a good show but I remember the flowers to be greenish yellow ang have interesting markings that resembles a cat paw's mark. I have always thought it to be a colmanara type. But now I know it is not because I have a colmanara wild cat and the flowers and markings are much darker. Any suggestion as to what type of oncidium is this?

Over the few years it struggled to survive because it plagued with bugs that love to chew the tips of its roots. None of my other orchids suffered this way, sure, some of them, one is a den., got their roots chewed on but not as serious as this oncidium. It is now doing fine with good promising roots and new growth.
To be honest I have never seen it with this much roots before but I think identifying it will help me a great deal in caring for this plant.

Attached is the pic of the plant. By the way, any suggestions on how to get rid of that algae that is spreading on the mount without hurting the plant?

Thanks for any help.

Tanya

[LJA]

After doing a little checking, the only orchid plant I could come up with that had Tiger's Paw as the grex name is Grammatophyllum Tiger's Paw. The plant looks similar to the one you have pictured, and the growths are relatively large, the pseudobulbs on Grams can be two or three times the size of those on Oncidiums.

Here's a possible pic of the flower; it's the first bloom shown on the top right. It fits your description: does it look like what you remember?

http://blogs.salon.com/0001330/categ...004/05/23.html

As far as getting rid of the algae on your mount, that's going to be difficult. A product called RD-20 which is commonly used here as a bactericide and fungicide is also a good algicide, but I don't know if it's available in Hong Kong. I don't think the algae looks bad, though, so you might just leave it as is....

[Tanya]

OMG!!! THAT is huge! Now I am hoping that my plant was mislabelled, lol. The flowers in the pic has more markings but the markings are similar. Anyway, my onc. was not in good shape when it bloomed for the first time, the spike was short and only few flowers. Like I said, its been plagued by root chompers since I bought it and its been declining ever since. Honestly I am surprised that its still alive after (I even forgot how many years.) I remember that the original pbs were bigger.

Thank you for the info and providing the link (some cool orchids there, I enjoyed it ), now I am both excited if mine is the same as the one in the pic, and yet also afraid. Where would I put such a monster? .

Thanks,

Tanya

[moctavio]

Your plant does look like it is a Grammatophyllum. The bulb certainly looks like it. How many flowers did it have when it flowered? The one in the picture had around 70 flowers. I have a few of them and they grow very well here in Caracas (1,000 meters (3,000 feet) over sea level). They have grown so much (I have about six) that I started moving them to the edge of my open air orchid room and I placed them close to the roof where it gets very warm. The result: They are growing bigger and flowering more! I even have a Gramm. Speciosum that became so large I moved it out completely into full sun, it has not flowered yet, but it loves it out in the open. Glad you liked my pictures!

[moctavio]

Tanya:

If you think that was huge, look at the Gramm. Scriptum in this picture, my brother in law is in the picture for scale!!!

http://blogs.salon.com/0001330<WBR>/categories/orchids/2004/01/11<WBR>.html#a1232

[Tanya]

Your plant does look like it is a Grammatophyllum. The bulb certainly looks like it. How many flowers did it have when it flowered? The one in the picture had around 70 flowers. I have a few of them and they grow very well here in Caracas (1,000 meters (3,000 feet) over sea level). They have grown so much (I have about six) that I started moving them to the edge of my open air orchid room and I placed them close to the roof where it gets very warm. The result: They are growing bigger and flowering more! I even have a Gramm. Speciosum that became so large I moved it out completely into full sun, it has not flowered yet, but it loves it out in the open. Glad you liked my pictures!

It only had no more than 10 flowers, if I can remember correctly. It never flowered again after the first one because the pbs never got the chance to grow big enough. I hope it will get full recovery this time. On the other hand, I'm also hoping that what I got is a compact Gramma.

How do you grow your Gramm.? I saw your other response and the pic looks more like the one I have. I would appreciate any tips you could give me. At the moment I am feeding it with 20-20-20 fertilizer just like my other orchids.

Thanks for the info,

Tanya

[Tanya]

Tanya:

If you think that was huge, look at the Gramm. Scriptum in this picture, my brother in law is in the picture for scale!!!

http://blogs.salon.com/0001330<WBR>/categories/orchids/2004/01/11<WBR>.html#a1232

WOW!!! Magnificent !!!!

I don't know, but could it be possible that there were two kinds of plants from that bundle of bare root plants I bought few years ago? You see the leaves on the plant in this blog is different from the other one. And this one match the leaves of the plant in the attached image. I remember the flowers as greenish yellow and the markings were similar to that of the Gramm. scriptum. But in your blog you said that this one loves the sun. As you can see in the attached image, mine suffered some sun burn. On the other hand, the plant on the other pic doesn't mind direct sunlight.

I have just attached this one on its mount few days ago. But it has some good roots growing under that sphag. I can still easily remove it without disturbing the roots if you think that its not a good idea to grow this plant this way. This one has no roots at all last summer. They had been chewed by something up to the base of the plant. Poor thing.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions and tips.
Thanks for the pics, they are great. Good growing .

[LJA]

moctavio, welcome to the forum.

That's a gorgeous plant you posted. Excellent growing!

[moctavio]

Louis: Thanks for your welcome. Tonight I posted a picture of a Dendrochilum I have had for quite a while:

http://blogs.salon.com/0001330/categ...004/10/10.html

which I have identified myself as Cobbianum, based on web pictures but I have no book with it, so it is a tentative ID. Do you know about these or know someone who does? It is a huge plant too, I seem to get some of those thanks to the beautiful Caracas weather!

Miguel

[moctavio]

Tanya: Mine only get direct sun in the morning. I grow them in an open air room, with a roof made of glass with wire mesh inside. I have all my Grammatophyllums growing in bark. They don't like to be repotted too much.I also think they dont like their shoot with the flowers be cut when is still green, but I can't prove it!