Bulbophyllum scaberulum (Rolfe) Bolus 1889, on a basket. The irritating problem of long internodes between pseudobulbs

 

I love the genus Bulbophyllum.  It has an enormous number of species with curious and eye-catching flowers.  But they are also the source of much frustration.  The reason is the long internodes between pseudobulbs.  You put an orchid with long internodes in a pot and before you know it, all its new growths are out of the pot and hanging in the air.  This is not good as pseudobulbs that are not attached to something tend to be weaker than those that are mounted of growing in media like bark or tree fern. 

I have tried many things to tame these uncontrollable plants.  Two things have worked, tying them to a long tree fern pole and tying them to a wire basket full of water retentive media.  With Bulbophyllum scaberulum I tried a wire basket filled with media.  I worked wonders, and in a relatively short time the orchid have covered the outside of the wire basket.   The thing is these plants need constant attention to bend the long internodes back toward the wire basket and tie them so that when the pseudobulb develops the roots will easily find the media.   It is very annoying that they tend to grow in every direction except toward the media.

 As long as I kept a constant watch for new growths and tied them to the basket, everything was hunky-dory.  But since this plant was doing so well, my attention wandered.  What an error.  The next thing I knew all the new growths were in the air.   If this is not corrected, the plants become several chains of pseudobulbs hanging from the basket that are not full size and will not bloom.   This is very irritating.

 My recommendation if you have one of these orchids.   Buy a long tree fern pole and attach the plant to it.  Buy U shaped nails in the hardware store. When this pesky plant starts producing new growths, as soon as you see the new pseudobulb emerging from the internode, use the U shaped nail to attach the growth to the fern pole.  Be careful not to harm the internode as in this stage its not that hard.  So, don’t damage the internode when affixing the U nail to the fern pole.   I have lost several of these Bulbophyllum due to their tendency to gallop across and escape from even the largest pot before you realize it.   Take pieces of your plant and start new plants on other mounts so that if one deteriorates you will not lose the orchid.

Grammatophyllum culture: My experience with plants that have lost their roots

 

The aftermath of hurricanes Irma and Maria left most people in the island of Puerto Rico scrambling to secure the basic survival needs.  I my case, I was so busy at work, that for many months I could not pay attention to my orchids.   The hurricanes destroyed the forest canopy in my locale.  This produced wildly fluctuating temperature, humidity and light exposure.   Periods of extreme rain alternated with periods of almost no rain.  Many of my orchids could not adapt to the new circumstances and died.   Those that survived often suffered massive root loss.   Among those that lost their roots were my Grammatophyllums of the scriptum and elegans type.  As a result, they became much smaller, some plants divided into small groups of rootless pseudobulbs. 

Normally, Grammatophyllums are tough and resilient, but their tolerance was solely tested after the hurricanes.   To compound the problem the tags of most of them were lost.  So I took the remaining pieces and planted them in a variety of mounts to see in which ones they did better.   I have one advantage most people don’t enjoy, the humidity in my locale normally lies in the range that is good for tropical orchids. 

I planted the pieces I had in four different ways.   One was tied to a wire framework, with nothing else to provide attachment or moisture.  Another was put on a small plastic mesh pot filled with bark.  A third one was put on top of a metal wire basket.  Lastly one was tied to the bottom of a wire basket.  Before I go on, I have to explain what is a root basket.   Grammatophyllum often produces a mass of roots with many roots pointing upwards.  The purpose of these roots is to trap leaves and debris that fall on the plant as a source of moisture and nutrients.  A healthy plant often has a large root basket surrounding its pseudobulbs.  Many people affix their plants to tree fern plaques, or grow them in wooden baskets to allow the roots of the root basket to expand at will.  

 After a few years of care this is the results:  The one that was tied to the metal wire mesh has done better, it’s the one that has the most bulbs and the largest root basket.   On second place came the one on top of a metal wire basket, it produced small bulbs until it reached the edge of the basket, then produced the largest pseudobulb of them all.   Unfortunately, I put this one in a planter and it send a mass of roots into the pot next to it.  I had to rip it from the pot and in the process damaged its root basket, I expect it will recuperate quickly.  On third place is the plant growing attached to the bottom of a wire basket.  It has grown slowly, lost some pseudobulbs to rot and it still hasn’t started producing a root basket.  The piece that is growing on top of the plastic mesh pot filled with bark is the slowest growing of them all.  It only has two relatively small pseudobulbs and its yet to start producing its root basket. 

 From these results, I think it is clear that the Grammatophyllum prefer that their roots not be confined and will do better if their roots can grow at will and are exposed to air.  These plants are heavy feeders and need constant fertilization during their growth cycle for their pseudobulb to attain a large size.  High environmental humidity is extremely important in the case of plants that have lost their roots.