Encyclia culture: On getting plump pseudobulbs

Encyclia Rioclarense

Encyclia Rioclarense

Encyclia bractecens

              To grow Encyclia orchids to their best potential, you need to be familiar with their growing patterns in the wild.   The Encyclia that are available in the market come from tropical climates in which there are two seasons instead of the familiar four.   These seasons are the dry and the wet season.   When the year starts, plants have mature, full grown pseudobulbs that will produce flowers in the dry season.   When the wet season arrives, the plant will initiate new growths.   To get the best out of your plants you need to make sure the plant is regularly fertilized and watered when it is producing new growths.   Personally, I don’t apply fertilizer to my plants when they are not producing new pseudobulbs.

                New growths arise from the base of the newest pseudobulb, some species on occasion produce two growths from the lead pseudobulb, but this varies from species to species.    This new growth will initially elongate until the leaves are at their full length, then it will start to get fatter.   It is at this stage that I give my plants regular doses of fertilizer.  I fertilize them weekly with 20-20-20 fertilizer.  I use a teaspoon of fertilizer per gallon.   It is important not to over do the concentration of fertilizer, this might burn the new roots the plant will produce.  On plants that I know are particularly heavy feeders I put bits of very dry cow manure in tiny metal baskets over the roots so that when I water, a slight amount of organic fertilizer reaches the roots.  But never put the manure in contact with the roots or allow it to clog the pot when it decays.  Some people use small bags of slow-release fertilizer for this purpose, but I have never done this. 

                Encyclia plants like strong light but not full sun.   Some species develop a reddish tint on the leaves when it is getting the right level of light.  This is completely normal.   Deep green leaves are indicative of too little light, this will produce weak growth and the plants will not bloom.

                I pot my plants in a coarse mix of stones, bark, charcoal and bits of Styrofoam in the bottom of the pot to improve drainage.  Some species are intolerant of even the slightest stale and decayed media.  Those I cultivate in metal baskets so that the roots always have access to oxygen and that any decayed media will be washed away during baskets.   In my experience some species are intolerant of media that becomes waterlogged.  For that reason, I grow my Encyclia alata in basket of river pebbles.   Some plants I grow mounted on logs or of fern plaques.   I do this mainly for aesthetic reasons since I like the way the inflorescences and flowers are displayed when they orient in a horizontal manner or hang under the plant.

                Temperatures in my area vary little during the year.  Most of the year, temperatures go from around 75F during the night to 85F during the day.   In January and February temperatures can dip into the sixties briefly and in the height of summer it can get up to 90F.   Plants that come from cool, wet high elevation cloud forests don’t do well in my garden.

                A thing that has to be kept in mind is that different species and hybrids have different adult sizes.  Encyclia bractecens pseudobulbs, even at they largest, are much smaller than a full sized Encyclia cordigera pseudobulb.  You need to do some research to get to know your plant so you can gauge your success or lack of.     Then there is the issue that some hybrids can produce many new growths that instead of blooming produce more growths, so you end up with a large plant with a multitude of small pseudobulbs that never bloom. 

In the photos you can see the huge difference between the pseudobulbs Encyclia Rioplatense had when I brought and after one growing season under my care.   You can also see the media is coarse and the roots grow over it.  Encyclia bractecens is growing on a fern plaque.   An important final note, when the pseudobulb matures it will produce many roots at the same time, these have to be protected from snails and insects, the loss of roots can weaken a plant prevent it from growing large.  If the orchid roots are damaged or lost repeatedly, the plant can eventually die.

Myrmecophyla (Schomburgkia) humboldtii an ant orchid from Venezuela

A fully expanded mature flower

A paniculate inflorescence

Note that several of the flowers are partly closed, this is normal

A plant on a wire after one year of growth

The same plant as before but after three years of growing hanging from a wire

Roots are produced in a single massive burst

An ant patrolling the plant, the pseudobulbs are hollow and house ant colonies

When I was given this plant as a gift, many years ago, I had little information on its blooming habits, growth patterns and cultural needs.  In those ancient “pre-Internet” times finding information about an obscure species of orchid meant going to a university library and hoping they had a book about orchids that would give you some guidance.  Unfortunately even when you found some information about your plant often the information was in the form of a taxonomic description with no details of its cultural needs.

As a result of this lack of cultural information this orchid remained a mystery to me. The issue was that growing this plant proved easier than pie, however getting it to bloom seemed an impossible dream.  So year after year my plant would grow into an ever expanding gargantuan specimen plant with no blooming ever.  Eventually the Internet entered my life and through places like The Orchid Source forum I began to exchange information with people that actually grew this plant in its natural habitat in Aruba.  Myrmecophylla (Schomburgkia) humboltii is native of Venezuela and can also be found in the Netherland Antilles.  

Then I found that I had misunderstood what this plant needed to bloom and was growing it too shady.  It needs full sun to bloom but it also needs to produce large and strong pseudobulbs.  Also I found that the roots and the inflorescence are extremely vulnerable to insects and snails which will travel long distances to attack the tender parts of the orchid as they are growing.

To get the best out of this plant you need to give it particularly careful attention when it is in the growing part of its seasonal cycle and when it is producing roots.  Full sun has to be accompanied with frequent applications of fertilizer and abundant watering.  If these are neglected during this plant growing phase the pseudobulbs will be small and most probably will abort their inflorescences if they even try to produce them.  Medium sized pseudobulbs will produce racemose inflorescences that will have a few flowers open at the same time.  But if you manage to get this plant to produce the largest pseudobulbs possible the inflorescence will become paniculate with several flower bearing branches.

I have discovered that under my conditions potting this plant is not a good strategy.  It grows well and flowers acceptably when growing on a dead tree where it gets abundant sun.  But my best growing plants and the ones that bloom best are growing hanging from wires with no material or slab to grow on.  I have no idea why this is so, it seems counter intuitive but there is no denying that the ones growing completely in the air do better under my climatic conditions.

My plants bloom between winter and spring if the inflorescences manage to develop without being damaged.  It has been my sad experience that the inflorescences of this plant in particular seem to be an irresistible treat to insects, millipedes and snails.  Even hanging the plant high doesn’t deter the pests from attacking the tender inflorescences.  So when I see an inflorescence start to develop I give the plant a light dusting of an insecticidal dust.  It has been darkly satisfying to find the dead insects that strived to make a savory dish from the inflorescences.  Since there are many fish tanks around where I grow the orchids I use insecticides with extreme caution and precision and follow the label indications to the letter.

The flowers of this orchid are lovely and among the most full of the genus.  But someone visiting the garden around the hottest hours of the day could be excused if he/she found the flowers disappointing.  The reason is that the flowers are at their best in the early morning and when the day turns hot they turn floppy and partially collapse, only to perk up the next day.  Because the inflorescence produces just a few flowers at a time this plant can be blooming for a few weeks as the inflorescence elongates.  The flowers of this orchid continue expanding in size for the life of the bloom and achieve their largest size just before collapsing.

This plant is highly esteemed in horticulture and due to its ease of culture it is fairly common among local orchid collections.  A an often heard complaint is that it is shy blooming but this comes from growers that keep their plant under shadier conditions than those conductive to blooming or that have undersized plants due to lack of proper fertilization and watering during their growing season.  There is a rare white flowered variant of this species but I have yet to see a plant in bloom of this variety even though I know of people that have grown it successfully.

This orchid has hollow pseudobuls which are colonixed by ants. My plants host several species of ants but usually the one that is most conspicuous is a yellow one with a particularly nasty sting.  Unfortunately the presence of the ants doesn’t seem to deter the pests.