In My Bush House Feb. 2018
The weather has returned to normal summer with warm days and finally, for some, rain. This is good growing weather so make the most of it. Lots of plants are making new growths look after them as they are your flowers for later in the year.
After the blast of heat we had I have used some Eco Seaweed and will do this as a tonic to my plants again in February, March and April. I also have used some Eco fungicide to keep any problems to a minimum during a time of high humidity that we are currently experiencing and will continue to during Feb and March.
Be on the lookout for aphids as they will attack the new growths. Keep checking as although your plants are ‘protected’ by shadecloth this will NOT protect them from these little buggers who are so small they will just glide thru the mesh. Remember that if you leave them, they give birth to live young up to 100 per night, they can collapse a new growth in a couple of days. I use Pirimor® but you could just use Eco-Oil or Natrasoap to smother the little buggers.
I continue to repot where necessary. Normally I won’t let a plant go for more than 3-4 years without repotting at this seems to give them a new zest of life and they get a spurt on. For those requiring the axe or saw I will leave until the end of this month when things should start to cool down a bit.
Plants in flower this month are Dendrobium prenticei, Bulbophyllum macphersonii, Cadetia taylori, Sarcochilus ceciliae, and Sarcochilus seriterifus an unpublished Sarcochilus similar to S. ceciliae but with a very hairy labellum.
All varieties of Dendrobium tetragonum are sending out new growths. As are Dendrobium jonesii and the roots just keep getting longer on the Plectorrhiza tridentata so keep up the humidity. Currently I am watering 3 times a week with nightly misting to cool down the plants and for the humidity.
Fertilizing once a week checking on the sheaths of Dendrobium speciosum and folding back where necessary.
I caught two Dendrobium beetles on the wing yesterday just outside the bush house, a reminder that I was due to spray this weekend so I did it that day as well. Remember you only have to spray the new growths until they harden up. Spray the whole pseudobulb as well as under and on the leaves. I had found 2 small grasshoppers in the bush house and killed them and decided, for good measure, to spray in there as well so mixed up a batch of Bugmaster® and turned on the sprinkler. Haven’t seen any bugs the last couple of nights. Something to watch out for is ants as with the new growths coming they will exude some sticky sugars and the ants will bring scale so don’t forget to check under the leave, sort of out of sight out of mind.
That’s all for now, enjoy the weather and look after yourselves and your plants.
