In My Bush House - March 2019
Well we are into March now and passed the worst of the summer but watch out for those hot days that may occur. Make sure that you don’t let any water sit for too long on the leaf axils. Better yet spray with a fungicide such as eco-fungicide® at 4gm/l and eco-oil® at 5ml/l.
Keep an eye out for pests like aphids, grasshoppers and Dendrobium beetle. I have sprayed with my usual Bugmaster® Carbaryl at 2ml/l + 5ml/l Remember to ONLY spray new growths so you don’t waste any.
Plants in flower Dockrillia Hot Coals, Dockrillia bowmanii with those beautiful apple green petals and sepal with contrasting white labellum, Dockrillia cucumerina, Cadetia taylori, and Den. prenticei.
All plants are at varying stages of growth and I hardly have a plant inside or outside of the bush house that has not had new growth. The roots are growing everywhere through the bark so keep up the fertilizer. Most plants in my collection have a dose of blood and bone and a slow release like Osmocote® Pro 8-9 month. Also keep up the fertilizing weekly with Peters® Excel CalMag Finisher.
Dendrobium speciosum var. capricornicum a little grown species that is continuing with the amazing growth spurt this year. Here is a plant that I obtained in 1998 from Ray Clement when Tony Blewitt was selling of some plants. I named this one 'Granite' after the volcanic plugs that this species likes to grow on. They become that hot in the summer you could fry an egg on them. Yet this plant grows there happily, well they used to as they have been decimated long ago due to over collecting. Happily the remainder are behind fences on private property.
They are a strange species and if you want to find out more of them go to Gerry Walsh’s ‘The Rocklily Man’ web page http://therocklilyman.com/dendrobium-speciosum/dendrobium-speciosum-variety-capricornicum/
This plant was a division of one that has not been re-potted since 2011, unusual for me, and with only 10 pseudobulbs has sprouted 8 new growths. This is nothing unusual as all my plants some 15 are all exhibiting phenomenal growth this year. Do they know something we don’t? They have a massive amount of ‘eyes’ and even some up on the top of pseudobulbs have converted into new growths.
Take care, and happy growing.
