Orchids Pseudobulbs

Many orchids produce pseudobulbs or false bulbs, although this is not always the case. Those that do, develop a svmpodial type of growth, where a new pseudobulb is added each season along a continually extending rhizome. In this way, the plant builds up a series of pseudobulbs that form a chain.

Cattleyas produce just one or two broad, semi-rigid leaves from the apex of the pseudobulbs. Leaves vary considerably in colour from a light mid-green to dark grey-green. Some paphiopedilums and phalaenopsis are mottled with light and dark green shades. Not all sympodial orchids produce pseudobulbs. The paphiopedilums and phragmipediums, for example, form fans of leaves from a basal rhizome. Monopodial orchids have a single vertical rhizome from which pairs of leaves grow at right angles. Vandas and phalaenopsis are the best examples of monopodial orchids in cultivation.

While the vandas can become considerably tall, and at some stage in their life need to be reduced in height, the phalaenopsis are selfregulating, never attaining much upward growth, because the older leaves are shed at the same rate as new ones appear. The leaves of vandas and other monopodial orchids are semi-rigid, while those of phalaenopsis are broad and flat. In the wild, the latter plants are not subjected to extreme temperatures or bright sunlight, and their wide surface is designed to catch as much of the filtered light as possible.

Some vandas, on the other hand, have rounded, or terete, foliage, which lessens the surface area on plants that can survive in areas of full sun. Leaves that remain for one or two seasons only are wide, soft and papery, such as with the lycastes, while leaves that are hard and leathery will live for much longer.

Pseudobulbs have evolved into an unlimited range of shapes and sizes, from long, thin, pencil shapes to rounded or even flattened structures. They may be no larger than a pea, round and shiny, and delicious to look at when newly formed, as in the smaller coelogynes and bulbophyllums. By contrast, they may be the size of a tennis ball, as in the case of some cymbidiums. In cattleyas and allied genera, they become tall and clubshaped, swelling out from a narrow base adjoining the stout rhizome, while the one or two leaves are formed at the top.

Some leafless monopodial orchids exist, such as Chilochista species, that are no more than a cluster of roots, and it is the roots that contain the chlorophyll to enable the plants to photosynthesize. A few orchids have thick hairs on both sides of the foliage.

The strangest of all are the hollow pseudobulbs of Schomburgkia tibicinis and Caularthon bicornutum, two species with slits at the base of their hollow pseudobulbs. It is difficult to be sure why these have evolved, because they defeat the object of functioning as a food store when they are completely empty. Usually occupied in the wild by a species of fierce ant, they can serve a dual purpose: providing a home for the insect, which, in turn, grooms the orchid and keeps it free from parasites and unwanted pests.

Some orchids, such as Trichotosia ferox, produce plants covered with fine, brown hair, the purpose of which is not fully understood. It is thought that the hairs may provide a layer of protection in cold climates. The stems, new shoots and base of the flower buds of Dendrobium infundibulum are covered with thick, black hairs, creating a rough surface. As the new growth starts to age, the hairs become less apparent.

Watering Orchids

Water your orchids using a spouted watering can of a size that reflects the size of your collection. As this grows, you will want to convert to a garden hose in your greenhouse connected to the mains water supply. Use an adjustable nozzle to make the job easier and more enjoyable.

When you apply water, give enough to flood the surface, allowing the water to run through, then repeat the process. This will ensure a good soaking. Because of the nature of orchid compost (growing medium), the water will quickly disappear, so you need to use much more than is actually retained.

Dry compost will vary in colour, or you may notice other subtle differences that will only come with experience. If you are still not sure, slip a plant out of its pot, without breaking up the compost ball, and take a quick look underneath to see how wet it is. Take a look also at the plant itself. This will tell you what has been happening over the past weeks.

Many orchids flower while they are resting. In the wild, this would probably ensure a ready supply of pollinating insects on the wing, and it would prevent blooms from being damaged by torrential rain and winds. Odontoglossums complete their season’s pseudobulb and produce their flower spikes at the same time. Only after flowering does the new growth appear, which may be at any time from the early winter onwards.

There are other, more expensive methods of converting your water supply, or it may be easier to collect rainwater from outside and use that. If stored water is being used, be sure that it is at room temperature, especially in winter, when icy water will chill the roots. If your water butt (deep sink) is outside, bring in a can-full the day before you need to use it.

Mains tap water is available from several sources. In your area it may have fallen recently as rain and drained into reservoirs. Alternatively, it may be extracted from a river needing treatment before it is suitable for domestic use. It may also be water that has come from deep, underground, natural reservoirs, in subterranean rock formations. This water may be hundreds of years old and contain many minerals.

Your water may be fit for human consumption, but epiphytic plants do not like water that contains lime or calcium. Artificial water softeners are available, which work by adding salts and various ingredients to soften the water. Again, these may be fine for domestic use but not very good for our orchids. In fact, the salts added can be more harmful than the original lime.

Water softeners such as reverse osmosis, however, remove impurities to leave a better-quality water suitable for orchids.

Methods of Orchid Display

Growing areas can accommodate from just one to many orchids. However, an orchid plant placed in isolation, with nothing around it to stimulate growth, will not succeed. A barren windowsill can be likened to a desert, until a few adaptations are made to make the area habitable. A narrow windowsill may have to be widened by attaching a wooden shelf to give more space and increase the growing area. This area can be used for humidity trays.

These are available from garden centres and other outlets in many shapes and sizes with differing designs. The humidity tray is a shallow tray without holes, because it needs to hold water. Place a quantity of expanded clay pellets in the tray to about 2.5cm (1 in), or just below the rim, and partially fill with water. Now you have created a base for your orchids to stand on where they will receive a small amount of moisture from the evaporating water rising around them; at the same time, the plants will be standing above the water, so their roots will be kept wet but not immersed. You can have as many humidity trays as you have room for, standing a few orchids on each and allowing sufficient room between them for air to circulate.

Place a few smaller pots of ferns or other green plants in between the orchids; these can be kept wetter than the orchids by plunging them directly into the pellets. The green plants, which may be colourful busy Lizzies (Impatiens) or any of the smallgrowing creeping plants that will not become so large as to overgrow the orchids, will do much to create a good growing environment, increasing the humidity around the orchids and generally brightening up the setting.

Orchids placed on the floor would need to stand on concrete or tiles, which can be wetted without harming any installations, and some means of channelling away surplus water would need to be set up.

Alternatively, where the floor area is carpeted, the plants would be better housed on the sort of staging used in greenhouses. Here the same humidity tray system can be put into place to give the orchids the all important microclimate, with some moisture rising around them. It should also be possible to spray the foliage without worrying about surplus water.

Wherever there is sufficient light and warmth, orchids will grow, provided a suitable growing area is set aside for them. Cellar culture is practised in countries such as Canada, where excessively cold winters prevent the use of greenhouses.

The cellar, which is usually heated, is adapted to grow orchids by the installation of electric lighting and benching with humidity trays, and a system of catching the surplus water to be recycled or drained away.

This system works well in these colder countries, where the orchids are brought out for the summer and grown in the conventional way. In other situations, however, this system is not worth the cost and effort involved in converting an area, and the plants grown in this manner rely more upon their summer growth to keep them surviving through the winter.

Tips on Growing Fig Tree

There is no doubt that most people are too kind to figs and thus they don’t crop. They have been grown successfully in Great Britain since the time of Henry VIII. There are signs that the Romans may have brought the fig with them hundreds of years before.

Morello cherries are usually budded, though there is a variety in Kent known as the Wye Morello that grows well on its own roots.

The cooking cherries can be fed more than the sweet cherries because they must be encouraged to produce new wood. If they are mulched with straw a foot deep, a fish fertilizer may be given at 3 oz. to the sq. yard, in February and again in August. The mulch is undoubtedly the most important thing because the fruit cannot swell properly unless the fruits can get all the moisture they need. Where mulching is not carried out watering has to be done regularly during hot summers, in June and July.

Morellos can be planted as bush trees, 18 feet apart, but they are very popular as fan-trained trees on north walls, at 15 feet apart. Time to plant is November, while the soil is still warm. Buy two-year-old bush trees or three-year-old fan- trained trees.

To be sure of a crop, the fig should be planted against a south warm wall; a loam overlying chalk or hard limestone is good because this discourages the production of tap roots. I had seen figs do well on a thin soil over sand.

Anyway, it helps if the roots can be restricted, and so many dig out a hole a yard square and to the depth of 2 feet 6 inches, and then put into the bottom of the hole brickbats, trodden in tightly, to ensure good drainage and to discourage the growth of tap roots. Squares of asbestos roofing sheets cut to size can then be placed in position to line the sides of the square hole before the soil is put back.

Pest and Diseases of Grapes

The aim here is to produce a vine shaped like an open bush. The rods are allowed to grow naturally for the first year after planting. The rods are then cut back to within two buds of their base in January.

The stakes can conveniently be 12 feet apart and a wire should run right the way along the top. I have used surplus telephone wire with success. Incidentally, another wire must be stretched a foot from ground level.

Once again the vine is allowed to grow naturally the first year and then it is cut down to within two buds of its base. The strongest of the shoots that result is kept and is tied perpendicularly to a stout bamboo cane. All side growths that develop are pinched out with the thumb and forefinger to their base. When all the leaves have fallen, the long cane should first of all be tied to the stake and then should be carefully bent so that it can be tied along the lower wire. This bending of the cane, at an angle of 90 degrees, is important because the flow of sap is checked.

Red Spiders can be detected by examining the back of the leaf with a magnifying glass. Red Spider is a bad name. Yellow Mite would be better.

Some people give each vine one stake, 4 feet out of the ground, and then, instead of tying the rods out to ‘form a goblet, they merely tie the tips of the rods to the top of the stakes to form an inverted cone. By the way, do not allow the young cane to go on growing after the requisite number of bunches of grapes have been produced. You should always pinch out the growing point at 3 leaves beyond the top hunch.

When growing a vine against a wall the pruning may be similar. The rod instead of being taken along a lower wire can be trained, with a main rod growing upwards and with side permanent rods trained out at right angles. Thus a series of horizontal cordons are formed and the laterals they produce are pruned back hard each January. These are tied to wires stretched tightly in between the main wires.

Tips on Growing Currants

It is important never to summer prune the leaders or end growths of a branch. It is better to brutt than to cut with a knife, as neat pruning with a sharp blade may encourage secondary growths, which are just a waste of sap. Summer prunings may always be placed on the compost heap and be sprinkled with an activator like poultry droppings or fish manure. Winter prunings are too woody, so should be burnt, and the wood ashes sprinkled around the bushes afterwards.

The Big Bud Mite, which causes the buds of the blackcurrants to swell out three and four times the size, will attack red and white currants, but in this case the buds are killed-they do not swell out. If, therefore, you have bushes which do not fruit or which have buds which do not open, then an attack of Big Bud Mite must be suspected. The only thing to do in this case is to use a lime sulphur spray, dissolving I pint in 49 pints of water for this purpose. It will be seen that only a weak solution is needed.

Fay’s Prolific is a good old-fashioned early variety. A heavy cropper with long bunches of large berries. Useless, however, in windy situation, because the side shoots are apt to blow off. Season early. Lacton No.1 is a good flavoured early variety. A regular heavy cropper with long bunches of large, excellent, crimson berries. A great favourite of mine. Season late.

In cases where it is seen that the leaves are punctured with numerous holes giving a brown spotted appearance, and where the shoots are also punctured with the growth thus reduced, a Capsid Bug attack may be suspected. In this case, instead of using a tar-oil wash in December for a winter spray, it is better to apply a DNC wash early in February so as to smother the eggs.

Red Lake is quite popular because it is an upright, moderately vigorous grower. It is a heavy regular cropper with brightly coloured berries. Season mid. Rivers’ Late Red is included because it is the best late red. A rather spreading bush with fairly long bunches of bright red fruit. Season late. Wilson’s Long Bunch is a medium-sized fruits being borne on long bunches, as its name suggests. Quite a strong upright grower. Season late.

Birds sometimes cause trouble by pecking out the buds in the early spring, and when this happens the bushes must be heavily black-cottoned to keep them away. Pick the red and white currants when the berries are of a good clear colour. Gather the whole bunch at one time. Go over the bushes, however, three or four times so as to be able to pick the berries in the right condition. Unfortunately, birds go for red currants more than any other fruit in the garden, and therefore to be successful with them many people grow them in a fruit cage.

English Yew Taxus and European Silver Fir

The Douglas fir is a native of North America growing from California up to British Columbia. It was introduced in Europe in 1828 and is widely cultivated today in the woods and parks of western and central, Europe because of its rapid growth and high quality wood.

The larch is a sun-loving, fast-growing tree that requires abundant light and clean air. It is resistant to frost (except when the leaves are young) and heat, and its large, cordate root system provides it with firm anchorage. It is a very attractive tree, especially with the fresh, green foliage of spring.

The needles are flattened, and stand out all around the twig. The bark of old trees is divided into thick ridges separated by deep fissures. The Douglas fir likes partial shade, and is adapted to a long vegetation period and light frosts. It finds optimal conditions in areas with a coastal climate, in Great Britain, Denmark, northern Germany and France.

The related form Pseudotsuga glauca Mayr. grows in the Rocky Mountains at heights above 2000 metres. It has a thinner and less deeply furrowed bark, blue-green needles and cones with reflexed bracts. It has a slower rate of growth and is more suitable as an ornamental.

The Norway spruce is a typical tree of the mountain forests of central Europe and the northern European taiga. It has a narrow, conical crown with branches arranged in regular whorls, and grows to heights of more than 40 metres, in virgin stands up to 60 metres at the age of 400 to 700 Years. The bark is brown and furrowed. The leaves, rhomboid in section, are borne on peg-like projections, a typical characteristic of all spruces, which give the twig a rough surface when the leaves have fallen. The female flowers resemble small, erect reddish “candles” at first, but later change into pendant brown, elongate cones. The winged seeds are shed on warm and windy spring days.

The European silver fir grows well in shade when young, but requires moist soil and clean air, and is susceptible to severe winter frosts. In drier climates, and in areas with polluted atmosphere, it is on the decline. It is, therefore, not suited for planting in city parks. The wood is soft and light and is used mainly in the building industry.

Orchid Ventilation

Having set up your greenhouse with the correct equipment and prepared it for orchids, use the central staging for the largest plants that need the most headroom. Above these, along the ridge board and elsewhere, suspend orchids, such as vandas and stanhopeas, that like to grow in hanging baskets. These can be attached by the clips that are supplied with aluminium greenhouses, or you can hang them from hooks in timber rafters.

Early in the year, this may mean that several daily visits are needed to check the temperature and adjust the ventilation accordingly. As spring advances into summer, ventilation control becomes easier, and once the summer shading is in position, this will prevent sudden rises in temperature. Also, you can be more sure that the temperature will not drop drastically, and the ventilators can be left open all day, gradually extending the period until, by midsummer, it becomes safe to leave them open permanently both day and night. This is a lovely time for the orchids, which benefit from the cool, fresh air at night, and in the morning the greenhouse is slower to heat up to the maximum day temperature.

During this time, if additional ventilation is needed, you can safely open the door to create an even greater flow of air. However, if you do this, you may want to install a gauze-lined inner door to prevent cats from wandering into the greenhouse. It is also a good idea to install an alarm system for when the door is open and the greenhouse left unlocked.

Behind these, on either side of the greenhouse, attach wires or wooden trellis to the inside of the glass on which to hang orchids that grow on slabs of bark. The end of the greenhouse can be used to grow further orchids permanently on a small tree or branch.

To put up the insulation, you will have to remove those plants growing on the sides of the greenhouse and replace them when the polythene is in position. Remove the polythene in the summer, and replace it each year. You will need to allow fresh air in, so cut the polythene to fit around the ventilators, in the same way as the door, and insulate the door panel separately.

When insufficient ventilation is given, the air can become stagnant, encouraging the growth of moulds and rots. This can be prevented by opening one ventilator for a short period during the middle of the day. Some greenhouses are equipped with a ventilator on both sides of the roof. This creates more opportunities for opening the ventilators, and on windy days you can open the ventilator on the leeward side to the wind. Bottom ventilators, sited on both sides of the greenhouse, just above ground level, are ideal for creating a natural current of air from the bottom to the top. This current of air creates a natural cooling breeze through the orchids.

To heat a conservatory or sun lounge, itstall an extra loop off the domestic melting system. A strategically placed radiator or two, with their own thermostat controlling a small pump, will provide heat whenever required. As the domestic system will already be producing heat from a central boiler, be it mains gas, electricity or oil, the added cost of heating the conservatory is not as great as having a separate heating system. Use two thermostats, one to control the night temperature – set just above the minimum required – and the other to control the day temperature, along with a time clock to differentiate between the two. It is essential to install a maximum/ minimum thermometer next to the thermostat as they are notoriously inaccurate.

The fan will pull the hot air out of the greenhouse but it will also reduce the humidity and moisture, so it becomes necessary to install a misting system fitted below bench level to keep the floor permanently moist. Fresh air entering the bottom ventilators will collect moisture, which is carried through the orchids before being expelled at ridge level by the extractor fan. An alternative is to install a small electric circulating fan. This is different from the extractor fan, and only moves air around the greenhouse, freshening it up and keeping it buoyant, to prevent spotting on flowers, which can occur when the air is still and the humidity builds up. These fans can be a nuisance when you enter the greenhouse because you feel as if you are standing in a draught. A pull switch by the door solves this problem, allowing you to turn the fan on and off when entering and leaving the greenhouse.

Tips on Planting Blackcurrants in Your Garden

Aphides will pucker and curl the leaves and cause the tips to be twisted. Spraying with a 5 per cent emulsion of a tar-oil wash in December kills the eggs.

Capsid bugs puncture the leaves and shoots, causing the former to be spotted and the latter to be injured. In cases of very bad attack, the top leaves turn a yellowish hue. Prevent this trouble by spraying in February with a D.N.C. and omit the tar oil this season.

Be sure to buy healthy blackcurrant bushes which have been ‘certified’ by the Ministry of Agriculture. It is most satisfactory to buy two-year-old bushes which will carry from two to four shoots a piece.

It is better not to cultivate in between blackcurrant bushes. I had tried grassing down in contrast to strawing. The disadvantage of this system is that the grass has to be cut fourteen or fifteen times during the summer and autumn and this makes extra work.

If the stems of the blackcurrant bushes suddenly wilt, the blackcurrant shoot moth caterpillar must be suspected. A tunnel will be found in the centre of the shoot made by a small caterpillar. The only way to get rid of this pest is to cut all the branches down to within an inch of ground level, in the spring, and so to sacrifice the crop for one year.

Leaf spot can cause premature defoliation, especially in wet seasons. Spraying with colloidal copper wash has proved a good method of control. The Rust disease usually comes from the Weymouth Pine after picking probably, and it is never advisable therefore to grow blackcurrants in proximity to this tree.

Tips and Information on Growing Strawberries

There is no fruit like the strawberry for proving the value of organic methods of growing. It is a woodland plant or, should I say, a plant which loves to dwell on the edges of woodlands where it gets the sun and yet is constantly being ‘fed’ by the falling leaves of trees.

The strawberry growers of the early Victorian days used to take a delight in grubbing large coppices and then to use this land for strawberry growing. It was then, of course, very rich in humus and had a nice soil structure also.

The strawberry is, of course, a surface rooter and therefore you really ought not to cultivate once the plants are in position. The forking and hoeing method of growing strawberries is ideal. Get the land clean before the strawberries are planted, in the summer, and after that keep the weeds down by mulching, coupled with a certain amount of hand-weeding, if necessary.

Once the strawberry plants are in position they will be fed twice a year: first of all early in April and, secondly, immediately after fruiting.’ In the spring a fish manure will be given at 3 oz. to the sq. yard, and in the late summer steamed bone flour will be applied, or hoof and horn meal, at 3 oz. to the sq. yard. On light sandy soils some extra potash may be necessary, and then wood ashes can be used in the summer with the bone meal at 4 oz. to the sq. yard.

It is most important to take great care in planting, for if the roots are bunched up in any way, they will never `unbtmch’ themselves. A good hole should be made with a trowel so that the roots can be allowed to spread out and these must be well down. The crown of the plants must be at soil level and not below or above. The land of course must be absolutely clean and free from perennial weeds. It should be quite level and the top 3 or 4 inches must be free working.

If for reasons of expense the sedge peat idea has to be neglected, then all the hoeing that may be necessary in the early summer must be very shallow, and after the straw has been removed the tendency must be to hoe shallowly up to the plants for strawberries make new roots higher up their crowns each season.

Next Page »