Eyes on Orchids Newsletter of the Baton Rouge Orchid Society

P.O. Box 66242—Baton Rouge, LA 70896-6242 September, 2013 - Volume 55 - Issue 8

www.batonrougeorchidsociety.org - 225.308.1404 –info@batonrougeorchidsociety.org

September Meeting - Wednesday, September 18, 2013 - 7 p.m.

Baton Rouge Garden Center - 7950 Independence Blvd.

Program: “Growing Phalaenopsis in Baton Rouge”

By Beth Blackstock

Message from President Danka

September Program

The program for September will be "Growing Phalaenopsis in Baton Rouge" led by our own Beth Blackstock. She will share her experiences and her tricks in getting Phalaenopsis to live, grow, and re-bloom in our climate. She will also have a hands- on workshop on planting orchids. If you are interested in repotting one of the orchids, please bring a pair of clippers with you, and follow Beth on grooming and replanting them.

I previously have written about the unmatched diversity of orchids, and how this translates into opportunities for each of us to try growing plants which need conditions that are out of the norm for south Louisiana. Isn’t it interesting, however, that even plants that grow well here fairly easily may be grown in diverse ways? The bottom line is that many of the details of how you grow a plant really don’t matter, as long as you meet the basic require-ments of the plant. We will spend some time at this month’s meeting talking about this concept. This discussion is important as it relates to our efforts to grow the Phalaenopsis that Beth Black-stock has gathered from Whole Foods. We would like to improve our members’ abili-ties to grow these plants as we foster the phals before we donate them to Our Lady of the Lake hospital. Let’s strive to grow and bloom more of them, so that next spring we brighten the lives of grateful patients and their families. More about diversity. For a long time I have been struck by the diversity of the people who grow orchids. BROS clearly reflects a diversity of experiences, de-sires, abilities, facilities, commitment, and so on. It seems to me that the signifi-cant, ongoing challenge for the Society is to find the ways and means to deliver in-formation and services to our diverse membership. This requires thought, reason and effort by the Society’s leaders. At our September meeting we will finalize a slate of candidates to fill the positions of Officers and Board members of BROS for the com-ing year. The Nominating Committee (Beth Blackstock, John Graham, John Nelson, Danna Spayde and Marie Williams) has come up with candidates that they will pre-sent. We also are able to nominate candidates from the floor during the meeting. I personally thank each of you who is willing to help the Society by donating your time and effort. Your vision is needed as we continue to meet “diversity challenge” as BROS moves ahead. At its last meeting, the Board of Directors nominated Danna Spayde to be rec-ognized with the distinction of becoming a Life Member of BROS. Life members are See President’s Message page 3

BROS Officers, 2013

President Bob Danka 225.769.7762 (h) rdanka@cox.net

Vice-President Bob Lank 225.927.2514 pops1548@cox.net

Secretary Valerie Creehan 225.756.8363 Treasurer Blair Many 225.921.9938 blair@blairmany.com

Show Chairman, 2013 Bob Danka 225.769.7762 (h) rdanka@cox.net

Newsletter Editor Danna Spayde 225.317.0933 orchidnut_2000@yahoo.com

Board Members Lata Johnson, thru 2013 Beth Blackstock, thru 2014 John Graham, thru 2015

SWROGA Representative: James Jeansonne AOS and Orchid Digest Representative: John Huner

Chairs of Standing Committees: Program Co-Chairs ♦ Lata John-son ♦ Tin-Wein Yu Membership ♦ Bob Lank Finance ♦ Blair Many Librarian♦ Bob Danka Refreshments ♦ Vacant

Minutes of August Meeting

The plant clinic began at 6:45 PM with Gene Berg review-ing several commonly grown orchids, including phalaenopsis, dendrobiums, and cattleyas. Information was provided such as light requirements, growth patterns, and bloom periods. Gene described both monopodial and sympodial plant growth. Examples of orchids were presented. President Bob Danka called the meeting to order at 7:18 PM. He reviewed the benefits of Green Growers, held monthly at the home of Gene and Thelma Berg, and includ-ed the time and address. Bob discussed activities of our show, along with noting that the Lafayette display was set up by Carolyn and Clyde. Blair gave a profit statement of the BROS show. Bob reviewed the speakers for the next three meetings: Weyman Bussey, Peter Lin, and Roy Tokunaga. Roy will speak on November 20, at the Burden Center. The next two shows were noted: Alexandria on October 5 and Shreveport November 1-3, which is a SWROGA show. Bob announced the need for a nominating committee to fill open positions for the following year. Danna Spayde, Ma-rie Williams, and John Nelson were nominated to serve on the committee, along with the Board’s appointment of John Graham and Beth Blackstock. Bob also announced the Board’s decision for nomination of Danna Spayde for a life time membership, for her contributions to BROS, including the position of editor of the newsletter and her efforts with “Orchids for Seniors”. The Lafayette short course will be held on November 23. Featured speakers are Fred Clarke of Sunset Valley Orchids (Vista, CA) and Francisco Miranda of Miranda Orchids (Haines City, FL). Both speakers will have plants for sale. President Danka discussed the success of the Whole Foods foster orchids, along with reading a thank-you note, and noted his pride in this project. Visitors were recognized. The presentation for the meeting was given by Ashley Matherne of Orchid Retreat in Bourg, LA. His topic was “Growing Cattleyas, Orchids of the New World”. Together with his wife, Beverly, Ashley has been growing orchids for 25 years and selling commercially for 10. He gave a most in-formative lecture reviewing the cultivation of cattleyas, in-cluding the following requirements: light, water, fertilizer, air movement, and proper potting. Insects and diseases as-sociated with cattleyas were reviewed. He discussed hybrid-izing and presented pictures of his awarded plants. Members asked questions at the end of the presentation, then took a break and were allotted time to purchase plants. Raffle plants were awarded, and the meeting adjourned at 8:55 PM. Respectfully submitted,

Valerie Creehan Secretary

Happy September Birthday to the following: Carolyn Clay 9/29 Marge Varnado 9/30

Green Growers Schedule

October 10 November 14

December - No meeting Meetings are at 7 p.m. at the

home of Gene & Thelma Berg, 425 Nelson Dr.

Come for good fellowship and learning.

Orchids for Seniors

This month Orchids for Seniors is going on a “Non-Orchid” field trip to the Global Wildlife Center in Robert. This is a trip we have talked about off and on for several months so this month we’re going to do it. Admis-sion is $15 for seniors. We meet at Independence Park at 8:30 to board the van. Let me know if you would like to go with us.

Nominating Committee

Report

The Nominating Committee, John Gra-ham, Danna Spayde, John Nelson, Beth Blackstock, and Marie Williams, met and selected a slate of officers for November, 2013 through October, 2014. The nomina-tions will be discussed at our meeting this month, and nominations will be taken from the floor. The election will take place at the October meeting, and the of-ficers will assume their duties at the No-vember meeting. The following slate is recommended and presented by the Nominating Committee: President John Huner Vice-President Beth Blackstock Treasurer John Nelson Board Member At large Jim Gersey Valerie Creehan has agreed to serve as Secretary for another year. All of these nominees have been contact-ed by the Nominating Committee and have agreed to serve. We appreciate their will-ingness to take on the responsibility of leading the Society through the next year. I will continue to edit the newsletter un-less someone else would like the job.

Publicity Committee

And speaking of the newsletter, I would like to form a Publicity Committee to help raise community awareness of the BROS, with the goal of getting us some new members. There are several opportunities for publicity, but I just can’t get around to all of them by myself. Additionally, I have been handling the publicity for our annual Show for several years, and I definitely need help with that if the Show Chairman for 2014 wants me to continue to lead that effort. I envision the Committee holding a meeting about every other month to plan our campaign and decide who will do each job. If some of you would like to assist in this effort, please email me or let me know at the meeting.

President’s message continued

people who have rendered outstand-ing service to the Society. To date there have been only four people who have received this status. The Board nominated Danna because of her tireless work on our behalf. She has for many years organized the Or-chids for Seniors group and also has contributed significantly by being the Editor of our monthly Newslet-ter. Danna has served as an Officer and a Board Member of the Society and promotes the group in many ways in our community. She has done a fine job in all of these en-deavors. Nominations for Life mem-bers need to be voted upon by the membership at a general meeting, and we will do this in September.

Hi, Orchid Folks! Beth has agreed to help write the column this week. As we all know, she has almost single-handedly carried the burden of orchids for the hospice patients – picking them up, dis-tributing at our meeting, GROWING THEM (!), and then bringing them to the patients. Wow... So impressive. Her Phals look great, and that is most-ly what I wanted to talk to her about and maybe we can gain a little insight on how she is doing it. But first, I think we need to give this program a name. How about Orchid Care? Too cheesy? Beth - The patients are actually the inpatients on the Oncology (Cancer) floor receiving active cancer treatment at OLOL. I guess you could call it “Foster Orchid Care”. Frank - OK. Beth, what do you do when you get the Whole Food orchids home? Do you leave them in the same pot? What about the sphagnum? Beth - First, I check their overall con-dition. Some are pristine; others have been manhandled; some are so wet you could wring them out; and others bone dry. Some have crown rot, others cracked leaves. Some plants aren’t even in a pot, or the pot is cracked so they need immediate attention. I al-ways take them out of the sphagnum and place in a new plastic pot. I have been using straight hadite with remark-able results! The new root/leaf growth has been amazing. I feel sphagnum is death to phals because of its density, rate of breakdown, and the amount of water it holds. Even the plants I have in bark/Sponge Rok/charcoal/hadite mix do not do as well as those in straight hadite. Frank - Some of those have almost all the roots rotted. Are those worth grow-ing back out? Beth - The root systems on the plants are in various stages between healthy and rotten when I get them so I judge salvageability not only by the roots, but also by the leaves. Every single plant

that had nice leaves yet rotted roots survived and grew when I planted it in hadite. If a plant has at least 1/3 of its roots left and decent leaves, I feel it is viable. Frank - About how much light are you giving them? How can you tell if they are getting too little or too much? Beth - They are getting as much light as my cattleyas with 60% aluminet over my small greenhouse. [That averages about 2500 ft candles.] Also it gets very hot in there so I have an exhaust fan and oscillating fan running all the time which make a drastic difference. I cannot say enough about airflow. Phals. are very thick leaved so can overheat easily with extra sun, there-fore I keep the air moving. They are obviously not getting too much light as their color is a beautiful lime green, they look very healthy, not burned, and always produce 2 bloom spikes ra-ther than 1, and are loaded with flow-ers. More light equals more flowers. Frank - How often do you water and fertilize? Beth - I water them every 3 days right now because it is so hot and because of the air movement I create, but will de-crease when it cools off. I use rainwa-ter and MSU fertilizer once a week. Frank - How long does it take you to bring one back into bloom? Beth - They are very reliable bloom-ers and will always bloom the next year. I am looking forward to seeing this current batch in hadite bloom as their growth has been wonderful. Last year I did not repot many of the foster orchids but left them in the sphagnum and didn’t water them much (so they would survive). They re-bloomed, but I don’t think they will survive for the long term, whereas in hadite, the re-cipient can water the plant a lot more without the risk of killing it as quickly! My goal was, by placing the plant in hadite, to not only grow it better, but also make it fool-proof so that it could survive and re-bloom no matter who was growing it! Editor’s Note: Thanks to Frank & Beth for doing this column. It’s a great con-tribution to the newsletter.

“Let’s Talk About Orchids” By Frank Zachariah and Beth Blackstock

The New & Updated Column

Orchid Roots By Sue Bottom If there is only one thing that you need to know to suc-cessfully grow orchids, it is that orchid roots are dif-ferent from the roots on your other houseplants. The orchid root consists of an inside core (cortex) that is very tough and carries nourishment and an outside covering (velamen) that is a spongelike material that absorbs water, fertilizer and oxygen. Healthy root tips are bright green. The longer the green portion, the faster the root is growing. Function of Orchid Roots. Many orchids are epi-phytes, meaning they grow on trees, where the roots attach the plant securely, search out nutrition, absorb dew and rainfall among other things. Absorb Water. When dry, or- chid roots are white but they should quickly turn green when they are watered. When wet, the velamen acts like a sponge, swelling up with water to be ab- sorbed later by the plant. When dry, it acts as an impermeable barrier to prevent water loss from the plant.

Attach to Substrate. While aerial roots can also

take up water and nutrients, their primary purpose is to keep the orchid attached to its surface. Aerial roots, once attached, may become flat-tened to provide more attach-ment surface area. The roots cling to any substrate so well that at times it can be very difficult to remove these clinging roots from whatever they are attached to. There is more velamen on aerial roots

and they are adapted to the cyclical drenching and dry-ing of intermittent rainstorms. These roots will be-come soft and green when they have been continually wet for 10 minutes or so, only then will they absorb water.

Gas Exchange. One very important function of epi-phytic roots is the exchange of gases, mostly to take in oxygen and expel carbon dioxide, so they enjoy being exposed to moving fresh air. Most orchids can’t be grown in potting soil. Special high porosity potting mixes have been developed to ensure there is sufficient air around the roots.

Photosynthesis. Another job for some roots is to pho-tosynthesize, which is why you often see orchids grown in clear pots. There are some orchid species that do not have leaves, but obtain their energy from chlorophyll in their roots.

Temporary Storage. Many roots also provide tempo-

rary storage for food and water. Repotting. New orchid growers are often terrified of the pro-spect of dividing and repotting orchids. Without some friendly assistance, new growers will often leave plants in the same potting mix long after that mix has degraded so the plants lose their roots and struggle to sur-vive. Potting orchids in a good mix at the proper time will help ensure their survival and your self confidence in growing or-chids. The best time to repot your orchid is when new roots are just emerging because the plant will become accli-

mated the most quickly at this time. If you’re careful, you can repot when new roots are a quarter or half inch long. They can be eas-ily broken during the repot-ting process and when damaged, they will not re-

grow. So if they’re longer than one half inch, wait until they’re 4“ long or more before repotting. If these longer roots are broken during repotting, they’ll branch and continue to grow. Root growth for some orchid species is almost im-possible to initiate except at very specific times in the

St. Augustine Orchid Society Recently a friend in Florida started sending me the St. Augustine, FL Orchid Society Newsletter. I have really enjoyed reading it as it always has some very good articles on orchid culture. I recom-

mend it highly and have subscribed to it so I’ll get it monthly. The web site is www.staugorchidsociety.org. In the June issue there was an excellent article on orchid roots. The editor, Sue Bottom, gave me permission to use it in our newsletter. So here it is. I hope you enjoy

it and learn from it.

growth cycle. Some bifoliate cattleya species only put out a very small number of roots in a given year and if these are damaged or destroyed, there will be no growth until the following year at the same time. Bi-foliate cattleyas should only be repotted when new roots emerge from the new growth. Orchid roots become accustomed to their growing en-vironment. When there is a substantial change in this environment, the plant has to grow a different set of roots acclimated to the new conditions. When you have a plant that has its aerial roots hanging outside the pot, the roots do not respond wel to being placed inside the pot and covering them with growing mix. Better to place them in a bulb pot with a few large chunks of lava rock and after the roots begin to branch, add additional potting mix a little bit at a time. The roots of an orchid that has been mounted or grown in a coarse medium tend to be hard and re-sistant to drying, unlike the fat soft roots fond in a sphagnum moss, peat or other water retentive mix-tures. Roots on plants grown in sphagnum will not easily adapt to epiphyte-like conditions, nor will roots grown in a coarse, dry medium adapt to sphagnum moss. Roots of both will die if there is a radical change in the type of medium, although new roots will grow and establish in any medium. A substantial change in water quality may require the plant to grow new roots to adjust to their new condi- tions.

Encourage Root Growth - You can encourage new root growth with some of the root stimulator like root- ing hormones, seaweed and SuperThrive, particularly in seedlings or recently repotted plants. Rooting hormones are commercially available and usually contain synthetic phytohormones such as syn- thetic cytokinins and synthetic auxins (naphthalene acetic acid, indole 3 butyric acid and indole acetic ac- id) that are used to stimulate root growth.

Seaweed extract is an organic product derived from har-vested brown sea-weed that contains major and minor nu-trients, amino acids and growth promot-ing substances like auxins, cytokinins and gibberellins (advanced growers may be interested in KelPak). Seaweed extract is often used

to start the growth cycle in spring, enhance root growth on seedlings and divisions, and initiate multi- ple new growths from back bulbs. Using seaweed im- mediately after repotting is a good practice to encour- age new root growth.

SuperThrive contains the synthetic rooting hormone 1 -naphthyl acetic acid at 0.04%, vitamin B1 (thiamine, also known to stimulate root growth) at 0.09%, plus a variety of trade-secret ingredients likely including kelp extracts, humates, soluble iron compounds, and the like (from FirsRays.com). Many growers soak newly deflasked plantlets in a SuperThrive solution or use SuperThrive when repotting to help stimulate root growth.

If you want to have beautiful blooms, you have to have a healthy plant. In order to have a healthy plant, you must have vibrant roots. An orchid without healthy roots cannot grow well and cannot generate enough energy to provide you with the floral reward that will justify all your orchid labors. More Information. Orchid Roots, by the Canadian Orchid Congress, Root Cells and Culture, by Ray Barkalow of FirstRays.com.

Photo Gallery

September Plant Clinic

Come early for the Plant Clinic at 6:40 before the meeting. You can see how Beth and other members are growing Phalaenopsis. See what the differences are. Listen

to some special details on mediums and have your questions answered.

Returning members Marie & David Dendy whose picture wasn’t available for July news-letter.

BROS Meetings &

Programs, 2013

October 16 - Peter Linn - Phalaenopsis

November 20 - Roy Tokunaga, H&R Orchids of Hawaii - meeting at Burden Center December - Date & site TBA - Christmas Party & Plant Exchange

Some of the beautiful flowers that were on display at August meeting.