Culture of Terrestrial Australian Orchids

Deciduous terrestrials thrive in a shadehouse of 50-70% shadecloth. In very cold areas, or

where summer rain is heavy, a plastic roof is usually added. Light frost to -2oC does not worry
the majority of species. All terrestrials like good air movement and will not thrive in a stuffy
humid atmosphere, especially if temperatures are high. Some species prefer heavy shade,
others full sunlight, but most will adapt to a wide range of light intensity. The spring flowering
species prefer highter light values at flowering time. It is essential to keep pots up off the ground
on benches to deter slugs and snails. I like to use plastic pots because they are easier to clean
and sterilize. Pot size should be neither too big nor too small. I recommend 125mm standard
pots up to 175mm squat pots for specimen groupings of 20 plants.
The potting soil must be kept uniformly moist during active growth. If the pots are allowed to dry
out during the growing season, the plants may become dormant. Fertilisers are not necessary,
although Pterostylis species are very hardy and will benefit from weak applications of foliar feed
applied whilst the leaves are developing. New tubers are produced in winter-spring. The colony
types form several tubers per plant and within a few years the pots would become overcrowded
if not repotted. I recommend annual repotting for these. Some of the showier species produce
only one new tuber each year and have to be propagated from seed. Some of these can be
made to produce a second tuber by carefully twisting off the new season's tuber in
September/October and replanting the plant with the old tuber still attached for another month or
two. This method works well with Diuris and the rufa group greenhoods.
As the days get hotter and drier in late spring, the leaves of terrestrials go yellow and then
brown and dry. After the leaves have turned brown, the pots are allowed to dry out completely to
dry up the old roots and tubers. Terrestrials must be given their own growing area, well away
from evergreen plants which are watered regularly in summer. The tubers may rot if kept wet in
hot weather. Seed pods ripen before the plants become dormant. Pods are checked daily and
picked as they start to split open. Seed is stored in paper envelopes until autumn.
In summer the plants are knocked out of the pots and the new plump, firm tubers are repotted
into fresh soil mix. My mix is 45% loam, 50% sand and 5% peat moss with a small amount of
blood and bone fertiliser added. It has a pH of 5.5. Growers in other states use coarser mixes
containing fine gravel and with leaf-litter or buzzer chips in place of peat moss. The new tubers
are replanted with the tops 20-40mm below the soil surface. A thin surface mulch of Casuarina
or Pinus radiata needles, chopped to lengths of 20-50mm, prevents erosion and keeps the
leaves clean and healthy, as well as improving the appearance of the pot. Repotting is normally
done in November, December or January.
Each tuber sends up a shoot to the surface in autumn. The leaves grow rapidly in late autumn
and early winter as the rains set in. Seed can be sprinkled on top of the pots around mature
plants in autumn. Protocorms develop in the cool, wet winter conditions and seedling leaves
appear in spring. Seedlings produce tiny tubers by summer. Only the largest usually survive the
long dry dormancy period of 4-6 months.
Some species set seed unaided but most require hand pollination. I use a piece of pine needle
to transfer pollen from one flower to another of the same species. The flower collapses within a
few days if pollination is successful. Seed pods develop rapidly and in springtime can ripen in 46 weeks.

The four commercially important deciduous terrestrial genera in cultivation are Caladenia,
Diuris, Pterostylis and Thelymitra. Each genus has a large number of species, although not
many Caladenia are in general cultivation. I am growing more than 50 terrestrial hybrids in pots
and have a number of others in flask.
We have been very successful with the sun orchids or Thelymitra. All the colour of the rainbow,
including the most beautiful blues, are found in the sun orchids. For exhibition work Thelymitra
are poor subjects because the flowers close at night and will not open unless the temperature
rises above 22oC. They can be made to open on cool sunny days if the pot is placed inside a
closed car. Thelymitra are all spring/summer flowering orchids in southern Australia. They are
very striking plants, some growing more than 50cm tall with up to 20 flowers. The smaller
species are the easiest to cultivate.
There are a few evergreen terrestrials from the tropics which are widely grown. Two which come
to mind are Phaius tankarvilliae the Queensland swamp orchid, which has 90mm pink, white
and brown flowers and Calanthe triplicata the Christmas orchid, which has a cluster of white
flowers on top of a tall stem.
Caladenia flava is a very distinctive species because of its bright yellow flowers which often
have crimson spots. It has a broad, hairy basal leaf up to 25 cm long. The 30-40 mm diameter
flowers are often solitary but up to four flowers may be borne on a slender stem about 30 cm
high. Flowering occurs in spring and the plants become dormant in summer when they die back
to an underground tuber.
Like most terrestrial orchids, C.flava has fairly specialised cultural needs and is cultivated mainly
by orchid enthusiasts. Generally the plants are grown in pots in a freely draining, sandy mix.
They require good air circulation in a protected position of about 50% sun during the growing
period from autumn to spring. During this growing period the plants must not be allowed to dry
out. After the leaves have turned brown in late spring to early summer the pots are allowed to
dry out completely. Repotting of tubers can be carried out in summer.

Australian Terrestrial Orchid Mix

The mix I use 1.5 parts sand; 2 parts pine based potting mix, 1 part eucalypt leaf mold with a bit
of blood and bone meal thrown in. It's adapted from a mix recommended by a number of
Victorian terrestrial growers: see www.anosvic.org.au/ANOS_Terrestrial_Cultivation_Notes.pdf?
The original idea behind the ANOS mix was to provide a steady source of decaying organic
matter (bone meal>leaf mold>wood) to keep the fungi happy.
If you have Eucalypts growing locally, I'd use them as a 'tried and tested'
leaf mold. Eucalypt leaves are usually recommended as they are quite fibrous so they don't lose
their structure and turn into a soggy mess like many of the softer leafed trees. I do compost my
own eucalypt leaves for my mix as it's not actually that easy to find natural leaf mold under the
eucalypts in suburban Melbourne. The local parks and curb plantings are all mowed and
mulched and any built up leaf litter is usually swept up by the local councils before it has a
chance to rot down naturally. I haven't tried composting the entire media before I use it, though.
Repotting can disrupt the fungi in the pot so the frequency of repotting is a balance between not
disturbing the plants unnecessarily, not allowing fast multipliers to overcrowd themselves and

remembering to repot slow multipliers before the potting mix compacts too much. When
possible, most people plant multiple tubers in the pot as they're much showier that way.
Generally fast multipliers like most Pterostylis are repotted yearly, slower multipliers like
Thelymitra, Diuris and the easier, fast multiplying Caladenia like latifolia can be left for 2-3
years. Solitary and very slow multipliers like most Caladenia tend to be repotted about every 3
to 5 years. 5 years is probably pushing the limits of most terrestrial media but it goes to show
how much people are reluctant to disrupt Caladenia fungi in the pot when a plant is growing
well.
As for deflasking the seedlings, I wash the flasking media off the seedlings so that the sugar etc
doesn't encourage the fungi. This sounds counterintuitive but deflasked terrestrials are just as
susceptible to pathogenic fungi as any other orchid. Even with symbiotic flasking, the germinator
fungi can start to kill the seedlings if the media encourages too much fungal growth. It's
probably best to ask for washed seedlings. There is probably more risk of damaging the join
between the tubers and the leaves if flasked plants are shaken up too much in transit. I usually
plant them into a fresh mix of 1 part potting mix: 1 part perlite.
Many of the local growers go the extra step of pasteurising the mix to reduce, but not totally
eliminate, the fungi in the mix. This way you ease the orchids into associating with the right fungi
rather than swamp them with lots of fungi and hope they can find their friends in the crowd.
Planting out into compots is fine. I don't think there are any advantages to planting these orchids
into individual pots. On the slight chance that there are any really special seedlings that you
want to separate out from the group, it can be done easily when the plants are older and more
established.
The mixes we use are slightly acidic to neutral, ie around pH 6-7. If you find the pH of your final
mix is too acidic, it's OK to add lime to bring the pH back up. That being said, I did at one stage
have a group planting of Pterostylis and native Drosera in my terrestrial mix using peatmoss
instead of potting mix and the orchids grew fine so acidity may not be that much of a problem.