How to grow Song Mei? Sharing a few tips on cultivating Song Mei

A few tips on cultivating Song Mei ---- Sui SF Feng. My orchid growing is purely a hobby. Although I have been growing wild-collected orchids on and off for about ten years, growing old cultivars is something I have only done in recent years. In November 2008, thanks to the generosity of local orchid friend Zhuji Orchid Lover (a nickname on the Lanzhijiao website), Teacher Chen, I obtained from him four seedlings of Song Mei in flower, whose provenance traces back to the Hangzhou Flower Nursery, one mother plant with twin dragon shoots and one grandfather-generation seedling. The flowers the following year are shown below: In spring 2009, it produced 2 twin dragon shoots totaling 8 seedlings, as shown below: It came with 1 flower. At the end of September, they were divided into two groups of 4 seedlings and 3 seedlings (with 1 flower) and planted separately. The 1 grandfather-generation seedling was separated and planted together with the group of 3 seedlings in one pot. This pot of plants, after participating in the 4th Zhuji City Orchid Exhibition, was kept the whole time in an orchid friend's open-air orchid garden. In 2010, the grandfather-generation seedling that had been separated as a single plant produced twin dragon shoots, but because it was an old single plant producing twin dragon shoots, the new plants were rather weak, with 3 leaves and 4 leaves respectively. The other group of 3 seedlings produced 2 seedlings and 2 buds, one of which was a double flower. As follows: After bringing it back from the orchid friend last month, the bud of the single flower was removed. The seedlings are as follows:

The other group of 4 seedlings was placed on my own balcony and produced two twin dragon shoots totaling 8 seedlings. Perhaps because too many seedlings were produced, there were no flowers this year, and no photos of the seedlings were taken; they will be added later. From the 4 seedlings introduced in 2008, after two years of cultivation, there are now a total of 16 seedlings, with not a single leaf or seedling lost, which I find very gratifying. Hehe, the productivity is not bad at all.

My growing environment: an open south-facing balcony on the second floor, with good ventilation and light. From the end of May to the end of October, a single layer of 50% black shade net for shade; from November to April of the following year, full light. The highest summer temperature exceeds 38°, and the lowest winter temperature is about minus 3°.

Pots and growing medium: crushed brick, pine bark, and black soil at about 30% each, plus a small amount of coconut husk. Purple clay pot. The first two media were collected by myself, hehe.

Fertilizer, water, and pesticide management: because the medium contains bark and black soil, no root fertilizer was applied in the first two years. Each spring and autumn, a 0.1% monopotassium phosphate foliar fertilizer was sprayed once. I prefer growing them on the dry side. In summer, generally a thorough watering about once every 5 days; in spring and autumn, about once every 10 days; in winter, about once every 20 days. In 2009, thiophanate-methyl was sprayed once. In 2010, because I was away working, the flowers at home were looked after by my wife, and no pesticide was used even once.

Seedling condition: almost no black spots or scorched leaf tips, the widest leaf about 1 cm, the longest leaf 29.3 cm. Leaf texture is thick and substantial.

Personal tips: Song Mei readily produces seedlings, and often produces twin dragon shoots, and flowers frequently, especially medium and large plants. It is best to grow it on the dry side and with lean feeding. The above are my humble observations from my first time cultivating Song Mei, shared with fellow orchid friends.