Leo Schordje
wilted blossom
I just answered a post on OGD and thought it might go over okay here. So here it is:
Jerry in Indiana asked about Paph micranthum a couple days ago.
I have been collecting Paph micranthum since 1986 when they first became widely available in the USA. I have more than 30 different clones, and at least 10 of them I have been able to keep growing for 20 years. I have had very little mortality, better than 95% of the micranthum I have acquired are still around after all these years. I have to say Paph micranthum is one of the slower growing Paphs in the hobby. I have some clones of micranthum that bloom pretty much every year like clockwork. I have some clones that have not bloomed yet in over 15 years. Fortunately they are small plants, they don't take much room. The average seems to be that it takes 3 to 5 years to mature a growth and get it to bloom. Every year I bloom 5 or 6 plants, so as a group they preform well. If you want to see one bloom every year in your collection, you need a bunch of them.
I am in the Chicago area, so my climate is similar to Jerry's. I grow micranthum under lights in an unheated portion of my basement. I use ordinary shop light fixtures suspended about 12 inches above the table on which the micranthum sit. The fluorescent tubes are the cheap 40 watt cool white lamps from the local hardware store. I believe this yields about 700 to 950 foot-candles of light. A timer is set to deliver 16 hours of light, year round. I make no seasonal light duration adjustment. Fan in room keeps air moving. In winter the temperature may drop into the upper 50's F in January and February. Most of the year night temperature is about 65 to 68 F. In summer it can get quite warm, but it tends to stay a few degrees cooler in this room than outside. In the midwest we get highs into the 90's F on the hottest days. A window is open most of the year in this room, so there is some day/night temperature drop, but not much more than 10 F. I do nothing to increase humidity, there are about 200 mixed Paphs on this bench, and the humidity they generate is the humidity they get. Relative humidity probably varies between 25% in winter to 75% in summer. I grow the micranthum in a seedling grade fir bark mix with charcoal & pearlite. I generally use 2.5 x 2.5 inch pots, the tall style, I think they are 4 inches tall. Multi-growth specimens are in 4 inch pots. I top dress the bark mix with small amount of crushed oyster shell that I get from the local feed store that carries poultry feeds. I try to repot at least once every 18 months, as time permits.
I do not let the plants get dry. This means I water every 4 to 5 days because of my conditions. I use my local municipal tap water. This is Lake Michigan water, about 225 ppm total dissolved solids. I add enough MSU RO Formula fertilizer from GreenCare, to my tap water to yield about 250 ppm nitrogen which when added to the naturally occurring solids in my tap water makes about 700 to 1000 ppm total solids every time I water. Yes, I water with this solution every time I water, all year round. My belief is that continuous feeding makes it unnecessary to use ultra pure water for irrigation. My thought is little fertilizer hides from the plant the fact that the tap water is slightly unbalanced in sodium, calcium, chloride and other minerals. I also keep my plants a bit wetter than some of the books might recommend. I really do not let them get dry between waterings. That is it, really pretty simple in terms of what I do for the plants. It took me 10 years of experimenting to settle on the above. My micranthum look good, nice leaf color, fairly robust growth. Through the 20 years I have been growing micranthum, they have been disease free and fairly simple to care for. BUT they have been very slow for me. I believe there may be ways to grow them faster, but the way I am growing them now is good enough. Micranthum is one of the few Paphs that I never get bored with. Still a delight to see in bloom.
Good luck
Leo
Jerry in Indiana asked about Paph micranthum a couple days ago.
I have been collecting Paph micranthum since 1986 when they first became widely available in the USA. I have more than 30 different clones, and at least 10 of them I have been able to keep growing for 20 years. I have had very little mortality, better than 95% of the micranthum I have acquired are still around after all these years. I have to say Paph micranthum is one of the slower growing Paphs in the hobby. I have some clones of micranthum that bloom pretty much every year like clockwork. I have some clones that have not bloomed yet in over 15 years. Fortunately they are small plants, they don't take much room. The average seems to be that it takes 3 to 5 years to mature a growth and get it to bloom. Every year I bloom 5 or 6 plants, so as a group they preform well. If you want to see one bloom every year in your collection, you need a bunch of them.
I am in the Chicago area, so my climate is similar to Jerry's. I grow micranthum under lights in an unheated portion of my basement. I use ordinary shop light fixtures suspended about 12 inches above the table on which the micranthum sit. The fluorescent tubes are the cheap 40 watt cool white lamps from the local hardware store. I believe this yields about 700 to 950 foot-candles of light. A timer is set to deliver 16 hours of light, year round. I make no seasonal light duration adjustment. Fan in room keeps air moving. In winter the temperature may drop into the upper 50's F in January and February. Most of the year night temperature is about 65 to 68 F. In summer it can get quite warm, but it tends to stay a few degrees cooler in this room than outside. In the midwest we get highs into the 90's F on the hottest days. A window is open most of the year in this room, so there is some day/night temperature drop, but not much more than 10 F. I do nothing to increase humidity, there are about 200 mixed Paphs on this bench, and the humidity they generate is the humidity they get. Relative humidity probably varies between 25% in winter to 75% in summer. I grow the micranthum in a seedling grade fir bark mix with charcoal & pearlite. I generally use 2.5 x 2.5 inch pots, the tall style, I think they are 4 inches tall. Multi-growth specimens are in 4 inch pots. I top dress the bark mix with small amount of crushed oyster shell that I get from the local feed store that carries poultry feeds. I try to repot at least once every 18 months, as time permits.
I do not let the plants get dry. This means I water every 4 to 5 days because of my conditions. I use my local municipal tap water. This is Lake Michigan water, about 225 ppm total dissolved solids. I add enough MSU RO Formula fertilizer from GreenCare, to my tap water to yield about 250 ppm nitrogen which when added to the naturally occurring solids in my tap water makes about 700 to 1000 ppm total solids every time I water. Yes, I water with this solution every time I water, all year round. My belief is that continuous feeding makes it unnecessary to use ultra pure water for irrigation. My thought is little fertilizer hides from the plant the fact that the tap water is slightly unbalanced in sodium, calcium, chloride and other minerals. I also keep my plants a bit wetter than some of the books might recommend. I really do not let them get dry between waterings. That is it, really pretty simple in terms of what I do for the plants. It took me 10 years of experimenting to settle on the above. My micranthum look good, nice leaf color, fairly robust growth. Through the 20 years I have been growing micranthum, they have been disease free and fairly simple to care for. BUT they have been very slow for me. I believe there may be ways to grow them faster, but the way I am growing them now is good enough. Micranthum is one of the few Paphs that I never get bored with. Still a delight to see in bloom.
Good luck
Leo
