Mexipedium & new growing area

Hi everyone!

Got a Mexipedium xerophyticum yesterday. At the same time the work on my new growing-table was finished.



If you wonder how I managed it to get everything in my car...don't ask me







Installation of a Aqua Medic Aquarium ligt. Changed the light bulbs to get daylight spectrum. This is not the final light temperature, a 80W "Purple Plus" bulb for the red parts of spectrum will be added later on. So far I've got 2xblue light (Reef Blue) 80W, 2x daylight (6500K) 80W and 3x250W is added for midday sunlight (3-4h). Light is on from 18:00-08:00 (14h) over night.








And here is the Mexipedium I bought: the plant is a division from the 'Farnsburg'-plant that received a CCM 91P. and a silver medal in 2009 in my country. Mexies are still very hard to get here in Europe and they are very expensive.





There were three divisions in the pot I bought. I decided to give them a wide pot so the runners can spread. The stone in the middle is a limestone from a karst region in the Swiss Alps. Mexipedium is (was) growing on these stones in Oaxaca Mexico, so I thought it would look nice to deliver the calcium this way together with the hard water in my region.





Hope you guys like my new growing area. As it is in my living room it was important for me to get a nice looking table. In between there is enough space to double my collection. Looking forward to do that :clap:

Congrats on your newest acquisition!

Love, Love your new setup!

Looks great! Nice job with the build.

Orchidophilic passion when it hold us anything can stops us. Congratulations for your building.

I admire how a young boy have this kind of passion ,great and beautiful work a real masterpiece .(for lights I don't know if you have done right)
congrats,Anna

Nice setup. Do you have a drain on that table?

You will need a bar under the lights to hang more plants from!

Excellent job! MUCH better quality construction than the lightstand i just built (see my other post). Your carpentry skills are very good.

Will the light be strong enough?

eggshells said:

Nice setup. Do you have a drain on that table?

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Initially I was thinking about a ebb-flow-table. But then I decided to build a table with no drain whatsoever. The water that is coming out of the pots stays in the clay and evaporates.

Justin said:

Excellent job! MUCH better quality construction than the lightstand i just built (see my other post). Your carpentry skills are very good.

Will the light be strong enough?

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Thank you Justin!
The light is more than enough. I was only using 4x25W Daylight tubes for 0.5m2. It flowered roth, stonei, phili, praestans etc. in the past. Now I have much better Light (regarding the nm output) and a energy density of 4x80W plus 750W on midday. So 320W and 1070W for some hours. In other words: 200W/m2 before and 160/535W now. I compared so many light bulbs on the market and compared the photosynthesis rate. The purple light was the best, then 6500K daylight, and then blue light. Blue light encourages the stomata on Paphiopedilum to open. Photosynthesis rate was good, the "reef blue" tubes are now part of my installation.

Can I order a table like that one please

Nice job on the table and the mexi pot! Marilyn LeDoux has her giant 97 pt. CCE 'Oaxaca' clone growing in a very similar fashion. It is the most beautiful mexi I've ever seen, and it's really discouraged me from ever growing one (how could I compete with that?!) Over 100 growths! And the only AOS awarded mexipedium... Maybe you could claim the European mexi title! Your plants look happy

Great job! Thank you for showing us the step by step process...it turned out fabulous!!!

polyantha said:

Thank you Justin!
The light is more than enough. I was only using 4x25W Daylight tubes for 0.5m2. It flowered roth, stonei, phili, praestans etc. in the past. Now I have much better Light (regarding the nm output) and a energy density of 4x80W plus 750W on midday. So 320W and 1070W for some hours. In other words: 200W/m2 before and 160/535W now. I compared so many light bulbs on the market and compared the photosynthesis rate. The purple light was the best, then 6500K daylight, and then blue light. Blue light encourages the stomata on Paphiopedilum to open. Photosynthesis rate was good, the "reef blue" tubes are now part of my installation.

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Excellent! I have had good success with blue spectrum lights (Metal Halide).

Awesome job!

What excellent skills you have, polyantha! And the plants all look so very healthy.

Healthy plants, great table construction, good lighting, but I can't help it...
how did you get all that lumber home??? Say goodbye to your living space;
it now belongs to the orchids. If you're lucky, you'll get a small corner to
yourself in the bedroom.

Very nice work , bravo !!!! Jean

abax said:

Healthy plants, great table construction, good lighting, but I can't help it...
how did you get all that lumber home??? Say goodbye to your living space;
it now belongs to the orchids. If you're lucky, you'll get a small corner to
yourself in the bedroom.

Click to expand...

Not really. There are more slipper orchids in my bedroom :rollhappy:

Ps: i measured my car before buying the lumber. One more piece and it would not have worked...

Remember rule #13.7: No Orchids in the bedroom.
Women get really upset when you tell them, "Stop! You're getting too close to the plants!" :evil: