# Selenipedium aequinoctiale, second attempt



## Berthold (Mar 4, 2012)

Plant looks still healthy and roots are in good condition













Substrate is a sterilized mixture of Seramis/Lava/Bims/Neudohum.





In God I trust.


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## Marc (Mar 4, 2012)

I allready saw you post them on orchideenkultur.net. I wasn't surprised to see that you bought them. I found them myself when I was talking with our fellow forum user Lars who was taking care of the Mundiflora sales boot.

I wish you a lot of luck with them.


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## dodidoki (Mar 4, 2012)

Hello! I have two attempts too to keep it alive. Firstly I removed peat like ball from roots and planted it into similar mix as yours. All my plants died within one month. Second time I leave this ball on root system and planted it into peat, one growth died slowly, second one is in alive and a new growth developed what is about 10 cm tall at this moment. I keep it in shade anyway, however some description mentions sunny opened grass fields near the forests as habitat of plants.


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## biothanasis (Mar 4, 2012)

Good luck!!!!


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## Berthold (Mar 4, 2012)

dodidoki said:


> Hello! I have two attempts too to keep it alive. Firstly I removed peat like ball from roots and planted it into similar mix as yours. All my plants died within one month.



Did You sterilize the subtrate? The problem is the rotting of the root system by infections.
I hope, that sterilization brings a time advantage of 2 month for the plant to establish in the new sorrounding and can start metabolism via root system. and increase resistance against rotting by that.


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## SlipperFan (Mar 4, 2012)

Hard to believe that plant is in the slipper family!


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## NYEric (Mar 4, 2012)

Good luck.


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## Dido (Mar 5, 2012)

Good luck Berthold keep us posted of your succes


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## NYEric (Mar 5, 2012)

Wow! I just saw the price!!!


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## W. Beetus (Mar 5, 2012)

I'll be following your plants! Please keep us updated.


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## Berthold (Mar 6, 2012)

The best way to keep the plant alive is the promotion by appropriate fungi.
But the original fungus with its special subtrate to survive is not available here in Germany.

I am pretty sure that other fungi exist with the same promotion effect for this plant species. In this case the plant needs protection by the fungus against infection and not promotion for alimentation.

But for the test to find the right fungus I need about 20 plants and I only have 2 available.


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## Hakone (Mar 6, 2012)

Berthold said:


> Did You sterilize the subtrate? The problem is the rotting of the root system by infections.
> I hope, that sterilization brings a time advantage of 2 month for the plant to establish in the new sorrounding and can start metabolism via root system. and increase resistance against rotting by that.



After sterilization, the substrate with germ settling after 24 hours , the substrate remains not germ-free for months .

sterilization = germ reduction but not germfree


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## Berthold (Mar 6, 2012)

Hakone said:


> After sterilization, the substrate with germ settling after 24 hours , the substrate remains not germ-free for months .
> 
> sterilization = germ reduction but not germfree



I am unable to estimate the time in which special bad bacteria penetrate the pot substrate into the root region 10 cm deep and multiply to a virulent concentration.

Hakone You know it is 24 hours. Thanks for that advice.


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## Rick (Mar 6, 2012)

Berthold

I don't know if you have been keeping up with the K-lite fertilizing threads, but with regard to shifting of the microfloral community and/or causing root rots, I would avoid feeding anything at all or feed with little or no K in the fertilizer.

You might refer to some of Bjorns basket growing thread that utilized natural ingredients.

I have been trying out a mixture of bark, sand, perlite, and shredded leaves (various local hardwood from my front yard). I have some Paph sukhakulii and Paph calossum seedlings growing in them with no supplemental feeding at all.


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## Lars Pedersen (Mar 7, 2012)

Hi Berthold

I am happy, that you are happy with the plants.

And yes, they doo look healthy 


It was a pleasure to meet all you guys at the show

:-D
Lars


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## Berthold (Oct 9, 2014)

The plant is doing well underground with new roots and a new next year sprout.
But leave tips are turning brown, what I don't like. What could be the reason for that?


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## dodidoki (Oct 9, 2014)

Dear Bert!

Seleni is one of the hardest to keep alive plant. Noone knows the clue for them. If it helps, I keep mine in pure akadama and use very diluted K-lite solution every waterings (30 ppm total), and mine is alive for almost 2 years. ( but slow....) It grows faster in summer, but now I placed it under Fluora tubes, begun to fade ( don't know the reason, it got more light in summer...). Maybe because of temp, so I increase it to 22-24 C. It need always wet media, doesn't tolerate drieness, but has very few root, so tends to rot because of excessive water.Belive me, akadama is the best media for it.


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## Berthold (Oct 9, 2014)

dodidoki said:


> Dear Bert!
> 
> It need always wet media, doesn't tolerate drieness, but has very few root, so tends to rot because of excessive water. Belive me, akadama is the best media for it.



Yes, I kept it wet all the time, some days even standing in water. 
The mix _was_ about 80% Kanuma, 20% Seramis (inert material, 3 mm pellets) with some pellets of long time fertilizer. 
But now I change the mix into 50% Akadama, 30% Kanuma, 10% Bims (pumice), 10% Seramis, which raises the pH-value a bit. I also reduced watering.

Now I am standing by for Christmas.


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## dodidoki (Oct 9, 2014)

Berthold said:


> Yes, I kept it wet all the time, some days even standing in water.
> The mix _was_ about 80% Kanuma, 20% Seramis (inert material, 3 mm pellets) with some pellets of long time fertilizer.
> But now I change the mix into 50% Akadama, 30% Kanuma, 10% Bims (pumice), 10% Seramis, which raises the pH-value a bit. I also reduced watering.
> 
> Now I am standing by for Christmas.



ONLY PURE AKADAMA!!!! It needs neutral ph and does not tolerate acidic mixes. Kanuma is far bad choice for it....


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## Berthold (Oct 9, 2014)

But the plant was doing well in the Kanuma dominated mix for 6 month now. The brown leave tips appear in the last 2 weeks. I think the reason was to much water in the substrate, same assumption as Yours.

Kanuma has very few water soluble components, so it influences the pH-value only very few. 
The pH-value only decreases if You keep the Kanuma in the same water for a long time but not if You water the pot every day.


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## Rick (Oct 9, 2014)

Any way to get some leaf nutrient concentrations measured?

That could tell you if overloaded on macros and imbalance of K, Ca, Mg.

If you do a flush test on the pot what is the conductivity?


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## Berthold (Oct 9, 2014)

No, I have no possibility to measure the leaf nutrient concentration. But I can reduce the fertilizer what I did already in the new mix.
I didn't measure conductivity. But it should be in a normal range because I always water with my home made 20 µS/cm-water and also flush the pot from time to time.

But You are very right. A substrate with overloaded salt can kill the plant very quickly.


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## Rick (Oct 9, 2014)

I haven't worked with the Akadama, Kanuma or Seramis, but I was shocked as to how much cation got absorbed into some basic Hydroton (Leca) that I was/am using on a Phrag.

When I finally checked some rinse water, conductivity was 5X higher than my max fert doses at the time.:sob:


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## Berthold (Oct 10, 2014)

Yes, Rick, but most of the salt components are not plant active. So the high conductivity doesn't stalk the plants I think.


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## Rick (Oct 10, 2014)

Berthold said:


> Yes, Rick, but most of the salt components are not plant active. So the high conductivity doesn't stalk the plants I think.



Berthold

At the time all the water input was MSU feed in RO water. So the most common cation was K building up.

If you use more surface water and hit with epsom salts you can change that around to less plant active Ca/Mg.:wink:


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