# kovachii



## Silvan (Aug 26, 2015)

my 'Jewel' x self is in bloom again and it didn't even take a year in between flowering. I'm impressed...But not with the flower 
I'll take a better picture tomorrow. It has a more square pouch this time around
with freckles on it that we don't see on this picture. Plus, no yellow in the pouch. 
Weird, it had those two yellow lines last year.. And I guess that you can flower a kovachii with a 80F
average day temperature.

Anyway, I liked the picture and wanted to share it. 
Voilà!

















No yellow stripes but lots of freckles 










Last year bloom:


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## Justin (Aug 26, 2015)

it looks quite happy. great growing! i am hoping to get mine to flower in the coming year...


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## Silvan (Aug 26, 2015)

Justin said:


> it looks quite happy. great growing! i am hoping to get mine to flower in the coming year...



Thanks. Waiting for the first bloom can be veryyyy long. But after that, I think that it flowers regularly. 
How old is your plant?


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## mrhappyrotter (Aug 26, 2015)

It's beautiful! I think I'll wait until the prices come down on them a bit before I decide to take the plunge. The hybrids are expensive enough, and I'd hate to spend that kind of money on something if it then failed to thrive.


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## trdyl (Aug 26, 2015)

Sweet!

Congrats on your bloom.


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## troy (Aug 26, 2015)

I don't understand why these were illegal for so long here in the u.s. yours is beautiful!!!!


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## NYEric (Aug 26, 2015)

Nice, thanks for sharing.
When were they illegal here in the USA?


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## troy (Aug 26, 2015)

I beleive 2 years ago


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## theorchidzone (Aug 26, 2015)

Yes. That part is gratifying. A mature plant should bloom every year.
JC




Silvan said:


> Thanks. Waiting for the first bloom can be veryyyy long. But after that, I think that it flowers regularly.
> How old is your plant?


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## John M (Aug 27, 2015)

troy said:


> I beleive 2 years ago



Legal seedlings were availalble in the USA from Piping Rock Orchids in 2007, possibly also 2006.


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## Paul (Aug 27, 2015)

good job!!!!


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## Achamore (Aug 27, 2015)

And Orchids Limited / Jerry Fischer in Minnesota had legal plants almost at the same time as Glenn Decker did.

In the first few years after their discovery, CITES would quite rightly have rendered these illegal for int'l shipping. In those first few years there would not have been any plants available for sale anywhere outside of Peru that had not been ripped out of the natural habitat. But also early on the Peruvian government gave a license to 2 orchid nurseries in Peru to remove 5 plants each from the wild, for breeding purposes. All the CITES-legal plants, whether seedlings or adults, have come from the breeding program at those 2 nurseries, all based on those 10 plants. So it took several years after the discovery for any plants to be available from that breeding program. Makes sense, yes?

I suspect the freckling and the lack of the yellow in the inner part of the pouch would be down to the warm growing conditions. From what I have read and been told, kovachii grows in a pretty cold environment. But like most phrags, it is clearly pretty tolerant of temperature changes!


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## Erythrone (Aug 27, 2015)

Great job, mon ami! Is it you 'Halloween'?

I agree with Achamore. Maybe the warm temperatures are responsible for the lack of yellow.


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## JeanLux (Aug 27, 2015)

Good growing anyway!! IMO the shape has improved, compared to last year's...!!! Jean


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## phraggy (Aug 27, 2015)

I like it. Thanks for posting the pic.

Ed


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## Wendy (Aug 27, 2015)

Well done! :clap:


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## eaborne (Aug 27, 2015)

Great job!


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## Gilda (Aug 27, 2015)

Awesome with or without the stripes....I'm jealous!


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## Migrant13 (Aug 27, 2015)

And such a great pouch!


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## Markhamite (Aug 27, 2015)

Love it! Very nice.


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## troy (Aug 27, 2015)

I was missinformed


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## SlipperFan (Aug 27, 2015)

What a wonderful pouch!


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## Ozpaph (Aug 28, 2015)

wonky but pretty


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## NYEric (Aug 28, 2015)

Pk have been available since before they were identified and named, though not in the USA. 
I agree that the difference between the previous bloom and this one are due to warmer temps.  Oh well, still nice.


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## Achamore (Aug 29, 2015)

NYEric said:


> Pk have been available since before they were identified and named, though not in the USA.



Are you implying that Kovach simply was the first person bold enough to show it to botanical authorities? I haven't heard this part of the story.


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## Kostas (Sep 1, 2015)

Very nice!!!  In what medium are you growing it and how wet do you keep it? I see moss, so I guess you keep it constantly wet/moist


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## Silvan (Sep 2, 2015)

Kostas said:


> Very nice!!!  In what medium are you growing it and how wet do you keep it? I see moss, so I guess you keep it constantly wet/moist



I grow this kovachii in a mix of rockwool and diatomite (1:1). I water with
tap water three times per week most of the year and twice per week in winter.
Weak fertilizer about once a week (in between watering) with anything that I feel like my phrags needs on that particular day .  And from time to time I foliar feed. For some reason kovachii seems to like getting their leaves wet (they straighten up). That's about it.


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## Kostas (Sep 2, 2015)

Thank you very much Silvan! Do you sit the pot in water or only water it 3 times a week?


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## Silvan (Sep 2, 2015)

Kostas said:


> Thank you very much Silvan! Do you sit the pot in water or only water it 3 times a week?



You're welcome Kostas. 

I keep my kovachiis and all the hybrids made with this species standing in water
at all time. I change the water in the saucer when I water or after a week if it didn't drink it all up. Sometimes I wonder the usefulness of doing this since the media is already saturated with water. But the overall look of the plant looks healthier when it's standing in water for some reason.. 

As for watering, as long as you don't let the media dry out, you'll be ok. I grow in the basement under lights, so it's a bit different from growing plants outside or in living quarters.

How old is your plant?


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## Kostas (Sep 3, 2015)

I do the same with mine and I also see a marked difference between a saturated media and when the pot is standing in water, so I try to make sure I keep water in the saucer most of the time. I need to water daily or every other day to keep water in the pot as it drinks it up real fast with the summer heat and breeze. I plan to bring it inside in late fall again for the winter but I am also contemplating whether it would be best to keep it inside in heatwave so as it slows down a lot with the high summer heat compared to the growth rate I get with 25C

My plant is around 4-5years old I think but I got it in late spring (with a severe case of Erwinia which I managed to cure). It looks great but isn't too close to flowering yet


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