# Paphiopedilum culture on inert media



## Brabantia (Aug 27, 2013)

What is your experience for Paphios culture on inert media? Rick has very good success with gravel stones. A friend of my club cultivated Paphios hybrids very well in Seramis (for info about this material click *Here*) and members of this forum also have very good results with Hydroton. It seems to me that it is a good method to minimize the loss of nutritive elements by reaction with classical organic substrates. Can we consider that all distributed nutritives elements are only used by the plant when they are cultivate on inert substrate? And finally why their usage is not more spread? Some sections of the Paphiopedilums family would they fit more easily than others on inert substrates?


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## NYEric (Aug 27, 2013)

The "distributed nutritives elements" are only used by the plant while in contact with the roots and foliage. Then you have a salt surface unless you flush the media with pure water. Some people love s/h, I prefer a mixed media. Just a personal preference. i guess people have grown in organic media for so long it seems natural. (plus most plants grow that way in Nature!)


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## Ryan Young (Aug 27, 2013)

I am currently testing hydroton and sphagnum with a few pieces of charcoal thrown in a plastic wicker style basket lined with sphagnum for a few Paph hangianums in a grouping. It's mainly hydroton, the base of plants are wrapped in sphagnum. They seem to respond well, with new leaves pushing out a little over about half an inch long on the most responsive plant and about somewhere between 1/2 to1/4 inch for the other 3, i have only had them since the first week of July though.

I am also using straight hydroton for a recovering FC puddle i received from an AOS judge who had health issues and couldn't care for his plants.


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## NYEric (Aug 27, 2013)

Sounds good. Where are you located?


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## Ryan Young (Aug 27, 2013)

Hi Eric, I'm in Vancouver BC.


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## NYEric (Aug 27, 2013)

Thats a pretty cool temp location. at least you shouldn't have to worry about the media drying out too fast.


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## Ryan Young (Aug 27, 2013)

Yeah it rarely gets above 80, i sometimes give mid week top up to the weekend watering schedule.

Current setup is a 3 level kitchen rack positioned in corner window with 2 T5 sunblasters a few 6" clip on fans and a newly acquired 14 watt red /blue led square array.


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## NYEric (Aug 27, 2013)

Cool. Stick around here and you will need more space for sure!


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## Ryan Young (Aug 27, 2013)

I know it's slowly growing my gf has limited my grow area to the rack and i swap out flowering plants to the living room as extra space! However Glen Decker is coming to our September meeting and I've already ordered some more plants, one or two may get kind of large eventually!


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## Paphman910 (Aug 27, 2013)

Ryan Young said:


> I know it's slowly growing my gf has limited my grow area to the rack and i swap out flowering plants to the living room as extra space! However Glen Decker is coming to our September meeting and I've already ordered some more plants, one or two may get kind of large eventually!



What are you getting?


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## Ryan Young (Aug 27, 2013)

I've ordered Phrag. Kyle Quintal (Haley Decker x kovachii), Paph. Wössner Kolarmi (kolopakingii x armeniacum), and a species Cliesocentron merillianum, with a teret leaves and upright growing habit and delightful blue green grey miniature flowers, which i first spotted in Andy's display at the Portland show last November, but nobody had any to sell then. So I've been patiently waiting for some to be available.


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## Paphman910 (Aug 27, 2013)

Ryan Young said:


> I've ordered Phrag. Kyle Quintal (Haley Decker x kovachii), Paph. Wössner Kolarmi (kolopakingii x armeniacum), and a species Cliesocentron merillianum, with a teret leaves and upright growing habit and delightful blue green grey miniature flowers, which i first spotted in Andy's display at the Portland show last November, but nobody had any to sell then. So I've been patiently waiting for some to be available.



The Cliesocentron merillianum looks like an interesting plant! Looks like a Vanda!

The Paph Wossner Kolarmi looks like a good grower but may get really due to kolopakingii influences.


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## Ryan Young (Aug 27, 2013)

We had a kolopakingii at our spring show, it was a monster, I'm hoping this will be a wee bit more tame in size.


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## Dido (Aug 27, 2013)

Ryan Young said:


> We had a kolopakingii at our spring show, it was a monster, I'm hoping this will be a wee bit more tame in size.



I just got a kolo X armeniacum alba 

She is already one of my biggest plants now.


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## Ryan Young (Aug 27, 2013)

Hi Dido, where did you get yours? 

Also i accidentally veered this thread off topic, so back onto it, i have a few other plants in semi hydro /hydroton setup some like it some are alright with it none have done exponentially better, however i do like that the media is stable no breakdown and pests seem to be lesser or easier to spot with it.


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## Dido (Aug 27, 2013)

I got mine from In Charm


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## Trithor (Aug 27, 2013)

That will be interesting to see how it turns out. I assume it has not flowered yet?


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## ALToronto (Aug 27, 2013)

I'm growing some paphs in draining PrimeAgra. I have to water every day, the stuff dries out very quickly. I do get a salt layer on top of the clay balls, and whenever I see it, I flush with RO water. The paphs are growing, but not exactly busting out of their pots. Been doing it since February, so a bit too early to make a judgement.

I also have two phrags in PrimeAgra - a Sedenii in s/h and a Hanne Popow in draining. The one in s/h is doing a bit better, but the flowers drop off prematurely, before they wilt. Both get brown leaf tips as well; I've been reducing fert concentration for them, but the browning still progresses.

I think the above is the biggest problem with neutral media - there is nothing organic to consume extra fertilizer, so it's very easy to overdo it. I think I'll drop K-Lite to 5 ppm N and see if they improve.


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## SlipperKing (Aug 28, 2013)

ALToronto said:


> I'm growing some paphs in draining PrimeAgra. I have to water every day, the stuff dries out very quickly. I do get a salt layer on top of the clay balls, and whenever I see it, I flush with RO water. The paphs are growing, but not exactly busting out of their pots. Been doing it since February, so a bit too early to make a judgement.
> 
> I also have two phrags in PrimeAgra - a Sedenii in s/h and a Hanne Popow in draining. The one in s/h is doing a bit better, but the flowers drop off prematurely, before they wilt. Both get brown leaf tips as well; I've been reducing fert concentration for them, but the browning still progresses.
> 
> I think the above is the biggest problem with neutral media - there is nothing organic to consume extra fertilizer, so it's very easy to overdo it. I think I'll drop K-Lite to 5 ppm N and see if they improve.



The white stuff on top is probably not a problem, calcium. The salts you can't see, are. (hiding inside of the PrimeAgra). Soak your pots in DI water for half a day, flush and then re-soak. Test the flow throw with an EC meter. Repeat until you get readings down, I like them to be ~200uSi. The 5ppm N will be fine and the leaf tip issue will go away on your new growths.


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## Linus_Cello (Aug 28, 2013)

I killed my Malioponesis in s/h. I don't think it works for me for paphs. Works fine for phrags.


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## Tom499 (Aug 28, 2013)

ALToronto said:


> I think the above is the biggest problem with neutral media - there is nothing organic to consume extra fertilizer, so it's very easy to overdo it. I think I'll drop K-Lite to 5 ppm N and see if they improve.



I think you hit the nail on the head here. When I 1st started with S/H in expanded clay pellets, I thought I needed to fertilize more, as there was no nutrients in the media. Then I learnt that actually, most organic medias provide very little nutrients, and thought maybe the micro organisms in them help sap some of the fertiliser away, acting as a sort of buffer. 

Since then they've been watering with rain water, and feed lightly maybe once a month. It's easy to see which plants have been overfed, the algae colonies explode, and the roots seem to stunt.


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## mrhappyrotter (Aug 28, 2013)

I can't call my typical mix entirely inert, but most of my plants are grown in a rockwool, sponge rock, hydroton and medium charcoal based mix. Then, depending on the plant, I may or may not mix in small amounts of oyster shell, egg shell, fir bark and/or sphagnum.

With a mix like this, I no longer need to repot as often and overall it seems like my plants are doing better. They grow better, have more extensive root systems and they bloom more often. Part of that is simply the fact that as I become more experienced, I'm better at growing. And the better I am at growing, the bigger and robust the plants get.

As far as why inert potting mixes aren't more common, well probably nobody would know for sure. I can make some guesses. Part of it is probably tradition. There's a long history of bark and moss mixes, and if people have good success with it, there's no need to change. It also seems like price might be a factor. Even though you may have to repot less often when you use an inert mix, when you look at the price of a bag of bark/moss that many people can go to a local shop to buy, versus the cost of a bag of sponge rock, LECA, rockwool, etc that you have to order online or drive to special shops to get, the bark is just cheaper. Long term, that may not be true, when you consider how much more often you need to repot, but that probably isn't a consideration for many folks.


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## JeanLux (Aug 29, 2013)

I started last year potting my plants to repot into a mix of seramis/ akadamia/ kanuma, mainly paphs! After 1 year I go back to bark using Orchiata because most of the plants did not respond well: in general no new growths, even signs of decline! Of course this might be because my watering regime was still oriented to bark-based mixes whereas watering of the seramis... mix should be more frequent! The danger of using different mixes in a collection!!

An exception to everything: I have a Iantha Stage in bloom with 3 flowers and 2 starters in Seramis ...  !! Jean


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## Brabantia (Sep 11, 2013)

Thanks all for your responses.
@JeanLux Is your Iantha Stage in Seramis alone? Is it the fine or the coarse Seramis... because it exist two granulometry.


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## JeanLux (Sep 12, 2013)

Brabantia said:


> ...
> @JeanLux Is your Iantha Stage in Seramis alone? Is it the fine or the coarse Seramis... because it exist two granulometry.



No, it is a mix Seramis (fine) / Akadama / kanuma !!

Jean


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