# Hey Lance! Any updated PK photos??



## Candace (May 18, 2007)

Have they grown at all? Doing well?


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## gonewild (May 18, 2007)

Candace said:


> Have they grown at all? Doing well?




They are growing quite well. I'll try take some pictures today. I guess it has been almost 3 months now. As expected they grow slower than hybrids. Well actually I don't think they grow slower, they just get bigger slower. They grow new leaves but the leaves don't elongate as much as hybrids and other species so the leaf spread does not increase much with each new leaf. As well they shed old leaves often and tend to only have 3 or 4 leaves at a time.
So although it appears they are growing slowly they are actually aging well, if that makes sense?


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## gonewild (May 18, 2007)

Here is a picture of some of the kovachii seedlings today and a picture of the same plants the day they were potted from flask.


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## Marco (May 18, 2007)

Lance they look great. What's the white stuff on top of the medium in the first photo?


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## gonewild (May 18, 2007)

The white stuff is oyster shell.


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## NYEric (May 18, 2007)

Raw oysters! Yum!!


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## Hien (May 18, 2007)

Lance,

What is the diameter of the cup?

It seems that the back row growth faster.


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## gonewild (May 18, 2007)

Hien said:


> Lance,
> 
> What is the diameter of the cup?
> 
> It seems that the back row growth faster.



The cups are 3 inch diameter.

I think they are all growing about the same rate. The front row plants are actually bigger than they appear in the photo because they face away from the camera more toward the light on the shelf and the plants in back are more facing the camera. I think in 6 months time they will all nearly equal out in size.


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## gonewild (May 18, 2007)

Here is a picture of some of the roots that are showing. I guess they like water? oke:


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## Marco (May 18, 2007)

Those are some of the sexiest roots I've ever seen


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## kentuckiense (May 18, 2007)

I think Lance has these things figured out. Wow!


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## Hien (May 18, 2007)

gonewild said:


> The cups are 3 inch diameter.
> 
> I think they are all growing about the same rate. The front row plants are actually bigger than they appear in the photo because they face away from the camera more toward the light on the shelf and the plants in back are more facing the camera. I think in 6 months time they will all nearly equal out in size.


 Glen & Fritz send me some pk out of flask around the end of March. They are smaller than yours, perhaps about the size of the your 4th and last row. But they are still doing ok (If they past this summer , then I would know for sure)
Seeing your result, I think I will give them a little more water.
I think they like clay pebble much better than the Diatomite (same with my besseae, at the beginning, the Diatomite works very well, then I guess it absorbes too much salt, the plants deteriorate )


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## gonewild (May 18, 2007)

Hien said:


> Glen & Fritz send me some pk out of flask around the end of March. They are smaller than yours, perhaps about the size of the your 4th and last row. But they are still doing ok (If they past this summer , then I would know for sure)
> Seeing your result, I think I will give them a little more water.
> I think they like clay pebble much better than the Diatomite (same with my besseae, at the beginning, the Diatomite works very well, then I guess it absorbes too much salt, the plants deteriorate )



Maybe the diatomite does accumulate salts or possibly it actually dissolves and releases an excess of some minerals? I like the inert leca.

The key to growing any cloud forest plant is to apply lots of water, frequently. In order to do this you need a media that drains very fast and has lots of air for the roots. Maybe the diatomite is too fine? In the Andean rainforests every night and most days plants get soaked with water if not from rain then from condensation. Maybe they will grow OK with "normal" orchid pot culture practices but they will grow better with lots of water. 

P. kovachii roots grow very slowly and small seedlings may depend on absorption of water and nutrients from their foliage until they develop a root system. In the leca pebbles it is not possible to over water them.


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## Candace (May 18, 2007)

They look very happy, Lance. I may have to try one, although I still worry it gets too hot here. Do you have problems with the oyster shell washing out or plugging the s/h holes? What other paphs or phrags do you do that with?


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## Ron-NY (May 18, 2007)

They are looking good Lance!! Are you controlling the temps as well?


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## gonewild (May 18, 2007)

Candace said:


> They look very happy, Lance. I may have to try one, although I still worry it gets too hot here. Do you have problems with the oyster shell washing out or plugging the s/h holes? What other paphs or phrags do you do that with?



I don't think you get too hot, I doubt you are much hotter than the Midwest states? It gets pretty hot in the Andes also. Everyone thinks the high elevation orchids are always cold but they are not. I've been collecting at those elevations and been so hot you couldn't stand out in the sun.

The oyster shell was applied as a top dressing so it does not get down to the drainage holes. But I doubt it would not stop the drainage anyway. It may slow it down but not keep the water from draining to the hole level.

I have only used the oyster shell on the kovachii. I may try it on some of the seedling paphs I have also in the near future to see what happens.


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## gonewild (May 18, 2007)

Ron-NY said:


> They are looking good Lance!! Are you controlling the temps as well?



Yes the temperature runs at around 80-85 days and 62-72 at night.
They are growing in the house with us so we just open a window if it starts to get to warm during the day. But then I just noticed it is only 74 degrees in here right now, I better go put on a sweater.


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## NYEric (May 18, 2007)

NYC = 52 degrees F!


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## Nikolaus (May 18, 2007)

those PK´s look great. It is quite late in the evening now and so I have in mind to take a picture of my two PK´s tomorrow. One has a leaf span of now 22 cm and I have them in a mixture of fine bark basis and they are standing in water about 3 cm high. More about them tomorrow
Hello from Germany
Nikolaus


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## Candace (May 18, 2007)

In the hottest part of our summers, my greenhouse can get up in the mid to high 90's for several weeks in a row. Outside temps. get in the 110-117 range. From what I've read on the different forums, people say they tend to start declining at temps in the high 80's. But, of course, that may also mean they're drying out too much, etc.


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## gonewild (May 18, 2007)

Candace said:


> In the hottest part of our summers, my greenhouse can get up in the mid to high 90's for several weeks in a row. Outside temps. get in the 110-117 range. From what I've read on the different forums, people say they tend to start declining at temps in the high 80's. But, of course, that may also mean they're drying out too much, etc.



Mid to high 90's for several weeks is not that bad. 110 is pretty hot though!
Keep them wet and I bet they will do fine. Most of the declining at temps in the mid 80's you read about are with small seedlings right out of flask. Once the plants are established with active roots it's not a problem. I got my first flask of kovachii in August and our temps here inside ran up into the 90's at times and never really got much below 70 at night and the seedlings grew fine, but again we kept them wet and humid. Also a lot of the problem plants were not good quality plants to start with and would have died at any temperature.


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## Candace (May 18, 2007)

Thanks for the info. Lance. I will probably go ahead and try one.


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