# Freeeeeedoooooom!



## xiphius (Dec 3, 2018)

Every time I pull this guy out to water, I keep wondering when I am going to accidentally break this off... it just keeps on goin'. About 14 inches outside of the pot now.


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## ehanes7612 (Dec 3, 2018)

is it an orchid?

just kidding...what orchid? Phrag......?


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## Ray (Dec 4, 2018)

You need to water it more. The poor thing is searching for it!


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## xiphius (Dec 5, 2018)

ehanes7612 said:


> is it an orchid?
> 
> just kidding...what orchid? Phrag......?



It is a Phrag QF Maria. I think I got this from littlefrog a few years ago at the Michiana orchid society sale (if memory serves). It has been doing fairly well. This past year it put up two spikes.



Ray said:


> You need to water it more. The poor thing is searching for it!



Nah. It grows standing in water in my recirculating water table. When I said "take it out to water it," I guess it would have been more accurrate to say "take it out to flush it." The root in question is completely submerged 24/7 (along with all of the other roots in the bottom 2-3 inches of that pot). It's been growing out and following the flow of the current underwater. The "kink" is from when I accidentally rotated the pot, causing the root to turn and start growing in a different direction to stay with the current. It is possibly searching for other sources of nutrients now that it has found it's way out of the pot. It has been putting on an half inch to an inch of length every month or so. Pic below of the root growing in the recirculating table (pretty much all of my phrags love this setup and have been doing much better since being moved over).

table:





underwater root:


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## Ray (Dec 5, 2018)

Yeah, that makes sense.

Plants I grow in semi-hydroponics always end up with as much root growth in the reservoir as the rest of the pot, if not more.


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## Ozpaph (Dec 5, 2018)

I have plenty of paphs that grow roots into the wet sand they stand on.
In nature they grow long roots into cracks and crevices. It what they do.


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## NYEric (Dec 7, 2018)

Most of my big Phrags grow with roots outside the pots in water. How do you flush it with tap water; or is that an RO system?
BTW, you need more plants!


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## littlefrog (Dec 10, 2018)

I have several of my bigger phrags that do that... And I don't even grow in water, they just wander along the bench surface (I have solid surface benches). Makes it hard to repot.

Good growing!
Rob


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## xiphius (Dec 10, 2018)

NYEric said:


> Most of my big Phrags grow with roots outside the pots in water. How do you flush it with tap water; or is that an RO system?



Yeah, this is probably the longest I have seen outside of one of my pots. They usually stay smallish and closer to the pot, but this little guy is just going to town! 

I pull them out once or twice a week to give them ferts. I also flush them every couple weeks with running tap water in a large sink. The recirculating water table is RO water that I change out every few months.



NYEric said:


> BTW, you need more plants!



Lol. You will hear no arguments from me . This is just a side table though (phrags only in the tub). Most of my paphs are in a separate grow tent.


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## NYEric (Dec 10, 2018)

xiphius said:


> I also flush them every couple weeks with running tap water in a large sink. The recirculating water table is RO water that I change out every few months.



OK they are in RO water mostly. If you 'flush' by running tap water you are just adding whatever chemicals are in your tap water.


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## xiphius (Dec 10, 2018)

NYEric said:


> OK they are in RO water mostly. If you 'flush' by running tap water you are just adding whatever chemicals are in your tap water.



Yeah, mostly RO water. My tap is water is from a relatively rural well, so no chlorine or anything like that (and I doubt much in the way of anything else too noxious). Also, it is naturally fairly low in TDS in this part of VA (fluctuates between 80-120 ppm TDS). I flush every few weeks to try and head off buildup of salts from the fert solution. Water still evaporates from the surfaces of the pots (a thin crust of salt forms over the course of a week or so), if I didn't flush every few weeks, it would build up and eventually burn the plant.

I fertilize them weekly with MSU RO formula at 60 ppm N.


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