# Any interest in a series of threads on deflasking and compotting?



## Tom Reddick (May 17, 2017)

Good evening all,

I was very happy to find this forum recently. I have been growing orchids since I was 9, and from the early 2000s until 2008 I invested a significant amount of time in mastering (or trying to master let us say) the art of getting Paphs from flask to seedling size in a home growing environment- meaning an indoor setup without the benefit of a greenhouse (and indeed taking advantage of the benefits of growing in the home at this critical stage even if you do have a greenhouse.)

In the mid 2000s, I posted The sanderianum Chronicles and The kovachii Chronicles online at another forum which had an unfortunate data loss (as did I in a transition between computers a few years later), and so those are long gone. I was on that forum as "elpaninaro"- these days I stick to my real name in online hobby forums.

Anyhow- I am now in a position to dive back into growing Paphs from flask again, and I set up a new growing area over the past few days. Potting media and supplies on the way, with flasks to follow.

I am going to carefully document everything again- now with another decade of wisdom (I hope!) under my belt for my own benefit, and wanted to ask if you would like me to share it here in real time as things happen. It is intended as a way of sharing my experience and getting others to share their own thoughts. More than once my past chronicles led to good feedback that helped me greatly.

Just asking since I am very new here and have not been in an online orchid forum in nearly 10 years. I see more people are growing Paphs from flask now- so much mystery is surely gone, and I have no idea if the whole concept of my chronicles from 10-15 years ago would be helpful now.

I finalized the flask orders today- and the theme this time would be The Corypedilum Chronicles, with specific species to be grown and monitored as follows,

anitum
platyphylum
rothschildianum
sanderianum

Either way- I am very happy to have found this forum and look forward to participating.


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## Tom Reddick (May 17, 2017)

LOL- thanks. Just wanted to confirm. I asked mainly because I have no history on this particular forum. But I had a lot of fun doing this before and will do so again. First post this weekend to cover setup.


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## coronacars (May 18, 2017)

I would love to read it.


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## John M (May 18, 2017)

That would be great! Please bring it on! That sort of thread would provide many here with lots of interesting and useful information as well as spark discussion and sharing of everyone's experiences and pointers. Welcome and thank you for being willing to pariticipate to such an extent. People like you help to make SlipperTalk a much richer place!


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## suzyquec (May 18, 2017)

Absolutely.


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## Tom Reddick (May 18, 2017)

Thank you all. It is a go. And I am excited today since I found out we can add Paph. randsii to the mix. That pretty well covers the new/difficult range in this section of Paphiopedilum- and it will be instructive to raise them all side by side.

While the early Chronicles were largely success stories- there were many difficulties, and I am hopeful that revisting all these species one more generation into cultivation will result in a bit less "terrifying" experience.

John- I am going to PM you later tonight. I have been reading through this forum quite heavily the last week to get a sense for current methods and techniques, and I hope to chat with you on the concept of potting compots with agar intact. I have been down that road before with not such good luck, but I am seeing a growing number of experienced people are going down that path, so I want to consider using it as one of the test variables in this exercise.


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## Heather (May 21, 2017)

This is great, Tom. Thank you!


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## PaphLover (May 21, 2017)

Exciting! I'm looking forward to reading your posts.


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## Meeski (May 21, 2017)

Having very little experience with flasks I am looking forward to your posts Tom


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk


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## Tom Reddick (May 22, 2017)

Many thanks. I am getting excited! Just to give a timeline, I have everything sorted to where potting media arrives tomorrow and the flasks will start arriving on May 31st.

So I am planning to do the first thread over the holiday weekend (likely Monday the 29th) to go over details of the set-up and test measurements of the growing environment, and then the second thread to show photos of the deflasking process the following weekend after the flasks arrive. Have received some great ideas from John M's valuable posts here- and so I will take his agar-intact approach on either a full or half flask of each species/hybrid in the study group which has finished out as follows,

Paph. anitum
Paph. platyphylum
Paph. randsii
Paph. rothschildianum
Paph. sanderianum
Paph. Booth's Stone Lady 'Pitch Perfect' x stonei 'Fernwood' (I was going to do straight stonei, but this cross of Ken's looked too amazing to pass up.)


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## Mark Karayannis (May 24, 2017)

Welcome Tom An excellent idea


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## suzyquec (May 24, 2017)

Tom
Awesome I have compots all of these except the platyphylum, so I'm really excited for your help.
Suzy


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