# besseae culture



## Stone (Mar 19, 2015)

Just bought a flask of these. I have never grown them.
Could growers give me an idea of the best way? Especially temps (rest?) but also any other info like water, mix, light etc etc.
Thanks


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## theorchidzone (Mar 19, 2015)

Water heavily every day or every other day. Never let dry. We don't advise sitting in saucers of water, but if you are away on vacation for instance, it is the less of evils. [that said, I think some people have great success in Ebb/flow or related set ups; but fresh water remains important]
Clean water is very important.
Temp range 45F-85F. I would worry above this range.
Low light. Weak fertilizer.
Good air movement.
JC


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## MorandiWine (Mar 20, 2015)

Invest in an RO unit. All of your orchids will thank you, especially seedlings.

Tyler


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk 2


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## Stone (Mar 24, 2015)

theorchidzone said:


> Water heavily every day or every other day. Never let dry. We don't advise sitting in saucers of water, but if you are away on vacation for instance, it is the less of evils. [that said, I think some people have great success in Ebb/flow or related set ups; but fresh water remains important]
> Clean water is very important.
> Temp range 45F-85F. I would worry above this range.
> Low light. Weak fertilizer.
> ...



Thank you JC


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## Stone (Mar 24, 2015)

MorandiWine said:


> Invest in an RO unit. All of your orchids will thank you, especially seedlings.
> 
> Tyler
> 
> ...



Thanks Tyler. I have plenty of rainwater on hand. 26,000 litres  Funny though that last time I checked the pH it was about 4.5!!


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## ALToronto (Mar 24, 2015)

Stone said:


> Thanks Tyler. I have plenty of rainwater on hand. 26,000 litres  Funny though that last time I checked the pH it was about 4.5!!



Acid rain never went away, it's just not in the news anymore.


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## Kawarthapine (Mar 25, 2015)

Alla. What is your PH for Toronto rain and what do you do to adjust (if you use it)?


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## Stone (Mar 26, 2015)

ALToronto said:


> Acid rain never went away, it's just not in the news anymore.



Acid rain is not an issue here. probably CO2 and or decomposing OM in the tank. (it's under a tree)


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## gonewild (Mar 26, 2015)

Stone said:


> probably CO2 and or decomposing OM in the tank. (it's under a tree)



Then it's not rain water it is pond water. And represents "dirty" water in JC's advice to use clean water.


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## MorandiWine (Mar 26, 2015)

Agreed!!


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## Stone (Mar 27, 2015)

gonewild said:


> Then it's not rain water it is pond water. And represents "dirty" water in JC's advice to use clean water.



No it's rain water. I comes off the roof the the shed, the glasshouse, the workshop. There is a small meshed opening on top where a bit of organic material collects. The water is extremely clean.


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## gonewild (Mar 28, 2015)

Stone said:


> No it's rain water. I comes off the roof the the shed, the glasshouse, the workshop. There is a small meshed opening on top where a bit of organic material collects. The water is extremely clean.



Now you change your story. 
If you have 26000L and enough decomposing organic matter from a tree above to lower the pH to 4.5 It's not clean rain water. It may be good quality water but it does not conform to standard "rainwater" when talking about irrigation and fertilizers.


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## ALToronto (Mar 28, 2015)

Kawarthapine said:


> Alla. What is your PH for Toronto rain and what do you do to adjust (if you use it)?



I don't use rain water, I use RO. We have asphalt shingles on our roof, and lots of squirrels and raccoons visit it. I don't want that runoff.


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## Rick (Mar 28, 2015)

gonewild said:


> Now you change your story.
> If you have 26000L and enough decomposing organic matter from a tree above to lower the pH to 4.5 It's not clean rain water. It may be good quality water but it does not conform to standard "rainwater" when talking about irrigation and fertilizers.




Conductivity and hardness are probably more important than the pH in this case.

The buffering capacity (alkalinity) of rain water is generally so low, a sneeze will cause the pH to drop 4.

If the conductivity is up over 500 (or so) uS/cm then I'd say there's lots of stuff in this water.


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## Brabantia (Mar 29, 2015)

Rick said:


> Conductivity and hardness are probably more important than the pH in this case.
> 
> The buffering capacity (alkalinity) of rain water is generally so low, a sneeze will cause the pH to drop 4.
> 
> If the conductivity is up over 500 (or so) uS/cm then I'd say there's lots of stuff in this water.


The rain water I use has a conductivity of 15 µS. My conductivity meter is calibrated with 0.005M KCL (715 µS). I cannot measure its pH because its low conductivity (very poor in salts). Unless we have a very expensive equipment it is not possible to measure correctly the pH of a solution having a very low-salt content. Is this one a "good" rain water for my Paphs and Phrags?


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## gonewild (Mar 29, 2015)

Rick said:


> Conductivity and hardness are probably more important than the pH in this case.
> 
> The buffering capacity (alkalinity) of rain water is generally so low, a sneeze will cause the pH to drop 4.
> 
> If the conductivity is up over 500 (or so) uS/cm then I'd say there's lots of stuff in this water.



I'm confused a little.... Are you saying rainwater has up to 500 us/cm?

My meter reads in mMhos, do you know what the conversion from 500us/cm to mMhos is?


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## Brabantia (Mar 31, 2015)

I suppose that you want to say mmhos for mMhos (the full name is Mmhos and abbreviation millimhos per centimetre) .

1 mmhos/cm = 1 mS/cm and 1 mS/cm = 1000µS/cm

500 µS/cm = 0.5 mmhos

Reference _Here_


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## gonewild (Mar 31, 2015)

Brabantia said:


> I suppose that you want to say mmhos for mMhos (the full name is Mmhos and abbreviation millimhos per centimetre) .
> 
> 1 mmhos/cm = 1 mS/cm and 1 mS/cm = 1000µS/cm
> 
> ...



Thanks! I never really new the abreviations. I learned in milimhos and never really read or wrote the word. I've been using the same EC meter made in Denmark by Volmatic since 1983. I think that was before the other strange measurements were invented. 

0.5 mmhos is the reading I have always considered as the boundary between a good and poor quality water supply. But that's way more mineralized than rainwater. 
At 500 µS/cm (0.5 mmhos) there is still room to add enough nutrients to the water without the EC becoming a problem in horticultural production.


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## Brabantia (Mar 31, 2015)

gonewild said:


> Thanks! I never really new the abreviations. I learned in milimhos and never really read or wrote the word. I've been using the same EC meter made in Denmark by Volmatic since 1983. I think that was before the other strange measurements were invented.
> 
> 0.5 mmhos is the reading I have always considered as the boundary between a good and poor quality water supply. But that's way more mineralized than rainwater.
> At 500 µS/cm (0.5 mmhos) there is still room to add enough nutrients to the water without the EC becoming a problem in horticultural production.


And... at which value the EC became an issue in horticultural production (orchids?).


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## gonewild (Mar 31, 2015)

Brabantia said:


> And... at which value the EC became an issue in horticultural production (orchids?).



In horticulture production EC becomes an issue of concern above 1.5(mmhos). 
If the irrigation water has an EC of 0.5 the grower can add an additional EC 1.0 of nutrients and be at EC 1.5. That nutrient level is enough to force a commercial crop of most plants and is safe as far as salts for most plants.
The benefit of starting with a low EC water source is you have the ability to supply more nutrients and still remain below the EC 1.5 upper limit. Now under ideal management of environmental conditions Phal growers are pushing to higher levels to get faster production.

What I said above would not apply to salt sensitive orchid species it is the general rule guideline for commercial production (forcing) and it actually applies well to most plants in general.


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## Rick (Apr 3, 2015)

Gotta be careful of comparing EC of natural surface/well waters to EC of fertilizer systems

Note that EC 1.5 mS (or mMho/cm) is a conductivity of 1500 uS/cm

My well water runs 600 to 800uS, which is pretty stout, but it has NO measurable NPK in it. 

I have a potted rescue Phal on my kitchen counter that gets nothing but the well water, and its been doing pretty good (3 new leaves, and a bunch of roots).

I doubt I could get away with this by regularly watering with a batch of RO water mixed with enough balanced NPK to a conductivity of 1000uS (1.0 mMho) for very long. I've killed every potted phal I got when using MSU at 1/2tsp/gal. I think that comes out to conductivity between 600-800uS.

But the main point is that an EC value tells you nothing of the chemical composition of the matrix other than you have a bunch of ions in solution.


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## Rick (Apr 3, 2015)

gonewild said:


> I'm confused a little.... Are you saying rainwater has up to 500 us/cm?



No rain water (like Brabantia's) has a very low EC.

But rain water off of dirty roofs, with leaves, dead bugs,.......will not have a low EC.

I'm presently working with a landscaper who collects "rain water" off a parking lot. He can't understand why the EC is 1500uS with a pH of 8.+ and about 1/2 of his hollies die every other year.

Rain water should have a low EC, but seems like it always picks up something before it gets in the storage tank:wink:


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