# Cypripedium acaule



## JPMC (Apr 18, 2014)

I purchased this plant on EBay in 2012 as a collected plant from a licensed collector in North Carolina. At that time, it had one growth that had a flower bud on it (it was a spring delivery). I potted it up as usual in the cypripedium mix many people use (seramis, and other inorganic items like perlite and stalite). It did not do well. I did cut off the flower bud before it could bloom but even that was not helpful. I tried the use of acidified water (vinegar as the acidifier) with no great success. I decided to resort to geochemistry 101 and repot in pure granite gravel a month after I got it. The plant turned right around within a few weeks and looked healthy. Its leaves were a bit yellow on my usual fertilizer regimen (urea-free fertilizer at 125-150 ppm per week) so I doubled its fertilizer and the leaves turned green in a few more weeks. It went in the fridge with my other cypripediums that winter and came back with two growths last year, but no flower. This year, it has three growths and two flowers. Despite being a common woodland plant in this part of the world, I think that it looks very exotic. It also has a pleasant, sweet-spicy scent that I never appreciated in the wild (although not as powerful as Cypripedium parviflorum var. parviflorum).





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## dodidoki (Apr 18, 2014)

Ohhhh, I always feel , that I hate you, when see a plant of yours......


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## Berthold (Apr 18, 2014)

JPMC said:


> I potted it up as usual in the cypripedium mix many people use (seramis, and other inorganic items like perlite and stalite). It did not do well. I did cut off the flower bud before it could bloom but even that was not helpful. I tried the use of acidified water (vinegar as the acidifier) with no great success.




But this species does well in that mix if You consequently water it with a pH 3.5 acidified water and don't set the pot in rain, which raises the pH-value up to 6 very quickly.


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## mrhappyrotter (Apr 18, 2014)

Nice. I'm hoping to head out to a local "swarm" of this species either this weekend or next to take some photos. I'd never noticed any fragrance on these, so I'll have to check again.


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## JPMC (Apr 18, 2014)

Berthold said:


> But this species does well in that mix if You consequently water it with a pH 3.5 acidified water and don't set the pot in rain, which raises the pH-value up to 6 very quickly.



I may have used the wrong concentration of vinegar. This method seems to work well without the added complications of acidification of the water used to water the plant. Also, I grow my plants entirely indoors so no rain water contaminates the plant.


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## John M (Apr 18, 2014)

This is really wonderful! Bravo!

So, the whole pot is pure granite gravel? Is the gravel acidic? Where does one find pure granite gravel for sale? Thanks!


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## Berthold (Apr 18, 2014)

JPMC said:


> This method seems to work well without the added complications of acidification of the water used to water the plant.



I agree, its the best way of course. But You normally don't find granite gravel with a pH-value which is low enough for Cypripedium acaule. It should be between 3.3 and 4.5 in a long term.


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## Heather (Apr 18, 2014)

Wow, nice job! They're just beautiful!


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## cnycharles (Apr 18, 2014)

also i wouldn't give it any fertilizer, but it seems to have worked for you; nice flowers


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## Linus_Cello (Apr 18, 2014)

Congrats on growing this in a pot. 
For more acidic water, have you tried "peat tea?" Soak peat moss in a garbage can and use the tannic water. I guess you could use oak leaves and pine needles to replicate more natural tannins.


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## abax (Apr 18, 2014)

Beautiful acaule and a real accomplishment to grow this Cyp. well.


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## cypfanatic (Apr 19, 2014)

JPMC, 
good jub, congrats.
despite all well mean recommendations,
I mean:
NEVER CHANGE A WINNING TEAM.

just make in future wat alrady is sucessful,
granit and fertiliser :clap:


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## monocotman (Apr 19, 2014)

Very interesting story and great growing.
I'd keep your winning formula!
David


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## KyushuCalanthe (Apr 19, 2014)

I'll echo the sentiment - if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Awesome job keeping this plant happy.


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## JPMC (Apr 19, 2014)

John M said:


> This is really wonderful! Bravo!
> 
> So, the whole pot is pure granite gravel? Is the gravel acidic? Where does one find pure granite gravel for sale? Thanks!



Yes, it is in pure granite gravel. As I recall from an undergraduate course many years ago, granite is an acidic mineral. I bought mine from an on-line source called Repotme.com but I've seen it in garden stores locally too.

I recall reading a theory that the acidic soil/medium prevents the growth of some bacteria and fungi that can easily overwhelm this plant. Interestingly, I've noticed that moss and algae grow on the clay pot but not on the granite gravel. You can see this at the bottom of the full plant images. I don't know that this proves anything but the observation fits the theory.


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## JPMC (Apr 19, 2014)

Linus_Cello said:


> Congrats on growing this in a pot.
> For more acidic water, have you tried "peat tea?" Soak peat moss in a garbage can and use the tannic water. I guess you could use oak leaves and pine needles to replicate more natural tannins.



I have not but it might work. I do not have the room to set up that sort of apparatus in my apartment.


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## JPMC (Apr 19, 2014)

Berthold said:


> I agree, its the best way of course. But You normally don't find granite gravel with a pH-value which is low enough for Cypripedium acaule. It should be between 3.3 and 4.5 in a long term.



I don't claim any great expertise in geochemistry, but I do recall that granite is an acidic mineral. I'm sure that different granites have a different chemistry yielding a different pH. The grey and black type of granite I have used seems to work so far so you make me curious about its pH. Not sure how to measure it though.


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## Berthold (Apr 19, 2014)

JPMC said:


> Not sure how to measure it though.



Crash it a little bit and put in distilled water, leave it 2 days on the kitchen board and then measure the pH-value.
Generally it should be in the acid range. But the question is how much.


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## gnathaniel (Apr 19, 2014)

Gorgeous! Reminds me how much I want to get my nose out of my books and go for a long hike in the woods.


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## naoki (Apr 20, 2014)

Great job! It may be a good clone to propagate since it seems to grow well without low pH soil. So are you growing this indoor under artificial light?


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## JPMC (Apr 20, 2014)

naoki said:


> Great job! It may be a good clone to propagate since it seems to grow well without low pH soil. So are you growing this indoor under artificial light?



Thank you.

I have no proof, but I suspect that the medium is very acidic or in some other way favorable to its growth. I noticed a story from the Botany Boy blog site that describes the favorable condition for this orchid in an abandoned granite quarry outside NYC. It's grown under LED lights (100 W fixture at a distance of about 30 inches).


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## Linus_Cello (Apr 20, 2014)

JPMC said:


> I have not but it might work. I do not have the room to set up that sort of apparatus in my apartment.



Ok, scale down to a 5 gallon bucket.


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## John M (Apr 20, 2014)

Thanks for the reply. You sure have done a fine job with this one!


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## naoki (Apr 21, 2014)

It is probably your good culture than the property of granite. I don't know about geology and chemistry, so I was looking around, and I noticed that there are a couple interesting things.

From looking at the abstract:
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00790664
granite powder can be a slow release K fertilizer. Wikipedia entry here mentions Silica is the main components. But it's unlikely that there are lots of nutrients leaching out from gravels. Maybe extremely low nutrient holding capacity + reduced exposure to fungi (indoor) might be helping?


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## JPMC (Apr 21, 2014)

naoki said:


> It is probably your good culture than the property of granite. I don't know about geology and chemistry, so I was looking around, and I noticed that there are a couple interesting things.
> 
> From looking at the abstract:
> http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00790664
> granite powder can be a slow release K fertilizer. Wikipedia entry here mentions Silica is the main components. But it's unlikely that there are lots of nutrients leaching out from gravels. Maybe extremely low nutrient holding capacity + reduced exposure to fungi (indoor) might be helping?



Thank you for the research!

I do believe that there is something to the theory that this orchid has a low resistance to fungi and bacteria. It may be that pH is not as important as keeping the microscopic pathogens from overwhelming the plant. A low pH may be just one way to achieve this.


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## Berthold (Apr 21, 2014)

JPMC said:


> Thank you for the research!
> It may be that pH is not as important as keeping the microscopic pathogens from overwhelming the plant. A low pH may be just one way to achieve this.



Yes, the normal way is that specialized mycorrhiza fungi do this job. But that way doesn't seem to exist for the acaule species.
It was told to me that You never find acaule in a natural surrounding with a pH-value above 4.5.
So I think acaule escapes into this sour ecological niche to crack that problem.

Therefore we tested for pot culture different substrates and reduce the pH-value to 4.5 or below by acidified water and all substrates work well.


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## JPMC (Apr 21, 2014)

Berthold said:


> Yes, the normal way is that specialized mycorrhiza fungi do this job. But that way doesn't seem to exist for the acaule species.
> It was told to me that You never find acaule in a natural surrounding with a pH-value above 4.5.
> So I think acaule escapes into this sour ecological niche to crack that problem.
> 
> Therefore we tested for pot culture different substrates and reduce the pH-value to 4.5 or below by acidified water and all substrates work well.



Thank you for sharing your research results. Do you have any images of acaule using this method that you could share? Also, how long have you been able to keep them in good health with this method?


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## NYEric (Apr 21, 2014)

That's fantastic!!! My only attempt w/ these crashed soon after I got them because the vendor shipped in the hottest part of the summer. I will try them this way next time, thanks for the info.


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## Berthold (Apr 21, 2014)

JPMC said:


> Thank you for sharing your research results. Do you have any images of acaule using this method that you could share? Also, how long have you been able to keep them in good health with this method?


It was in the last century in my old garden.

I had black peat beds in the garden with a pH-value of about 3.5 at the beginning.
Three times I planted adult acaule in the autumn. They came to flower in the next spring and disappeared in the summer. I checked the pH-value and it raised up to 5.5 due to rain.
Next I set an adult plant in a pot with Seramis and Rhein-sand and acidified and it came to flower for 3 years and it was still healthy.Then I gave away the plant.

Last year I started again with acaule in a pot an I will keep it as long as we live, me and the plant, whatever is earlier.


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## naoki (Apr 21, 2014)

Berthold said:


> Yes, the normal way is that specialized mycorrhiza fungi do this job. But that way doesn't seem to exist for the acaule species.
> It was told to me that You never find acaule in a natural surrounding with a pH-value above 4.5.
> So I think acaule escapes into this sour ecological niche to crack that problem.
> 
> Therefore we tested for pot culture different substrates and reduce the pH-value to 4.5 or below by acidified water and all substrates work well.



I don't know if you have seen this paper (my friend is involved in it):
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1558-5646.2007.00112.x/full
But among Cyps, C. acaule seems to be least specific about the association with mycorrhizae. But this molecular based study can't tell if they are offering the protection against fungi. Some of fungi may be just associated with orchids without any mutualistic benefits, i.e. endophytes. The paper isn't directly helpful for Cyp culture, but it is interesting to learn about their biology.


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## Berthold (Apr 21, 2014)

naoki said:


> Some of fungi may be just associated with orchids without any mutualistic benefits, i.e. endophytes.



Yes a agree completely. But the fungus will keep away other fungi and bacteria as a self protection and that will help the orchid on which the fungus is growing. I tested this with different fungi from the garden. Some of them are so strong that they strangler the orchid roots. But there is no rotting at all.


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