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Just keep in mind that some will die, and it is a good thing. The weak and the defective need to be weeded out. In my opinion, it is a waste of time trying to encourage the runts to hang on. No one has that much extra space. When you move them into fresh moss in 5-6 months, be aggressive...

Regarding the heat beneath the seedlings, cnycharles is correct, don't get carried away. My seedlings are in trays on a shelf with a light fixture attached to the shelf. The heat from the ballast warms the plants, but it is certainly not 15-20 degrees warmer. Each ballast warms the plants on...

John None of these little tigrinums have extensive roots and they grow slowly. So if the roots wither, then the plants lose leaves faster than they can grow them. If you put them into bark right out of the flask, they will wither. Sam commented to me that he was seeing excessive losses after...

Should work fine. I assume you will turn off heat at night when the tops are off. Is there any way to set the tops on slightly askew so that they just partially ventilated at night? That would be a good transition to being fully open at night. I don't know about you, but my house humidity...

I have several flasks of my own creation that I made last year using my awarded plants, including a multiflora. They are barely more than protocorms. So, 72 years old + 10 years to see several bloom + 8 years to get some size on the plants for shows. I don't see any problems here. I think it...

I don't think tangled roots will be a problem. Sam's plants will have healthy roots, but they won't be extensive. Gently wash the medium off and the seedlings will come apart easily. You won't do doing any harm. One flask will produce four 4 inch compots with 6-7 plants per pot. It will be...

John Here is a quick photo of my plants. The four compots on the top are 8 months out of flask. The rest are 3 months out of flask. I realize they have quite a ways to go, but this stage is where the losses can be greatest. Mike

John I am growing several flasks of his tigrinums. Start them out in sphagnum and use dilute fertilizer in good quality water. I haven't lost a single plant. They just don't grow very fast. I tried a variety of media, but nothing else worked for me. I have them under lights and slightly...

This is Red Lightning x Grande, not in flower yet this year, but I have never seen the flower spikes so robust. There is a bit of a parallax issue, but the spike is indeed a full 1 cm thick. Mike

David Do you have any plants colonized by pesticide resistant thrips? Looks like a great time to get rid of them. Mike

I suspect we all have moments when we fully grasp that we are old. Most of the time it is because of the new slang or technology, but today, while looking at some old photos, it hit me like a hammer. This is a photo from around 1910 of a family gathering of my great grandparents and their...

I blend 6 ppm RO water with very hard tap water at a ratio of 5:1. To this I add very small amounts of fertilizer, so that the final irrigation water is about 100 ppm. I water at least every other day. If I'm away for more than a few days, I put all of the phrags into trays of water. If I...

This is another FS that I grew out of a flask from OZ. The parents are besseae "Mega" x an FCC kovachii. None have been keepers, but I still have 4 that will bloom for the first time in the next month or so. So far, all had halos and none were flat. This one was disappointing because the bud...

Great flower, but does anyone understand why we see these white halos on these kovachii hybrids? I don't see it on either parent. Mike

Thanks for the info. I have an awarded one, but had purchased another large plant from Sam early last year. I just checked the tag and it is the SAME CROSS. I don't see any sign that it will bloom this year, but I hope it is a nice one too. Mike

It is normal. No need to stake at this point. Two encouraging things to note right now are that the color is nice and dark and it is good size. As the stem gets longer, if it starts curving towards the floor, you might want to very gently support it. It is easy to break if you try to force...

The expression I found amusing is "sweat is the body crying". Mike

Kate Did you happen to purchase any of Chuck's Fall River x kovachii flask? I'm thinking I might see some darker shades from this cross. I have a couple of dozen of these plants that should bloom in 2-3 years and I am keeping my fingers crossed. Mike

I started most of these in various combinations of bark and perlite, but they did not do well and the short roots began to wither. In contrast, the ones in moss grew very nice roots. Surprisingly, the ones in bark quickly recovered once they were moved to moss. I repot them every few months...

These are out of three flasks of tigrinums from Sam. I had been watching the prices on tigrinum flasks for several years and last summer Sam had some for reasonable prices, so I bought a single flask in July. I tried a combination of conditions, torturing the the little guys nearly to death...