Advice, please re phrags.

[southernbelle]

You seem to be doing everything right!
I cannot see anything that really jumps out.
I just wonder whether the roots are a bit too dry in the bark given that the humidity is around 50%?
These besseae hybrids really like it wet wet wet!
Just moist is nowhere near as good.
My humidity in winter in the kitchen where they grow is around 60-70% and I grow in rockwool which is always wet. The pots sit in a bit of water year round,
David

Ok, it’s the besseae hybrids that I’m having problems with!! I guess I need to water them more. My phrags that are doing well are Eumelia Arias (kovachii x schlimii) in the big pot with larger bark, and Nicholle Tower (delessandroi x longifolium) which I run a little drier and are very happy. I’ve been thinking besseae needed the same. So many individual plant details to learn. Someday, maybe...

 

[PeteM]

This is very interesting, Pete! I bought another Fritz Schomberg at the Paph Forum from Woodstream as well. We might have been choosing them together as I remember someone else was interested when I was. Anyway, they were wilted and I thought just needed water. I try not to change things right away so left it potted as it was (in 6” I think but could be wrong). It never perked up. By March I emailed a photo to Bill who said he’d replace it if I brought it to Philly Show but in the meantime, to pot it in smaller bark and put it in a terrarium type moisture environment and it would sprout new roots. Almost no roots when I did that, so in a 2” deep seedling pot. After 6 wks I’m seeing one little nub of root start to swell, it foliage still totally droopy wilted (obviously couldn’t return it at Philly show). I contacted Bill when his new list came out about plants I want and returning this, but as several have mentioned, he’s not responded lately. Your results in the rockwool are impressive with same plant bought at same show. Was yours wilted looking when you bought it?

Yes, It had a poor root system and was not very established in it's pot at the time.

 

[southernbelle]

Ok, good to know. I will take all the wonderful info all of you have so graciously posted print it out and sort through it to apply what I can. Will report in if I save these. I’ll be sure to keep them wetter, too. Thanks so much to everyone for your time, I really appreciate the support.

 

[PeteM]

This is very interesting, Pete! I bought another Fritz Schomberg at the Paph Forum from Woodstream as well. We might have been choosing them together as I remember someone else was interested when I was. Anyway, they were wilted and I thought just needed water. I try not to change things right away so left it potted as it was (in 6” I think but could be wrong). It never perked up. By March I emailed a photo to Bill who said he’d replace it if I brought it to Philly Show but in the meantime, to pot it in smaller bark and put it in a terrarium type moisture environment and it would sprout new roots. Almost no roots when I did that, so in a 2” deep seedling pot. After 6 wks I’m seeing one little nub of root start to swell, it foliage still totally droopy wilted (obviously couldn’t return it at Philly show). I contacted Bill when his new list came out about plants I want and returning this, but as several have mentioned, he’s not responded lately. Your results in the rockwool are impressive with same plant bought at same show. Was yours wilted looking when you bought it?

Also, probably not me. My plant was a barter /swap for another in my collection and I was not elbowing others out of the way as per usual. But yes, cool to know we share similar taste in plants. I also really really hope Bill and Lynn are OK.

 

[richgarrison]

@southernbelle since the next public show we can attend will likely be the paph forum in 2021 definitely need to connect up.. would love to meet you and @PeteM @Linus_Cello and i met in person in front of his table of plants for sale ;-) that was certainly fun...

I'm in SEPOS hate that we had to cancel...

but there should be next year... and our plants will be bigger then anyway RIGHT!?

Rich

 

[southernbelle]

@southernbelle since the next public show we can attend will likely be the paph forum in 2021 definitely need to connect up.. would love to meet you and @PeteM @Linus_Cello and i met in person in front of his table of plants for sale ;-) that was certainly fun...

I'm in SEPOS hate that we had to cancel...

but there should be next year... and our plants will be bigger then anyway RIGHT!?

Rich

God willing re the plants! Sometimes, I feel as though I don't have a whole lot of control... so much to learn. Anyway, yes, we must connect at the Paph Forum 2021! I think we should have name tags that state our real names and also our screen names, even if hand written. That way, in a NY minute, we'd know who each other are. I met Garland Hanson this past forum and immediately knew him because of his VA Orchids FB page. Now that you talk about Linus having a table of plants for sale, I'm sure I met him, too, but didn't know who I was speaking to. This is a wonderful community, it would be great to put faces with names, at least of those who are somewhat local to DC.

 

[Linus_Cello]

Now that you talk about Linus having a table of plants for sale, I'm sure I met him, too, but didn't know who I was speaking to. This is a wonderful community, it would be great to put faces with names, at least of those who are somewhat local to DC.

nope I was not selling plants. Folks may think I’m selling plants as I program the cash register and make the price tag stickers.

my first name is Linus

 

[southernbelle]

nope I was not selling plants. Folks may think I’m selling plants as I program the cash register and make the price tag stickers.

my first name is Linus

. My first name is Deborah.

 

[southernbelle]

Also, probably not me. My plant was a barter /swap for another in my collection and I was not elbowing others out of the way as per usual. But yes, cool to know we share similar taste in plants. I also really really hope Bill and Lynn are OK.

Yes, I hope they are ok, too!

 

[NYEric]

Lots going on here.
Your potting mix looks a little too uniform and dense, You may be choking off the roots, Look at How open and airy Pete M's mix of grow cube rockwool and course perlite is (Kelly's Korner - sells that). I use a modified mix of Clay pellets on the bottom (because they sit in water often) , Orchiata, perlite, diatomite (Yes!) and sphagnum moss for my Phrags, sometimes with rockwool or live moss on top. Good luck.

 

[richgarrison]

@Linus_Cello didn't you have a bunch of plants on the NCOS member plants table? thought a bunch of those were yours...

 

[Linus_Cello]

@Linus_Cello didn't you have a bunch of plants on the NCOS member plants table? thought a bunch of those were yours...

nope. I think you are confusing me with Pete M.

 

[richgarrison]

i think i'm just confused in general

 

[NYEric]

Of course you're enthused!

 

[southernbelle]

Also, I would like to add this photo. Fritz Schomberg. obtained from woodstream at January's Paph forum. With few roots, I repotted from orchiata into growdan / perlite, a new media for me that I am switching to slowly after reading your post and posts of others. I have not seen this amount of root growth before in other media under my conditions. TBD if this holds up over the entire growing year. But for starting roots, this stuff works really well.

View attachment 19445 View attachment 19446 View attachment 19447

Pete, I don’t know if I mentioned before, but Jerry Fischer said phrags love rockwool mix, but because rockwool holds onto salts, for one watering a month, thoroughly flush with plain water. Question: How dry do you let the top ½” get before you water? I’m going to go back to rockwool mix for my new phrags seeing your results. ¼” Grodan cubes 55%/small charcoal10%/#3 perlite 35%. This holds water well, especially in small pots for me. 3” pots go 7 days before starting to dry on top. I’m just concerned I will over water.

 

[MaxC]

I am not sure you can over water. When my collection was a bit smaller I was watering twice a day. Had to scale back to once a day because of the limitations of distilling my water but once I get a RO system I may go back to twice a day. The only issues, as Ray mentioned, would be related to sitting in water. I recently posted a thread on using growcubes to help some kovachii with terrible roots. So far I am liking grow cubes for my culture.

 

[PeteM]

Pete, I don’t know if I mentioned before, but Jerry Fischer said phrags love rockwool mix, but because rockwool holds onto salts, for one watering a month, thoroughly flush with plain water. Question: How dry do you let the top ½” get before you water? I’m going to go back to rockwool mix for my new phrags seeing your results. ¼” Grodan cubes 55%/small charcoal10%/#3 perlite 35%. This holds water well, especially in small pots for me. 3” pots go 7 days before starting to dry on top. I’m just concerned I will over water.

I water my phrags daily. This includes a mist from a gallon hand pump of RO water mixed with TDS @ around 50ppm of rotating fert, now between 6.2-6.8 pH. I've tried to start not being overly concerned about small variations in PH, but I also now measure (calibrate before every watering) to make sure I'm not way off the chart. Then for the phrags and vandas, I go back through the collection with an RO hose and quickly / lightly drench them all. This happens daily for both bark and rockwool. I also hold my temps at low 64, high 78 in Jan-Feb. Yes, I do run a strong flush of straight RO on all the plants probably once or twice a month. I am probably over fertilizing in rockwool, but time will tell once the leaf tips start showing signs of stress, I'll repot and maybe adjust the schedule. Still TBD on how this will perform in the hot summer months.

Good luck with the mix. I use grow cubes 60%, perelite 40%, and crushed oyster shells. At the paph forum, Jurahame Leyva presented on using oyster shells in the media. He had a unique way of getting them into the media. After the phrag was potted in the new mix, he put spoonfuls of crushed oyster shell on top, then took a large hammer and tapped all the corner / sides of the pot, and all the shells descended into the media. I'm pretty sure I did this for all the rockwool repots as well.

oh yeah.. styrofoam peanuts at the bottom of the pot. That’s what I use.

 

[southernbelle]

I water my phrags daily. This includes a mist from a gallon hand pump of RO water mixed with TDS @ around 50ppm of rotating fert, now between 6.2-6.8 pH. I've tried to start not being overly concerned about small variations in PH, but I also now measure (calibrate before every watering) to make sure I'm not way off the chart. Then for the phrags and vandas, I go back through the collection with an RO hose and quickly / lightly drench them all. This happens daily for both bark and rockwool. I also hold my temps at low 64, high 78 in Jan-Feb. Yes, I do run a strong flush of straight RO on all the plants probably once or twice a month. I am probably over fertilizing in rockwool, but time will tell once the leaf tips start showing signs of stress, I'll repot and maybe adjust the schedule. Still TBD on how this will perform in the hot summer months.

Good luck with the mix. I use grow cubes 60%, perelite 40%, and crushed oyster shells. At the paph forum, Jurahame Leyva presented on using oyster shells in the media. He had a unique way of getting them into the media. After the phrag was potted in the new mix, he put spoonfuls of crushed oyster shell on top, then took a large hammer and tapped all the corner / sides of the pot, and all the shells descended into the media. I'm pretty sure I did this for all the rockwool repots as well.

oh yeah.. styrofoam peanuts at the bottom of the pot. That’s what I use.

Pete:
"I also hold my temps at low 64, high 78 in Jan-Feb" my Jan/Feb temps are 64 low and high of 74-76 so pretty close. My summer highs are May/June 82 and July/Aug 84. Is 84 too high for phrag besseae?
I use pH 5.8-6.2 adjusted r/o water with ½ normal Strength MSU for anything watered more frequently than once a week. I was adding Cal/Mag, but started to notice an accumulation of white on bark, so have stopped that for the time being. Maybe the oyster shell for phrags would be a good substitute.

 

[PeteM]

Pete:
"I also hold my temps at low 64, high 78 in Jan-Feb" my Jan/Feb temps are 64 low and high of 74-76 so pretty close. My summer highs are May/June 82 and July/Aug 84. Is 84 too high for phrag besseae?
I use pH 5.8-6.2 adjusted r/o water with ½ normal Strength MSU for anything watered more frequently than once a week. I was adding Cal/Mag, but started to notice an accumulation of white on bark, so have stopped that for the time being. Maybe the oyster shell for phrags would be a good substitute.

Yes, we do have similar conditions, my grow space also climbs up into the mid to high 80s July and Aug. Which, is probably not the best for phrags, mostly because I have a difficult time getting the night temps to swing down, needed for the plants to store energy. Something I’m trying to address this summer with an evaporative cooler.

The closest thing to besseae I grow is a recently acquired Phrag. Jersey, and I was able to get it through last summer. I also add cal/mag. But with all my fertilizers I keep the TDS as close to 50ppm as possible, at least that’s what I aim.

I think you are in good shape. I’m sending you virtual karma for many a new roots!

 

[southernbelle]

Yes, we do have similar conditions, my grow space also climbs up into the mid to high 80s July and Aug. Which, is probably not the best for phrags, mostly because I have a difficult time getting the night temps to swing down, needed for the plants to store energy. Something I’m trying to address this summer with an evaporative cooler.

The closest thing to besseae I grow is a recently acquired Phrag. Jersey, and I was able to get it through last summer. I also add cal/mag. But with all my fertilizers I keep the TDS as close to 50ppm as possible, at least that’s what I aim.

I think you are in good shape. I’m sending you virtual karma for many a new roots!

Since I have no windows in my grow room, the only night cooling I can achieve is to laboriously (from a memory standpoint), be sure to open the door (last thing in evening) for the temps to drop to the temp of the rest of my basement. Since we sleep cool in winter, I can get to 60-63 most nights then. Of course, that means first thing in the morning, I need to remember to go down to close the door. I would be interested in hearing about your evaporative cooler. If I could set it on a PM timer that would be awesome.