charlies 'Bear something'

[Bjorn]

Thanks a lot guys (and gals) Yes they look great these days. Funny enough, they have been in the same pots (2.5") ever since they were potted and seem to thrive although the pots get severly outgrown. About the culture; my "cool department" meaning down to 5-6 C (42F) during winter nights up in the 20'ies during the day. relatively dry'ish (but bet moister than most of you have ) Summer is warmer, say 17C (62F) at night and up in the low 30'ies (90F) during day at the warmest, but try to stay below. Humidity is high almost daily water RH above 85-90% most of the time. Fertiliser; continously at approximately 15ppm N with my home-made brew.
At this high humidity there is always a risk of some rotting, but so far seems to get along really without much care. The place they are located is a bit difficult to reach so I hardly ever go in there and touch them. Only when I notice something from a distance (2meter). Actually I either need to get rid of a lot, or to build another and bigger greenhouse. The first I find very difficult, the second option I cannot afford:rollhappy:

 

[troy]

Your summer culture for your charlies are now my winter lol... (42°) farenheit night I can not come close to

 

[Happypaphy7]

Again, your growing environment is nearly ideal if not ideal already.

I thought you spray every now and then. I remember mancozeb being mentioned before. which apparently help with plant grow as a side effect. haha

At least you have a greenhouse full of great stuff growing beautifully.

I will never have this kind of excellent growing with indoor growing.
Way too dry and too warm, all year around. lol

Oh, well...what can I do? nothing. haha

 

[Bjorn]

See you read the entries Happy! I used to spray quite regularly amongst other things with Mancozeb and the plants grew wonderfully. But all this spraying left unsighty residues on the leaves and I got worried that it could be the cause behind some crippled flowers that appeared, so I reduced. The main function of the mancozeb was to provide zinc and manganese, so when I made my own fertiliser mix I added more of that. Actually more of most micros except iron that was reduced. Even added some ppb of nickel and cobalt. Boron was another increased additive. I am pretty certain that most of the deceases our plants get is due to increased vulneability due to imperfect growing conditions like lack of certain micronutrients. So I started this experiment in February with reduced frequency of spraying. The last few months without spraying at all. I must admit that I got some erwinia recently, seems as the end of summer is a bad time for such things..But the frequency has been lower than it used to be so......

 

[Happypaphy7]

hmmm I see.
The whole thing is rather complicated.
I mean, erwinia can hit randomly any time. It might be related to reduced spraying, but then it might have nothing to do with it at all.
We can always speculate.

I wish I knew enough about chemistry to mix up my own fertilizer.
I am using commercially available fertilizer with micro elements added. I'm not sure if they are enough, but I don't see any problems with my plants really so I'm just using it. I have no other options anyway.

I believe with better growing conditions like you have, things will grow better, healthier, bigger, and faster.

I wish I could pot my paphs in very open mix and water everyday but that would just not be practical for me as I move every pot to the tub to water. lol

Plus, I would need overall higher humidity and lower temperature overall as well. There really isn't much I can do about these things when growing indoor.

I just have to get the best out of what I have I guess.
After all, some plants do quite well. For example, my Armeni White has been with me as a first flowering plant about three years ago. It is now a good clump of over 20 growths! and I don't do anything special at all. Just watering and occasional feeding, and good light, and crappy humidity and temperature. hahaha
Only if other paphs grew like my Armeni White.

 

[SlipperFan]

Impressive, I'd say.

 

[Spaph]

Late to the post, what a show, great growing from flask!