DIY compact ebb-flow system

[abax]

Naoki, great job recycling materials and I love the Disa
photos. Beautiful flower and very suggestive as has been
noted.

 

[Rick]

Very nice

Can you show some updates of all the plants in the system?

 

[naoki]

Thanks, all.

Very nice

Can you show some updates of all the plants in the system?

Rick, after comparing the photos , I realized that my memory was a bit cloudy. 3 of them are definitely getting better. 1 which was pretty good died, and 4 of them look worse (I think that it is still a bit early for the die-back time?). But 3 out of 4 declining ones are showing some recovery in the last 2 weeks or so, and I guess this made me say that they were growing better. Yellow ones (e.g. left bottom) seems to be a bit weaker than red ones, and I hope they will recover (I found a new growth popping out a couple days ago). Compared with the last summer without ebb-flow (I lost all 3-4), the results are better. But we still have a month or so of summer.



Here is the fruit (which was bigger than I expected).

 

[Linus_Cello]

So one horticultural secret is blue aquarium gravel?

 

[naoki]

So one horticultural secret is blue aquarium gravel?

Both red and blue gravel seem to work well. I'm guessing that the reflected blue or red light is used for photosynthesis.

Actually, it is preventing the pot to float when the water is filled up because the main media is sphag+perlite.

 

[naoki]

A bit of update:

The summer is the difficult time for these cool growing Disa. The survival rate wasn't as high as I hoped for even with the ebb-flow system and there are quite a bit of death over the summer. But I may have some survivors which might grow for the next year. So it is a little bit of progress forward. The next step may be that I need to add refrigerated unit like what Tennis did in his informative page. But it seems a bit costly.

Seeds were harvested from the orange individual, so I need to sow it quickly.

Here is another individual which flowered at the end of September (quite out of season). This is D. uniflora 317 (from Wally Orchard of Afrodisa) 'NT3'.

Disa uniflora on Flickr


Disa uniflora plant on Flickr

I decided to put this build thread to my blog so I can access it easily (link, no new content, though).

 

[NYEric]

Hot in Alaska! With all the 'harvest the salmon wheel, chase the bears, cut the firewood' stuff on TV, I never would have thought. Good luck and thanks for sharing.

 

[Rick]

Very cool Naoki

Keep us posted:wink:

 

[abax]

I LOVE do- it- yourselfers! Not only did you recycle materials, you learn from every little mistake you
make. The flowers are glorious.