Growing orchids in Alaska

[Stuart Cohen]

Yes, and absolutely.

How warm are you growing that Paph? The type you have is colloquially referred to as a Maudiae type, and these are overwhelmingly plants that prefer warm temperatures year round in my experience. Elevated humidity levels, typically in the 50% - 60% range are a good balance and that goes a long way towards keeping the plant happy.

Though I will mention, some plants and some hybrids just aren't great clumpers and tend not to produce tons of basal growths in any season.

I haven't tried it, but some people have reported success with applying hormones called "keiki paste" to the base of their plants just above the roots where new growths typically form. It may help stimulate development of otherwise dormant eyes. No guarantees there, though, and honestly I think this methodology would be a last resort. Better to focus on improving care routine and growing conditions, at least that's my opinion.

I have only so much control over temperature and humidity, though I may roll out some pebble trays in my tiny grow area. What about spagnum moss vs tiny bark chips?
I have tried keiki paste on Phals and Cattleya. It works great on Phals getting them to sprout more spikes from existing blooming spikes, but I noticed that those plants had a lot spindly spikes and a high degree of bud blast, which I'd never seen before. Maybe I went a little bit overboard, and a more judicious application might have better results. I think the phals are better doing what they want to do, bloomwise.
On cattleyas, I had hoped that they might get inactive leads to sprout, but it seemed to have no effect at all.

 

[big923cattleya]

You are welcome.
When it comes to yellowing leaves and backbulbs, that is normal. My Cattleyas often shed leaves, and the eventually bulbs that are 3 years old plus a bit more. If I have a plant with a bulbs made in 2023, 2022, 2021, as the new growth pops and starts growing, let’s call it bulb 2024, you might see as it nears maturity, all of a sudden, the leaf from bulb 2021 starts to yellow. It eventually browns and falls off. That is normal. However, that 2021 bulb may last another year or two before it yellows and dies off.
Here is another important point I would like to share with you. On a Cattleya, the new bulb produced should be of equal size to the previous one or be even larger. NOT smaller. SMALLER is an indication of a culture problem. Not enough water, not enough light, needs repotting and so on.
Once you learn how to “read or speak Cattleya” they constantly tell you just how happy they are.

 

[big923cattleya]

I do not use any “chemical gimmicks” when it comes to my orchids. I try to improve my culture instead.

Sphagnum is NOT an easy media too learn to use correctly. You can pack it too tight, too loose, and those scenarios lead to problems.

 

[Ray]

Moved.

To where? Do you have contact info, Eric?

 

[Ray]

I do not use any “chemical gimmicks” when it comes to my orchids. I try to improve my culture instead.

Sphagnum is NOT an easy media too learn to use correctly. You can pack it too tight, too loose, and those scenarios lead to problems.

Define "chemical gimmick", please.

 

[big923cattleya]

Keikie paste, Well perhaps keikie paste is more of a vitamin based hormone though. I have used it years ago without seeing any appreciable difference. But if the paste is used to get Phalaenopsis to produce keikies, why bother. Just raise the night time temperature instead. If you have a really special Phalaenopsis and you are in the business of selling orchids to make money, why not clone it and get a lot more seedlings that way?
I just do not have the time really to try something just for the sake of trying something. That makes little sense to me.
Superthrive is another tonic shall I call it, often used to encourage root growth and to stimulate plant growth. I used it years ago when I was importing plants mainly from Southeast Asia. I never saw any appreciable result. If I imported quality plants from a quality vendor, the plants kind of sold themselves.
Call me old school, call me crazy but who in the world is out there in nature putting keikie paste or Superthrive on plants in the wild. Yes I understand that your business is based upon plant growth products. And good luck with all of that. But if isn't naturally occurring in nature, I do not use it.

Banana Water was recently mentioned. I would rather not go down that road. I eat my bananas as is. Down and dirty so to speak. My orchids can do without banana water.

 

[big923cattleya]

Hey Stuart, the Cattleyas themselves will tell you just how happy they are by the way they grow, If you have a blooming sized plant, every successive year's growth should be as big as, or bigger then the one before it. Think of it as "growing upwards". If the subsequent growth is getting smaller and smaller and the plant is producing fewer and fewer flowers, or none at all, then the culture of that plant needs to be closely looked at. Some thing is out of whack so to speak. I refer to that as growing backwards or growing downhill.

 

[terryros]

Well you can purchase light meters that spout out foot candle readings. They run anywhere from $15, to $40 to a few hundred dollars. I prefer to spend money on orchids rather then meters of dubious reliability.

I much prefer a more practical approach. I let the Cattleyas themselves tell me just how happy they are. I generally want to see a nice bright grass green color to the bulbs and leaves. If they go yellowish all over that equates to too much light. I move them further from the tubes.
If they go towards a darker green color it equates to not enough light. So I move them closer to the tubes.
Lastly their production of flowers is your last clue. Mature, previous bloomed plants that do not flower under lights mean they need more light. That could be accomplished by being closer to the light source or the lights could be on for more hours.

Back in the early eighties I read somewhere that a standard, single leaf Cattleya needs 30,000 ft. Candles total per day to flower. So if your light set up produces 2,000 ft. candles per hour, the lights need to be on for 15 hours. ( 30,000 •/• by 2,000 = 15 hours) seedlings or compact Cattleyas take 20,000 to 24,000 ft. candles per day. Things with Rhyncholaelia digbyana recently in its background may need more then 30,000.

Just how valid are these numbers? Who knows. I just use them occasionally for discussion. But I watch the plants. Cattleyas will bloom regularly with too much light! BUT with insufficient light, they will rarely bloom.

Because natural sunlight varies considerably through the day, artificial lighting can deliver the same overall number of photons when it is run for the same number of hours at half the light intensity. The natural habitat day length for most Cattleyas is about 11.5 hours in mid-winter to 12.5 hours in mid-summer.

 

[Ray]

Superthrive is another tonic shall I call it, often used to encourage root growth and to stimulate plant growth. I used it years ago when I was importing plants mainly from Southeast Asia. I never saw any appreciable result. If I imported quality plants from a quality vendor, the plants kind of sold themselves.

Call me old school, call me crazy but who in the world is out there in nature putting keikie paste or Superthrive on plants in the wild. Yes I understand that your business is based upon plant growth products. And good luck with all of that. But if isn't naturally occurring in nature, I do not use it.

Superthrive, K-L-N, and most other root growth stimulants contain synthetic auxins, which by themselves, are extremely effective. The problem is that in order to make them water soluble, they must be converted to mineral salts, and those are far less chemically stable. Dave Neal, who founded Dyna-Gro, once told me that a fresh batch, if kept cool and dark, wil be viable for about a year. If it is stored warm, that is decreased to a number of months, and if allowed to get hot or be exposed to sunlight (i.e., stored in a greenhouse, as many folks do), the life is reduced to a matter of weeks.

Considering it's made and warehoused in California, trucked across country to distributors who store it how and for who-knows-how-long, most of the stuff you buy is likely well short of "fresh" when you get it.

You want something that DOES occur in nature? Try Kelpak.

 

[dmcmkl]

If you want to dial in the best lighting for your orchids in my experience you need two things:
1) An accurate way to measure the light your plants are receivning
2) A light source that provides the best quality light.

The best measurement for orchid lighting is to measure PPFD (Photosynthetic Photon Flux Density) which is a measurement of the light (photons) that reach the target each second. PPFD is measured over a one meter square area in “micromoles per square meter per second” and expressed as μmol/m2/s. The best instrument to measure this is the Apogee Instruments MQ-500 Full Spectrum Quantum PAR Meter. One can be purchased easily from Amazon. It isn't cheap, but buying one completely turned my growing around. I can't recommend one enough. Footcandles, lux and other light measurements only measure the intensity of the light. A PAR meter measure the quality of the light that the plant needs to support photosynthesis. There are lots of sources on the internet that can get you started on what level of PPFD are recommended for a particular type of orchid

The other item you need is a good source for your light. I used to use fluorescent tubes but found them to be expensive to run (electricity) and not very flexible in adjusting the amount of light you are giving your plant. Also over time a fluorescent tube will start to dim but that is not always easy to see with the naked eye. LED lights as far as I know do not dim over time. They either work or they don't.

A few years ago I shifted to LED lights and I'm never going back. The lights I use are designed for growing plants where the light spectrum they produce is geared to what plants need for photosynthesis. They are also dimmable so you can adjust the intensity of the light. This feature along with adjusting the height of the lamp provides a great deal of flexibility for your light placement.

I use Mars Hydro LED lights for all my growing. If your growing area is rectangular in shape I would recommend the Mars Hydro TSL 2000. If your grow area is more square in shape I would recommend the Mars Hydro TSW 2000. Both lights are listed as 300 watt units, but you will not need to run them at full throttle. Mine are hung anywhere from 20"-30" above my plants and are all running at around 25% full intensity.

I grow everything from Cattleya to Phragmipedium and get excellent results using the Apogee meter and the Mars Hydro lights. Not the cheapest way to go but in the long run I'd rather know quantitatively what my plants are getting for light rather then going with trial and error by looking at the growth exhibited by the plants. I think it also saves me electricity cost in the long run.

Hope this helps.

 

[Ray]

For folks looking to buy LEDs, botanicalleds.com has the best bang for the buck.

The owner is an orchid grower, and he purchased both a PAR meter and a spectrophotometer so he could design the best possible lighting, and has those made to his specs.

 

[dmcmkl]

The only problem IMHO with the lights sold at that site is that they are not adjustable/dimmable. You lose quite a bit of flexibility if you cannot adjust your lighting by adjusting the height it is hanging as well as the level of the light the fixture is putting out. You're stuck with the light output and therefore the wattage being used by the light which could end up costing more money in electricity cost.

As is often stated here on the forum is what works for me won't necessarily work for everyone.

 

[monocotman]

I use some bought on Amazon. I’ve installed three Viparspectra P1000’s in my grow room. Very happy with them. They’re hung so they’re adjustable in height and fully dimmable.

 

[NYEric]

To where? Do you have contact info, Eric?

To Florida, he was at the Krull Sith Symposium.

 

[Ray]

Did he relocate? If I lived in Alaska, I’d think a trip to Krull-Smith would be a godsend.

 

[NYEric]

Did he relocate? If I lived in Alaska, I’d think a trip to Krull-Smith would be a godsend.

Yes, or so he said.

 

[Stuart Cohen]

Hi! I have a Paph. Rothschildianum x Philippinense which I have been caring for for about 3 years. I just repotted it. It's a grassy green, almost yellow color and I'm concerned that perhaps it may be missing some nutrients. I'm using Schultz Expert Orchid food, 19-31-17 on a weakly/weekly basis, but less in winter.
It was recently in my little light closet getting, perhaps, slightly more light than needed. Any thoughts on whether I need to add some new element like calcium or iron? Or is this a normal color. Plant seems healthy and roots are healthy.

 

[Stuart Cohen]

Not to try anyone's patience, but I have one more question: I have a Maudiae type paph (pictured in my first post) that is ready for repotting. It blooms once every two years and has bloomed twice for me. I believe the plant is about 7 years old.
I have been keeping it in fine-grade (small) bark chips from Repotme, but am toying with the idea of switching it to spagnum moss. I am hoping for it to bloom more frequently, though maybe I am expecting too much.
Any thoughts on potting media?

 

[big923cattleya]

Paph. rothschildianum x Paph. philippinense is properly Paphiopedilum St. Swithin.
Normally I would say yes, it is a bit too yellow green but everything else around it looks fine.
I think that a mix of fine bark, charcoal and perlite is better then sphagnum moss. But that is my personal preference.

 

[Stuart Cohen]

Paph. rothschildianum x Paph. philippinense is properly Paphiopedilum St. Swithin.
Normally I would say yes, it is a bit too yellow green but everything else around it looks fine.
I think that a mix of fine bark, charcoal and perlite is better then sphagnum moss. But that is my personal preference.

Thank you! I have wondered if it was the same as St. Swithin. This one says also: " 'Jungle Selected x Atlantis SM/TPS" Should I do anything abut the too-yellow color or just see how it does in a lower light regime?
I also have a couple of Catts that got very yellow. Both had naturally lighter leaves than my other catts, and I think having them all under the same light was a bit too much for these two. Sadly, my tiny little growing space doesn't allow for too much variation in light levels.