Hello from DirGo in Belgium

[DirGo]

I have been reading this forum for many years and finally took the step last October to start posting. I live in Belgium and been growing orchids for more than 40 years. I grew in a greenhouse but after moving house in 2006 I had to go back to indoor growing. My collection has room for ±120 Paphiopedilums and consists mainly of albino species but also roth’s, sander’s, druryi’s, stonei’s and cochlopetalums have deserved their place in the house.

I always take a very scientific approach and try to learn as much as possible about every single aspect of our hobby. It’s important to mention that none of the below list should discourage new starters as you can have great success without any of them. For me, these topics are just a lovely way to give more colour to growing Paphiopedilums. Here are a few examples:

• Learning to construct an In-house growing area where it is much harder than a greenhouse to give orchids what they need on humidity, air flow & watering, artificial lights, pest control and always making sure it remains at human healthy levels in the living room.
• Learning to obtain good (Reverse Osmosis) water with the right (MSO based) fertilizer. Understanding the effects of all nutrients and concentrations applied.
• Learning and finding the best LED light with the correct (PAR) spectrum and right (PPFD) intensity and giving the plants exactly what they need (DLI)
• Challenge of propagating plants (many years ago I did a “full cycle” from flower pollination to seedling flowering, but I haven’t done this since growing in-house)
• Challenge of scientific classification and determining the correct label for your flowering plant into the right species, variety or forma, when the name as bought proves to be incorrect.
• Learning how to keep plants free from pests and diseases. Understanding which bug is killing your plants and how to safely get rid of it in-house.
• Reading both the oldest (historical stories) and the newest (scientific views) books.
• Learning on plant botany, on pigments, on albinos, on flavum’s…
• Maintaining a personal collection database, keeping journal entries, making pictures of flowering plants..
• Constructing (Arduino & other home) automation to take care of lights, ventilation, temperature humidity monitoring and more like that.
• And the newly discovered joy and pleasure of interacting with members on Slippertalk

 

[Duck Slipper]

Looking forward to you input and pics on ST.

 

[PhragNewbie021]

Hello from NJ. That's quite a setup!

 

[abax]

Welcome to ST from KY.

 

[LadySlipper]

Thanks for finally starting to share your more than 40 years experience with us.

 

[cnycharles]

Welcome from south jersey! Keeping bugs away while in home and sometimes with pets around can be big challenge

 

[Leo Schordje]

Welcome aboard.

 

[Brabantia]

Welcome from Belgium from an other slippers friend.

 

[Karp60]

Welcome from Belgium from an other slippers friend.

This is bit irrelevant but when I was at school we learned during history lessons about some noble man/ woman from Brabantia, at that time it sounded very entertaining ( no offence ) that the name reminded us of the East German two stroke engine car made out of plastic…..it was a laughing stock of the motoring world ( Trabant ). I hope you will see the funny side of it

 

[DirGo]

thanks for all nice replies

 

[BrucherT]

I have been reading this forum for many years and finally took the step last October to start posting. I live in Belgium and been growing orchids for more than 40 years. I grew in a greenhouse but after moving house in 2006 I had to go back to indoor growing. My collection has room for ±120 Paphiopedilums and consists mainly of albino species but also roth’s, sander’s, druryi’s, stonei’s and cochlopetalums have deserved their place in the house.

I always take a very scientific approach and try to learn as much as possible about every single aspect of our hobby. It’s important to mention that none of the below list should discourage new starters as you can have great success without any of them. For me, these topics are just a lovely way to give more colour to growing Paphiopedilums. Here are a few examples:

• Learning to construct an In-house growing area where it is much harder than a greenhouse to give orchids what they need on humidity, air flow & watering, artificial lights, pest control and always making sure it remains at human healthy levels in the living room.
• Learning to obtain good (Reverse Osmosis) water with the right (MSO based) fertilizer. Understanding the effects of all nutrients and concentrations applied.
• Learning and finding the best LED light with the correct (PAR) spectrum and right (PPFD) intensity and giving the plants exactly what they need (DLI)
• Challenge of propagating plants (many years ago I did a “full cycle” from flower pollination to seedling flowering, but I haven’t done this since growing in-house)
• Challenge of scientific classification and determining the correct label for your flowering plant into the right species, variety or forma, when the name as bought proves to be incorrect.
• Learning how to keep plants free from pests and diseases. Understanding which bug is killing your plants and how to safely get rid of it in-house.
• Reading both the oldest (historical stories) and the newest (scientific views) books.
• Learning on plant botany, on pigments, on albinos, on flavum’s…
• Maintaining a personal collection database, keeping journal entries, making pictures of flowering plants..
• Constructing (Arduino & other home) automation to take care of lights, ventilation, temperature humidity monitoring and more like that.
• And the newly discovered joy and pleasure of interacting with members on Slippertalk

View attachment 30352

What a great introduction! I love your setup and would love to hear more about your P. druryis!

 

[Karp60]

I think this is the link.

 

[GuRu]

Hello Dirk, we communicated already in some threads but nevertheless......a warm welcome from Germany, too.

 

[JeanLux]

hi from Luxembourg, bonjour!!

 

[DirGo]

Hi all, I wanted to share a bit more about how I got into Paphs

 

[DirGo]

Hi all, I wanted to share a bit more about my Paphs housing

 

[DirGo]

Hi all, I wanted to share a bit more about those wonderful albinos

 

[Ray]

Hi all, I wanted to share a bit more about my Paphs housing

The only issue about the "fertilizer quality" slide is that the graph of pH versus availability has absolutely nothing to to with uptake dynamics of the plant.

What that really is, is a demonstration of cation exchange capacity (CEC) in a single sample of soil. In a different soil, the graph would be different. That single graph has been around for many decades and it is often misinterpreted.

CEC is primarily controlled by the edges of clay particles and microscopic organic matter in the soil, and the pH determines which nutrient ions are strongly held by those sites and which are not.

Orchid media have orders-of-magnitude fewer such sites, therefore have essentially no CEC whatsoever, so basically, if the ion is in solution, it is available for the plant to take it up.

That is not to say that pH does not affect uptake dynamics, but in order for that to be the case, it would have to be in a range that either makes the ion insoluble or is damaging to the plant.

 

[DirGo]

The only issue about the "fertilizer quality" slide is that the graph of pH versus availability has absolutely nothing to to with uptake dynamics of the plant.

What that really is, is a demonstration of cation exchange capacity (CEC) in a single sample of soil. In a different soil, the graph would be different. That single graph has been around for many decades and it is often misinterpreted.

CEC is primarily controlled by the edges of clay particles and microscopic organic matter in the soil, and the pH determines which nutrient ions are strongly held by those sites and which are not.

Orchid media have orders-of-magnitude fewer such sites, therefore have essentially no CEC whatsoever, so basically, if the ion is in solution, it is available for the plant to take it up.

That is not to say that pH does not affect uptake dynamics, but in order for that to be the case, it would have to be in a range that either makes the ion insoluble or is damaging to the plant.

Thank you very much for reading AND for your appreciated comment Ray. Very interesting addition. I always thought the pH/availability dynamics would remain revelant, even without considering soil type, like for example in hydroponics systems or in - as you said - almost "low sites" orchids media.

 

[DrLeslieEe]

Thanks for sharing.

Did you give a talk with thrm?

Gonna sit and review these interesting slides over the next couple days.