Need advice with venustum

[Shadow]

Hello,
I need your opinion about this Paph venustum. I have bought this plant two years ago. It was NBS. All this time it grew well. Last time I've repotted was on 5th of February 2008. The roots were OK. I didn't make a photo during repotting, but I'm sure it had more than one root at that time. During the last two years this plant didn't lose a single leaf and now it looks like a problem. The new roots were coming from the base, but they were above the potting medium and all of them stopped growing. Today I carefully looked near the base and has discovered that there is only one old healthy root remaining. That's why I became more worried about new healthy root growth. I think, that to let the new roots to grow normally I have to plant this plant as normal - I mean covering the base and points were the new roots start to growth. But the problem is, that now these points are much higher than the present base of the plant. I marked these points of new root development with red arrows. In order to cover these points with potting medium I will need to remove the lower 5 healthy leaves. Is it a wise idea? I'm afraid that if I leave it how it is now, these new roots will stop their development like the previous ones. But it is so sad, to remove 5 out of 8,5 leaves. What do you think?

 

[Paul]

hello,
You can remove at least the 3 oldest leaves, this would help new roots to grow.
And keep EC under 400-500µS/cm (that means quite low salts) until the roots are massive. You can use 10-52-10 fertilizer for 2-3 weeks, and sink one time the base of the plant and roots into superthrive at high strengh if you have some (1ml/1L for 30min)
Venustum likes quite acidic (or neutral at least) medium, so peat + bark, or sphagnum + bark is a good media for it! ;-)

 

[Gilda]

One leaf on the right at the base looks broken. I would remove that one , but not all the others ! You should the be able to get the new roots below the surface of the potting medium without the removal of 5 leaves. My humble opinion.

 

[NYEric]

just use an open media [with spaces in between for air flow] and you can go above the leaves.

 

[carrilloenglish]

The plants looks like it will be fine. I understand your concern but it is not all that serious. I would remove the lowest leaf and repot the plant with a mixture of medium & fine sized bark.

The only concern I have is that that new roots look like they have dead tips. Their tips are all black. If they are black, this means the root won't grow any longer, eventhough it can branch out. What this tells me is one of two possibilities... the plant is drying out too much (or low humidity) and the tips are shriveling or your are using too much fertilizer and killing your root tips. You need to look at your culture and figure out what you are doing wrong in this regards.

The plant looks like it will bounce back without much problem. Repot it to the base of the growth (after you remove the lowest leaf).

Good luck.

Christian

 

[Rick]

What's all that white crystaline stuff on the old root?

 

[Shadow]

Paul, Thanks, I use shagnum for all paphs, I will add some peat, as I do for my delenaties.

Gilda, that leaf looks broken, but it is not. It is turned by the root. Yes, may be it will give new roots below surface. But the new roots above (pockets of the third leave row) are growing already. I don't want to kill them

Eric, do you mean I can plant it deeper than the base, partially covering the leaves? I've never tried that before.

Cristian, yes, you are right. All those roots have dead tips. I think it is because they were not covered enough by potting medium and therefore they dried quite quickly. But new roots grow higher and higher as you can see. Now it is the third leaf row where they started to grow. And I'm very concerned that if I won't save these the next will grow even higher and it will be the end.

Rick, it is the thing I use for drainage. It is not crystaline, it is just a reflection of light. I don't know the proper word in English... You can find it as a packing material in the boxes with electronics. Styrofoam? Foam plastic?

 

[Shadow]

Hm, why I don't see my reply on the thread list?

 

[Paul]

Ok,
This species really doesn't like to dry to much, and drainage is not really essential for it. you can, as said by NYEric, pot it deeper (this species doesn't rot easily). You can also try to cut carefuly and slightly the leaves above if the roots have some difficulties to go into the medium.

 

[Rick]

There is a pretty fun article on growing new roots on Paphs in the new Orchid Digest.

The premise is the use of a semi-hydro system using sponge rock for the media, and Dyna-Grow KLN for the nutrient solution. The authors assume that you already have a high air humidity around the plant (60-70% RH)

I looked up the analysis for DG KLN. The NPK is 9-11-6, and 2 hormones +B1

It's like a bloom booster, high P mix with Superthrive added.

 

[Shadow]

Rick, I don't have any plant in SH and I'm a bit afraid of it, unfortunately.

By the way, I have a good update for this case. I repotted it, adding peat to the potting medium. Also, I took off not 5, but 4 leaves. So, I released one new root from the pocket completely, leaving second new root inside the pocket (for experiment ). Also, I planted it a bit deeper than usual and kept it slightly wetter than before.

The root that remained in the pocket grew a bit more, trying to escape from the pocket but gave up and stopped growing.
The released root was very happy, quickly jumped into the potting medium, and almost immediately its tip was too dip for me to see.
Also, the plant gave 3 new roots (from approximately the same place where the older new roots are growing) and new leave has showed up too.

 

[Jon in SW Ohio]

Test

 

[Shadow]

Again something strange with this thread. I've posted here today, I see that John posted reply, but when I click the thread I see no my post, no the post of John.

 

[Shadow]

Well, I've posted again and now I see all posts. Strange...

 

[Candace]

Seems to be fixed now. Some glitch obviously.

 

[Heather]

Weird. Seems fine now...

 

[Roy]

Shadow, I've always has success with the colored for of venustum growing it my normal mix but in a Clay ( Terracota ) pot. The roots hang onto the pot well & I don't get rot. I always has problems like your having in plastic pot.
Many growers here had the same problems and converted to the clay pot when they saw mine.

 

[Shadow]

Roy, thanks for the idea.

 

[Corbin]

Were not using clear plastic pots anymore?

I really like the ones with the slots up the sides and lots of holes in the bottom. These pots and good medium sized bark lets me water every other day.