new babies...advice needed

[Denver]

I just got three mini compots from Springwater Orchids and need a little advice as this is my first try with anything smaller than a large seedling.

Here they are:

The front two are both Paph. Philippinense album and the back one is Paph. Moquettianum.

The mix they're in appears to mostly be bark, sponge rock, and stone but most of the pictures I've seen of small seedlings on here are in moss. Should I leave them alone or consider replanting them in moss? I grow indoors so my humidity isn't nearly as high as I would like, should I put them in a humidity tent while they're so small and adjusting to the new surroundings? I grow in an upstairs window and it is already starting to get warm down here so I am a little worried about baking them if I tent them...

Any general advice would be appreciated and certainly if anyone has any experience trying to grow small seedlings indoors I would love to hear it. I saw the philippinense album compot for a good price and got a bit excited and bought them before really thinking through if I would be able to be successful growing them.

thanks in advance,
Denver

 

[Trithor]

Hi Denver,
I saw your post yesterday morning, but did not reply then, as it has been some years since I last grew indoors, but in the absence of replies from the 'indoor growers', I thought I should reply.
I have found that small seedlings in compot used to do very well on my kitchen windowsill. I think because it was near the sink where I filled the kettle a few times a day, so I had the opportunity to inspect the plants a few times a day. The proximity to the tap faucet allowed for easy soaking whenever I felt they could do with a good soaking, and the orientation of the kitchen window was for early morning sun, well filtered by trees (so no direct sunlight) and only reflected light the rest of the day. I cut the bottom off a plastic juice bottle, and then place the bottle over the pot and seedlings. At the stage that your seedlings are at, I remove the bottle screw cap. This created a good mini greenhouse with more stable environment and humidity, will allowing heat to escape. A few years ago I grew a compot of Michael Koopowitz in this way and they grew well and I only lost one out of ten seedlings ( I posted a few pictures of the first flowering of the first three to bloom this last season on the forum this season past).
The best advice I can give is that they need lower light than adult plants, more stable environmental conditions, higher humidity, warm but not hot, and low feed rates, and, .... Inspect them often.

 

[Leo Schordje]

Are you growing on a windowsill, or under lights?

Either way, the mix they are in sounds fine, if you stay on top of watering them, without over doing it. Neither philippinense nor moquettianum do particularly well in moss, at least this is true for me. You should use a seedling grade particle size of the same mix you use for your adult plants. So if you grow your other Paphs in a bark mix, grow these in a bark mix. If you grow all your plants in moss, grow these in moss. Use the mix you are familiar with on how long it takes to go from wet to dry. I have seen beautiful Paphs, even rothschildianum and bellatulum grown to blooming in nothing but NZ sphagnum, but when I personally try to duplicate this, I just can't get the watering right. So use the mix you already know how to use. Understanding when to water is the key. Personally I use a bark, charcoal, perlite mix, you should use what you use for your other orchids. For seedlings I use 1/8 to 1/4 inch size particles. Bigger plants in bigger pots get a coarser mix.

Bright shade, will be fine. Both species prefer intermediate to warm temperatures, be sure to not chill them, especially on a window sill, as it is colder by the glass. Also on the windowsill, be sure that direct hot sun does not hit the plastic pots. The plastic will heat up and cook the roots. If you are on a windowsill, slip each plastic pot into a larger empty clay pot. The clay will stop the sun from heating up the plastic. The air space between clay and plastic provides insulation.

In general, seedlings don't need much different from adults. Just a little shadier and they are less tolerant of drying out. When the seedlings get to be 2 or 3 times the size they are now, you can pot them individually. But for the time being, they will do better if kept together in clumps.

I wouldn't use a humidity tent for them. They are big enough they can get by without it. Paph philippinense likes good air movement, a closed tent might promote rot issues. Though I am east of the Mississippi, so we have good outdoor humidity spring through fall.

Nice purchase.

 

[mrhappyrotter]

I'm a home grower and don't have tons of experience with paph compots. My experience has been that phrag compots are way easier seeing that phraglings grow so much more quickly.

But my best success with paph compots has come from keeping them in tall plastic pots, lots of air holes, resting in a much larger pot (typically a shallow pot), filled with sphagnum that's kept constantly damp. The outer pot and its mossy contents help to keep the humidity up around the foliage, but also reduces the amount of watering I need to do as well as minimizing the chances that the compot dries out completely.

Really the only other special treatment I give compots are the fact that I obviously use smaller pots, with smaller grade potting mix, and for the most part, I keep the compots in shadier conditions often times than I'd put the mature plants.

When it comes time to split the plants up and put them into individual pots -- paphs take that much harder than phrags which tend to not even skip a beat. I just try to keep an eye on the roots, when they look like they've overgrown the pot, and when the plants are clearly growing -- that's when I separate them. Each plant goes into a pot of a about the same size as the one they came from, except now they've got the whole thing to themselves. First they are soaked for a few hours to help soften up the roots. Then I rip those suckers apart, decimate the root system. Well, I try not to, but it always seems to happen anyways. I usually hit them with some extra root stimulant, super thrive, seaweed extract (whatever the snake oil du jour is) for good measure.

 

[Justin]

Lots of good advice so far. I agree they do not need a humidity dome. repot into the mix you are used to...keep them moist but not soggy and in medium light...and then just basically grow them like your other plants. hope to see some flowers in about five years!