Paph anitum flask

[eggshells]

are they blooming yet?
oke:

No, They are still tiny.

 

[Pete]

yikes. thats plenty! i never even see or hear of this fantastic species being offered that much. keep us updated on their/your progress!

 

[brice]

Hi,

Very nice tiny baby anitum, look healthy, can I ask you which substrate are you using to grow them?

Thank you and good luck

Brice

 

[polyantha]

Now that is a good flask and a good species. I have a fs plant: very hard to keep alive, hard to establish. The most difficult plant in my collection, much harder than adductum. For almost one year it didn't grow, it only developed one or two new leafs on the new growth...

 

[Paphman910]

Now that is a good flask and a good species. I have a fs plant: very hard to keep alive, hard to establish. The most difficult plant in my collection, much harder than adductum. For almost one year it didn't grow, it only developed one or two new leafs on the new growth...

I bet it didn't have many roots!

Paphman910

 

[eggshells]

Hi,

Very nice tiny baby anitum, look healthy, can I ask you which substrate are you using to grow them?

Thank you and good luck

Brice

Absolutely, Planted it in fine bark, charcoal and perlite equal parts.

 

[brice]

Thank you very much

Brice

 

[eggshells]

Update 09/12/12:

Though I will update this thread today. So overall they are doing okay. Not as fast as my other compots but still pretty good compared to what I was expecting. I guess lowering my expectations paid off.

Compot 1 ~3 months ago and today:

.

Compt 2 ~3 months ago and today

.

 

[Rick]

Looks like definite progress.

 

[SlipperKing]

The green parts have gotten bigger. What about the the parts you can't see, the roots?

 

[eggshells]

They do have new roots albeit thin long roots. Maybe they will get fatter once they mature?

 

[Cheyenne]

XEggshells, I know we have talked about adductum /anitum culture before but I will say it again. It has been my experience that you should wait as long as possible to repot them. To me they seem to do better when the bark acidifys. They do not seem to get a jump start like other paphs when you repot them. Mine seem to stand still for months after they are repotted. Also when I fertilize I try to mix fert for them with a lower ph then my other plants. If you can ever locate some fern roots to pot them in I would recommend it. In Pauls post he mentioned that is what he used for that nice adductum he posted. I bought two plants of asplenium nidus(birds nest fern) and grew them for a while just to rip them out and use the root stock. You are so lucky to have a flask of these. They look good so far. Nice job. Since anitum is a variety of adductum I should be able to get them in this country but so far I haven't been able to find anyone who will import them, or anyone who has them. I am green with envy.

 

[eggshells]

Hi Cheyenne, yes I appreciate all the information. When me and my friend were obsessing about anitum and adductum. I am quite amazed by this species. We are searching all over and asking people regarding their culture, habitat information, etc. We did our research however, the information was scarce. I am always glad when there is a discussion about it and I agree with all your points.

I do use dynagrow which is high in ammoniacal nitrogen and could easily bring down the PH of my tap water from 7.2 to around 6.5 ish. Tree fern is a little bit hard to obtain here as we heed phytosanitary documents to import them. I do however seeing good results on my culture now.

Here is my sad little plant before and now.

.

I think that one of the most important cultural parameters for this species are light levels. These guys seems to be stressed with a lot of light.

If in the future you happen to be in Canada and they are still alive. Send me a message and I can spare a seedling for you.

Not sure where I found this picture but if you look at the anitum habitat. Its growing under a big tree and clearly that is heavily shaded.

 

[Paphman910]

My anitum compots are not doing as well as eggshells! Only difference is that eggshell added more perlite than my compots so it needs good aeration and doesn't like medium that stays wet for long periods of time. I found that out the hard way with my adductums as well.

Another member told me he use moss and perlite (probably the large ones) at 1:1(?) in clay pot.

If growing in plastic pot better to use bark than moss!

Paphman910

 

[Justin]

agree on the low light. when i first deflasked adductum 5 years ago i put them in too strong of light, and they got stunted. It was only when i moved them out from under the lights about 9 months ago that they finally started growing. will know better for next time.

 

[naoki]

According to Dr. Tanaka, P. anitum is in very shady habitat, and P. adductum is moderately bright:

http://www.orchid.or.jp/orchid/people/tanaka/orchid/org/newpaph6.html

The translation is not perfect, but there is a comparison table.

 

[Cheyenne]

That is such a great picture. It shows alot about culture of these plants. Look at how dark the leaves are on that plant, I know adductum are greener but if you have anitum in the right light it shows you what color they should be. I still haven't seen one in cultivation that has that color foliage. There stem is so long so they can get up out of the brush. You can clearly see the mound that the plant is growing on. It looks like it has moss on the top, and underneath it probably has layers of dead moss and old fern roots. That is what makes the ph lower compared to most multis we grow. Its funny how we group plants with the way we treat them, most multis like bright light an alkaline airy mix, lots of fert and to dry out a good bit between waterings. All these things lead to disaster with adductum and anitum, and they are rare in cultivation. Makes sense to me. As you know randsii is also rare and it is supposed to grow in the same area and conditions, and can make a natural hybrid with adductum. When I said fern roots I was not refering to the hard sticks if tree fern fiber but to the roots of asplenium nidus (birds nest fern), you can buy them at any nursery legally that sell ferns and houseplants some times even the big box stores. There roots are alot softer anhold more water they are like osmunda.

 

[Justin]

my mature anitum is in a mix with 50% bark 50% sphaghum moss. The moss helps the roots stay moist...I usually grow it in the shade of my bigger multi's under a 250W MH. Lately I've moved it a little brighter since it looks ready to bud soon.

My seedlings are in a fine bark mix, and are in very deep shade where they have been taking off (relatively speakng). I'm actually going to move them back under the lights soon (10" below 4x4" shoplights) and see how they do.

All these plants get the same fert as my other multis (50% RO/tapwater with a little under 1/2 tsp low-K fertilizer), at about pH of 7. I need to measure the run-off but it is probably pH 6.5.

 

[Paphman910]

my mature anitum is in a mix with 50% bark 50% sphaghum moss. The moss helps the roots stay moist...I usually grow it in the shade of my bigger multi's under a 250W MH. Lately I've moved it a little brighter since it looks ready to bud soon.

My seedlings are in a fine bark mix, and are in very deep shade where they have been taking off (relatively speakng). I'm actually going to move them back under the lights soon (10" below 4x4" shoplights) and see how they do.

All these plants get the same fert as my other multis (50% RO/tapwater with a little under 1/2 tsp low-K fertilizer), at about pH of 7. I need to measure the run-off but it is probably pH 6.5.

What is your humidity level? My humidity level is high and the moss would stay wet for long periods of time and rot the roots.


Paphman910

 

[Justin]

I grow indoors on lightstands, so i don't have greenhouse conditions. humidity is 60-70% in the summer, and i try to keep it at 50% in the winter. Temperatures on the cool side year-round…mid 70’s (F) in the summer and high 60’s in the winter. We get several weeks with good night-time dips into the 50’s in the fall, which is great for spikes in early spring.

I wish I could grow warmer and with more humidity, but have to compromise with the fact that I grow in our living space. My roths, stonei, etc. would probably grow a lot faster in a warm greenhouse, but they do grow and they flower so I can’t complain. lowii is one species that for some reason grows like a weed for me. barbatum-types don’t do as well.