Paphiopedilum armeniacum basket update

[W. Beetus]

Great basket!

 

[chrismende]

Always an inspiration! Thanks for posting again, and again.

 

[Paul Mc]

Impressive! Thanks for sharing!

 

[Rick]

Are you watering with RO or local tapwater?

 

[JPMC]

Are you watering with RO or local tapwater?

I use RO. The tap water here is very alkaline so if I used it I would not supplement with calcium.

 

[nenella]

WOW!!!! fabulous Thanks for posting I will look out for this one.

 

[Marc]

Wonderfully grown!

 

[eOrchids]

I stand in envy as always! :drool:

 

[Rick]

Jim

Why don't you self this thing and get some seed in to Troy Meyers?

 

[The Orchid Boy]

I agree with Rick. Then we all might be able to get a little of this plant!

 

[Rick]

I agree with Rick. Then we all might be able to get a little of this plant!

I was just looking through the TM archives. Armeniacum seed has only been sent in twice (once by me). Both in 2005, and neither attempt produced any seedlings.

Nobody has sent any seed in at all for micranthum.

Charles Wilson (Memphis OS) recently sent in some malipoense seed (with some germination success).

And several successful delenatii attempts.

So for as popular as are two favorite parvi's are, there is not much interest in breeding them.

 

[cnycharles]

interesting observation... maybe people love their parvi flowers so much that they just don't think of desecrating them, or that sometimes it's more of a surprise that there are successful flowerings of these species, so they don't want to stress their plant by pollinating it. I know a little that there has been relatively good success with pollinating and germinating delenatii, but I don't remember hearing many people talking about lots of pollination and germination success of armeniacum and/or micranthum

maybe people just need a 'kick' with the idea to get that ball rolling! (as rick did a few posts ago)

 

[keithrs]

I had a selfing of my armeniacum... which failed!

I seem to be pretty bad at growing them so far....

 

[JPMC]

I don't think that this plant is too unusual in its vigor. The basket method works well for me with all armeniacums I have tried (so far, three clones). I also had no idea that they were rare as seedlings. I will try to self this plant and see if the it forms a viable pod. If so, I'll send it in to TM.

 

[Leo Schordje]

I think the main reason we don't see many armeniacum grown from seed is that the plants make so many growths over time that divisions seem to be available frequently enough that the expense and time required to raise a batch from seed doesn't seem necessary.

In the past I sent armeniacum seed pods to 2 different labs (neither was Troy Meyers). For one pod, got no germination, for the second, I had ordered 10 replates, there was only enough germination for 2 replates, and when I received them, the plantlets were strangely elongated, with no roots to speak of. The lab was a lab that has a lot of experience with Paph seedlings, so the lab waived the replate fee because they did not understand what went wrong. At any rate, it is not common to see armeniacum from seed.

 

[Rick]

I think the main reason we don't see many armeniacum grown from seed is that the plants make so many growths over time that divisions seem to be available frequently enough that the expense and time required to raise a batch from seed doesn't seem necessary.

In the past I sent armeniacum seed pods to 2 different labs (neither was Troy Meyers). For one pod, got no germination, for the second, I had ordered 10 replates, there was only enough germination for 2 replates, and when I received them, the plantlets were strangely elongated, with no roots to speak of. The lab was a lab that has a lot of experience with Paph seedlings, so the lab waived the replate fee because they did not understand what went wrong. At any rate, it is not common to see armeniacum from seed.

I approached Troy a little on this, but I wonder if high K in the growth media sets back some of these species.

 

[wonderlen3000]

Thank you.

I grow it with my cattleyas. Same amount of light but constantly moist (even in winter). Temperatures are 60F at night and 80F during the day in winter; 10F higher in the summer.

Is the temperature year round? So you don't really need the chilling down to close to zero for the plant like most books suggest. ...??