Paphiopedilum Michael Koopowitz

[eds]

This plant was purchased a a single growth in 2021. It's come into spike this winter but all is not quite as it should be!

The first bract on the stem was half leaf and has produced this flower!



A proper weirdo where I have half a petal where the dorsal should be!

Fortunately the next two flowers look like they should be more normal!

Here's the plant in toto.

 

[Ozpaph]

cut the bad one off.

 

[eds]

cut the bad one off.

Oh no! Even a mutant flower like this is still a flower and I'm interested to compare it to a hopefully 'normal' one soon.

 

[Theodoreorchidking]

Do you give it any specific care to make it bloom?

 

[SlipperKing]

Interesting Eds. Any updates?

 

[eds]

The other two are opening normally. Was going to wait another day or two to post to give the petals time to hopefully extend a bit more!
Might get impatient and take a photo tomorrow!

 

[eds]

As it looks today. The third flower is still opening and hopefully there is still a bit more lengthening to happen on the laterals.

 

[Tony]

Great color!

 

[southernbelle]

How did you grow it? Temp, light, etc.

 

[eds]

How did you grow it? Temp, light, etc.

It's in a mesh pot/basket (slotted neatly inside the display container at the moment!), lined with sphagnum and with orchiata with about 10% charcoal in the centre.
Watering is rain or RO with a 50:50 mix of Akerne's rain mix and Calcium Nitrate as fertiliser.
During the summer (later April to around October) they live in my north facing very shaded conservatory with almost no direct light but good indirect light. The conservatory goes from single figures centigrade to 30+ in a hot summer. Most of the time it's between 18-25C.
In the winter they live on a south facing windowsill in my house on windowsill propagators to give some additional heat from below. The room is cooler than the rest of the house and goes down to 15 or so in the coldest times. Most of the time it's high teens, low twenties.

Honestly, I don't water my plants regularly enough but this one seems to cope with it!

 

[Guldal]

Indeed, good colours, Ed! Whence did you get this beauty?

Btw. I'm for once with Stephen (Ozpaph): why let the plant spend unnecessary energy on a mutant flower? Cut it off - and let it use it on the wellshaped flowers, and maybe preserve a bit for growth and general well-being!

 

[eds]

Morning. It was a purchase from the Exotic Plant Company in December 2021.

I'm enjoying the mutant flower! The weird dorsal is going very spiralled and, as I hope it won't repeat this on future flowerings, I'm enjoying it as a one-off occurrence!

 

[DrLeslieEe]

Big potential nonetheless! Great color.

 

[southernbelle]

It's in a mesh pot/basket (slotted neatly inside the display container at the moment!), lined with sphagnum and with orchiata with about 10% charcoal in the centre.
Watering is rain or RO with a 50:50 mix of Akerne's rain mix and Calcium Nitrate as fertiliser.
During the summer (later April to around October) they live in my north facing very shaded conservatory with almost no direct light but good indirect light. The conservatory goes from single figures centigrade to 30+ in a hot summer. Most of the time it's between 18-25C.
In the winter they live on a south facing windowsill in my house on windowsill propagators to give some additional heat from below. The room is cooler than the rest of the house and goes down to 15 or so in the coldest times. Most of the time it's high teens, low twenties.

Honestly, I don't water my plants regularly enough but this one seems to cope with it!

Thanks!

 

[Justin]

Really excellent color.

 

[Brabantia]

It's in a mesh pot/basket (slotted neatly inside the display container at the moment!), lined with sphagnum and with orchiata with about 10% charcoal in the centre.
Watering is rain or RO with a 50:50 mix of Akerne's rain mix and Calcium Nitrate as fertiliser.
During the summer (later April to around October) they live in my north facing very shaded conservatory with almost no direct light but good indirect light. The conservatory goes from single figures centigrade to 30+ in a hot summer. Most of the time it's between 18-25C.
In the winter they live on a south facing windowsill in my house on windowsill propagators to give some additional heat from below. The room is cooler than the rest of the house and goes down to 15 or so in the coldest times. Most of the time it's high teens, low twenties.

Honestly, I don't water my plants regularly enough but this one seems to cope with it!

When you say 50:50 mix Akerne RM/Calcium nitrate is it weight for weight. I ask you this question because several members of my club and myself have observed that Akerne RM fertilyser at a concentration of 65 ppm nitrogen (as recommended) is burning roots exposed to light. Do you distribute your fertilizer solution on wet roots ?

 

[eds]

I do it by volume, not weight. The first time I checked and the weight versus volume was almost identical for the small amounts I mix in one go. (It absorbs too much water if I mix up a lot in one go.)

I then use the small rain mix scoop to dose two scoops (2 grams) of the mix to a 7.5 litre watering can. (Rain mix says 1 gram to 2 litres so I'm dosing around half strength and much less potassium than the standard rain mix.

I don't water onto already wet roots, I just watering with this solution. I usually feed every watering but do miss the odd occasion and pretend I'm doing that on purpose to flush the media!

 

[Brabantia]

I do it by volume, not weight. The first time I checked and the weight versus volume was almost identical for the small amounts I mix in one go. (It absorbs too much water if I mix up a lot in one go.)

I then use the small rain mix scoop to dose two scoops (2 grams) of the mix to a 7.5 litre watering can. (Rain mix says 1 gram to 2 litres so I'm dosing around half strength and much less potassium than the standard rain mix.

I don't water onto already wet roots, I just watering with this solution. I usually feed every watering but do miss the odd occasion and pretend I'm doing that on purpose to flush the media!

Thanks. I have computed the mixture you described to me. You reached a total Nitrogen concentration of 36.4 mgr/L and 36.6mgr/L of Calcium and very little Magnesium (2.8 mgr/L). Potassium 15.2 mgr/L. The trace elements content are of course divided by 2 compared to the trace elements content of pure RM. Is the magnesium content sufficient? Shouldn't a little magnesium sulphate be added?

 

[eds]

Perhaps but it seems to work ok for me so far! My main aim was to get the concentration of potassium down.

 

[NEslipper]

Amazing color, I would never have guessed it was an MK. Philly is usually so dominant for washing out any pouch color. It’s like a dark sanderianum. Congrats!