Phrag. kovachii ‘Moo Deng’

[PeteM]

This one came from Ecuagenera in early 2023. First time blooming for me. It might be a first bloom seedling. Hard to tell, I’ve not detected evidence of blooming on previous growths. I love the color and markings of the pouch and named it accordingly .

Enjoy,

 

[Tom-DE]

A beauty!

 

[gspagrud]

very nice! What media do you use in the pot?

 

[Justin]

Wow! It is gorgeous. I have one this size but can't get it to bloom.successfully.

 

[Tom-DE]

Peter, I would like to know about your water PH and what "Moo Deng" means. For sure, you've encouraged me to grow this species and I hope I can find one at SEPOS show.
My water PH is about 5.5-6.0...while it is good for most of the plants I have, I am afraid it might be too acidic for kovachii. any thought on that?

 

[Linus_Cello]

My water PH is about 5.5-6.0...while it is good for most of the plants I have, I am afraid it might be too acidic for kovachii. any thought on that?

5.5-6.0 from the tap? Usually water is treated to be more alkaline to preserve the pipes. Anyway, get ro/di water from the store and/or fish store?

 

[PeteM]

very nice! What media do you use in the pot?

Grodan ‘chunks’ which are larger than the ‘cubes’, and coarse perlite, top dressed with crushed oyster shells.

 

[Tom-DE]

5.5-6.0 from the tap? Usually water is treated to be more alkaline to preserve the pipes. Anyway, get ro/di water from the store and/or fish store?

untreated well water(our own well). TDS 80ppm. Pretty good for orchids IMO.

 

[PeteM]

Peter, I would like to know about your water PH and what "Moo Deng" means. For sure, you've encouraged me to grow this species and I hope I can find one at SEPOS show.
My water PH is about 5.5-6.0...while it is good for most of the plants I have, I am afraid it might be too acidic for kovachii. any thought on that?

Hi Tom, I would pre order with ecuagenera. It’s the most mature plant you can get for the $. And since they will be at the show you can pick it up directly from them and skip the repacking and reshipping from Florida. They usually have sales where the price of the plant drops below $100, it’s been inching up the last few years. I wouldn’t worry too much about ph. I grow with RO water and it’s really unstable, after I add fert to my water my ph readings are in the low 5’s. I also don’t trust my ph meter, and I stopped worrying or trying to adjust it in the water. What I am more concerned about is the salts in the water and other additives like chlorine. RO helps on this front lowering the TDS, and I believe that’s the majority of the battle for many sensitive species. I also add crushed oyster shells to help buffer the ph, not sure how much that helps but I add it once a month to all my phrags.

I've also noticed that many kovachii growers who are having success blooming also can grow moss in their pots with the plants. I’m not sure what relationship the moss has with the roots, probably fungus/ mycorrhiza related.. but once the moss takes hold in my pot, the plant growth takes off. So now when I repot a phrag, I seed each pot with a bit of moss to encourage this relationship. These are my thoughts and observations from growing in my conditions. If you can grow moss, I think you’ve got a good chance.

Moo Deng- is a very naughty baby purple-pink pygmy hippo:

 

[Tom-DE]

Thank you, Pete. I think I will preorder it...
I am pretty sure I can grow moss. I used to grow a lot of things on mounts and moss would grow on the mounts after a while. Thank you for the tips.

 

[FrankRC]

This one came from Ecuagenera in early 2023. First time blooming for me. It might be a first bloom seedling. Hard to tell, I’ve not detected evidence of blooming on previous growths. I love the color and markings of the pouch and named it accordingly .

Enjoy,

View attachment 52520
View attachment 52521

AWESOME Pete!