Roth fever

[orchideya]

Newb question:
I have noticed lots of water drips on the seedlings. Is it ok to leave it?
I spend half hour after each watering wiping my 6 flasks worth of seedlings with small q-tip to make sure there is no single water drop left. Is that overkill? My seedlings are in the orchid tank with 60-70% humidity and fan turning on every 2-3 hours for half hour.
Thanks.

 

[Justin]

yes it's overkill

it is fine to just let them dry out, but you do need gentle air circulation.

the only time i ever have problems with water left on plant leaves is if the water has dripped down from a higher-up plant. i try to avoid that happening at all costs.

 

[ehanes7612]

new addition.. New Horizon x Raptor..if these do well, I will jump back on the roth bandwagon..some are small but all of them had excellent roots

 

[AdamD]

Wow, you do individual pots out of flask? How the success rate?

 

[Justin]

I had over 30 in my flask too. Now just to wait 8 years.

 

[ehanes7612]

Wow, you do individual pots out of flask? How the success rate?

the roths are relatively easy to sort out..their roots are pretty flexible..unlike everything else..and I want to be able to keep them in the same pot for a few years (they seem to hate repotting) so I use a loose mix of perlite, medium bark and some sphagnum

with the other 11 roth flasks I had almost 100 percent success rate but I grew in CHC and they needed repotting every six months , which seemed to slow them down quite a bit beyond their normal slowing down when they are about four or five inch LS

 

[AdamD]

For me the 4-5" ls is the hardest sized plant to keep alive and healthy, no matter what species. I don't know why. The first individual pot is where I've lost the bulk majority of my plants. It's hard to care for that many individual plants of that size I guess. I'll get it right some day...

 

[Justin]

Here's an update on my NH x Raptor flask after 4 months.

 

[AdamD]

Woohoo! Good looking seedlings. I recently repotted my PEoY seedlings, not as many roots as I had hoped for. But incidentally, I knocked over one compot and to my astonishment, 2" long hairy roots only 2 weeks later! Just needed a fresh mix to get them going.

 

[ehanes7612]

@ justin

mine are growing well too...look the same as yours

 

[Bjorn]

looking good!

 

[Justin]

My fever's getting hotter!

 

[The Mutant]

My fever's getting hotter!

View attachment 9996

View attachment 9998

I'm jealous!

I only have four roths of which two might reach BS before I decide to give up.

 

[AdamD]

Ah! What are the crosses?

My biggest one is just putting up it's 7th leaf and a new growth. Shouldn't be long now. Maybe next blooming season.

 

[Justin]

Ah! What are the crosses?

My biggest one is just putting up it's 7th leaf and a new growth. Shouldn't be long now. Maybe next blooming season.

yep sounds like one more year...

the seedling is 'Arthit' x 'Butterfly'...the bigger plant is my division of roth MM.

 

[The Mutant]

Hehe, both of my 'biggest' roths have seven leaves (although I think one of them will lose one, maybe two, due to some mistreatment during repot) but no new growths in sight.

I do love monitoring how much the one from Asendorfer has grown however. If it keeps this pace up it will be the first one to reach BS, despite being the smallest one when I got them. The leaves have started to grow wider too, so it doesn't look as much like a baby plant anymore. I guess it's reaching adolescence.

 

[Justin]

while there are exceptions, generally the plant will flower when it can keep 8 leaves and has a 1/3 mature second growth. roths are also sharply seasonal, and here in the US February-April is the normal blooming period.

 

[The Mutant]

while there are exceptions, generally the plant will flower when it can keep 8 leaves and has a 1/3 mature second growth. roths are also sharply seasonal, and here in the US February-April is the normal blooming period.

Oh, that's good to know for future reference. Thanks.

 

[Justin]

Here are trays of roths from orchid zone (right) and orchid inn (left)...expecting to see some buds on these soon.



And here's the next generation getting ready...various Perfection and Canadian Club crosses from OI along with some other crosses.

 

[AdamD]

Beauties, both the plants and the grow space. My grow room has bark and algae all over the tile floor... Good growing and housekeeping!