Should I self the kovachii I just got awarded?

[Rick]

Maybe plants with pods also have certain cravings which are not understood by us... :rollhappy: :rollhappy:

I've never tried pickle juice and ice cream culture!!

Jerry, How are the leaf tips? I'm finding that "burnt" leaf tips are an early sign of K excess in Phrags.

So if you are seeing this, then another reason to back down the K.

 

[jhoff]

leaf tips are fine - no problems there at all. i fertilized way less this summer than I usually do - not for any reason other than just not having time for it...

When I do fertilize, I use the MSU pure water formula (which fits our Seattle water well ) - https://www.firstrays.com/cgi/cart/...product=Chemicals!Nutrition&pid=214&keywords=

Can't remember if I got it from Ray or from Wayne at orchidmix.com - pretty sure I've bought from both.

 

[Rick]

leaf tips are fine - no problems there at all. i fertilized way less this summer than I usually do - not for any reason other than just not having time for it...

When I do fertilize, I use the MSU pure water formula (which fits our Seattle water well ) - https://www.firstrays.com/cgi/cart/...product=Chemicals!Nutrition&pid=214&keywords=

Can't remember if I got it from Ray or from Wayne at orchidmix.com - pretty sure I've bought from both.

Good

Do you add any lime "like" supplements to your potting mix (or top dress)? I picked up a kovachii and a couple of fisherii seedlings early this spring/summer. All are growing at good rates and putting on very nice roots. The kovachii is in the basket system I talked about earlier this year, but I left the fisherii in the bark mix they came in. Besides the supplemental Cal nitrate and Mgsulfate (with reduced use of MSU), I've been top dressing with aragonite "cichlid sand" by Caribsea. I got this from PetSmart. It's just a little coarser than standard building or play sand. But it is more friable than either oyster shell or limestone gravel. Aragonite is almost pure calcite.

I've been using it on plants that aren't known for coming from calcareous geologies too (hybrid Catts) with some good results supporting the nutrition changes I've been making.

 

[jhoff]

I grow my kovachiis in diatomite w/ oyster shell mixed in...

I had some fisherii seedlings (think I bought a compot of them) some years ago but eventually lost them all - I had them in a CHC mix I think. curious how folks grow fisherii - like to try them again but not lose them...

 

[Rick]

I picked up some from Orchidbabies (about 4 years ago). They grew and flowered (poorly), and eventually burnt out, died. I had them in hydroton/moss/chc with oyster shell using a kind of semi hydro system. They were never great doer's and I attributed their "crankiness" to my overall high temps.

Now the ones I just got from OL (3months?) are still in the bark mix the came in, and although I water a lot, they are not in SH conditions. I have added some sand and "cichlid sand" as top dress. As you've probably noted from many of my other posts, I've restricted K supplementation, by reducing the MSU rate and adding Canitrate and epsom salts.

So far these are darkening up and growing leaves and roots much better than my previous experience with the OB plants.

 

[jhoff]

Pollination done at least in theory. I've not been successful pollinating phrags in the past but mainly I've tried to pollinate besseaes. Anyway, that was hard! Especially with my 50 year old eyes... Now we wait... Wondering if I should keep the plant in the house where I can 1) watch it and 2) keep it away from the slugs or if I should take it down to the nice humid greenhouse...

 

[Rick]

In my experience pollinating phrags, high humidity correlated closely with success as anything else.

Maybe put it back in the GH and put a ring of slug killer around it.:evil:

 

[jhoff]

it's back in the GH...

I got the award photo from the photographer today - I'll post it in the other thread under phrag photos...