Super Sphag n-Bag results

[Swamper]

WOW look at all that green, AWESOME!!!

[Cookiemonster]

WOW tropic not only do your plants look good, thats beautiful!!! I need some live sphag moss now!!!

[Ray]

Most dried sphagnum has plenty of spores, so if kept moderately light and wet with pure water, they will often germinate and grow, giving you an unending supply of live sphagnum.

DO NOT FERTILIZE IT, or it will die (with time)

[Becca]

Tropic, do you not use fertilizer? I have read that the live moss is sensitive to fertilizer due to the salts? Great pic's by the way!

OOPS! Just saw Ray's comment about the fertilizer, sorry!

[Leisurely]

Tropic, your plants look very nice and the dwarf epidendrums look wonderful. Are they named plants that you could list? I would like to find some.

[jay]

Very nice Tropics. I really like the presentation.

Do you fill the pot with only live sphag or are you using a peat base for the sphag to grow in?

If you are using a peat base, what percentage of the pot is peat vs. sphag?

I would love to learn more about this since I have seen such great results with my Paph. Dollgoldi and might want to keep it in live sphag permanently.

[Tropic]

Leisurely, thank you and others of the Forum for the compliments regarding my orchids growing in live sphagnum moss. Most of my dwarf Epidendrums are from various sources and have a 'no name' status within the collection. The reason for this is that they originally came from a long line of collected keikeis given me by orchid friends and some other plants were just purchases from various orchid sellers around Miami. However, in Costa Rica I did eventually plant them in pots filled with a mixture of washed river gravel, coconut chips and pine tree bark then placed in my open garden. Others were grown under the protection and regimen of the greenhouse and planted into pots with just live sphagnum moss. There is a great difference in plant size between those that were free and living under the natural elements and others that were planted in sphagnum moss, grown under cover with minimum fertilizer and given regular rain water misting and weekly pot flushings. I observed that the live sphagnum moss grown orchids remained basically strong dwarfs with regular flowering and the others outside became thinner giants and generally produced fewer flowers. Granted, my orchid house is at an elevation of 4500 ft. and cool, with a lot more UV light. I have also noticed that the wild Epidendrum radicans found in my mountain area are also natural dwarfs, growing terrestrially in mixtures of moss, rotting leaves and gravel.

	Mistking Looking for a misting system? Look no further. Automated misting systems from MistKing are used by multitude of plant enthusiasts and are perfect for Orchids. Systems feature run dry pumps, ZipDrip valve, adjustable black nozzles, per second control! Automatically mist one growing shelf or a greenhouse full of Orchids. See MistKing testimonials

[Leisurely]

Tropic, I was told by a California grower that it was the Florida heat that caused the Epidendrums to grow very large. I ordered ten plants a couple of years ago from Santa Barbara Orchids. They were in four inch pots, and the plants were about a foot tall and blooming. The following year they grew to about four feet with canes as thick as your finger.

I strongly believe that cooler weather creates smaller plants. I ordered several minicats from another California grower and when I received them they were very squat looking with very short, one inch, very round, fat pseudobulbs resembling small onions. Two years later, all of the new growth produced is three times the size of the original growth.

[Tropic]

Leisuely, I cartainly agree with you on this and do have many examples of the reverse ... getting orchids from the hotter tropical areas and having them become dwarf plants here when growing in my much cooler mountain climate. A benefit is that now they actualy appear to flower more and the colours are very intense. Here are some photos of a reed stem Epidendrum I bought from Central Florida(EFG Orchids) and which now has many keikeis that have also decided to begin developing individual flower shoots. There are two seen in the photo with shoots developing and the main 'mother' plant remains quite happy producing more leaves, roots and keikeis. These plants are growing well in plastic pots with layers of hardwood charcoal 25%, washed coir 25% and topped with live sphagnum 50%.

[Leisurely]

Tropic, the plants are beautiful. I like the reed stem epidendrums so well that I grow a lot of them even though they do turn into giants. I have recently reduced the frequency of fertilizer and switched to a low nitrogen, high phosphorus and potassium formula. Maybe that will help to slow the growth some.