Killed some root growths on my Paph...

[The Mutant]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

So, concerning calcium, what do you do with crosses where one parent loves calcium and the other doesn't?

I also share water between my orchids, now. Saves quite a bit of money, time and effort. My water goes through a water-softner as it is very hard so it is useless for my plants. I have to buy water when the dehumidifier or clouds don't provide enough. When I was very careful and not sharing water, I lost seven orchids to black rot and realized all these diseases can spread in other ways, anyway. The new orchids are watered seperately but the others have had plenty of time to infect each other.

That's a good question, and one I've been pondering about myself... So far I haven't managed to order a hybrid where one parent is calcicolous and the other isn't, but I have ordered a Paph. purpuratum and it can be either calcicolous or not so I have no idea what I'm supposed to do with it; add oyster shells or not?

All I can think of is that one has to experiment and see which trait the Paph has inherited from which parent, and hopefully the Paph won't die in the process.

Since I do have soft water I will be adding Ca and magnesium as soon as the Ca is available in the stores, this because, if I've understood correctly, they need a bit of both chemicals to thrive. It will be interesting to see how the chids will react to it.

[Wynn Dee13]

You could just buy a fertilizer that has calcium and magnesium in it. I asked Ray at First Rays about calcium and magnesium supplementation and he told me you can't overdose either ion. So if you want to add it in it won't hurt. Also I always have been told that soft water is bad for orchids. I thought it has a lot of dissolved salts in it. Maybe that is why your new root tips died?

[The Mutant]

Originally Posted by Wynn Dee13

You could just buy a fertilizer that has calcium and magnesium in it. I asked Ray at First Rays about calcium and magnesium supplementation and he told me you can't overdose either ion. So if you want to add it in it won't hurt. Also I always have been told that soft water is bad for orchids. I thought it has a lot of dissolved salts in it. Maybe that is why your new root tips died?

But shouldn't the root tip growing IN the medium die as well then? Or is it the combination of soft water and getting too dry that might have caused it? It doesn't seem as if the water has that much dissolved salts in it (if you check Camille's and mine discussion about the TDS levels, around 100ppm, in my tap water and it doesn't seem that much, at least not to me anyway), but I don't know. I AM a newbie after all.

[Wynn Dee13]

I did read your previous posts. I don't really know how much ppm is good or bad. So in other words I don't know anything about that stuff and how to read it! I just have always read and have been told that soft water is bad because whatever they soften the water with has dissolved salts in it. Also new root tips are sensitive, so I would think they would be more sensitive to salts than older roots. Maybe some other members can help us a little more on this?

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by Wynn Dee13

I did read your previous posts. I don't really know how much ppm is good or bad. So in other words I don't know anything about that stuff and how to read it! I just have always read and have been told that soft water is bad because whatever they soften the water with has dissolved salts in it. Also new root tips are sensitive, so I would think they would be more sensitive to salts than older roots. Maybe some other members can help us a little more on this?

I think you are (understandably) confusing soft water with softened water.
Soft water = low amount of minerals (primarily magnesium and calcium)
Softened water = hard water which has been put through a softener, and the calcium and magnesium molecules are replaced by sodium, which is toxic to plants.

[Wynn Dee13]

Okay, thanks for clarifying that for me. I didn't know there was a difference. Told you I didn't know much about that stuff!