Stalled phrag besseae in S/H?

[quiltergal]

He's also recommending K-Lite. I'm going to give it a try. Seems like there is a big improvement in slipper orchid growth and resistance to disease when using K-Lite.

[Bill U.]

If you try the K-Lite, please let me know what you think! I know that Ray is no slouch, so it must have some value if he's recommending it, but right now I would love to know if there is a large difference in performance for the difference in the cost...

[professor plant]

Suggestions from my experience are this:

-Do not keep the roots constantly wet when they need to reestablish.

-I am also from Chicago and I would not use tap water on my phrags. It certainly will not kill them, but since you have a nice besseae, I would get a gallon of distilled water every other week for it. I find it has made a huge difference on phrags and other orchids picky about TDS, ect.

-Since you are using LECA, clean water is even more important. It does absorb a lot of salts and fert build up, just from appearance alone.

-I have had better luck with this mix:
-30% orchiata bark (half small, half med)
-30% sphagnum moss
-30% aggregate (I prefer half perlite, half featherlite)
I use this in clear plastic pots over a container with featherlite and water) I allow the water to cover the bottom cm of the pot about half of the time throughout the week, allowing the roots to slightly dry off and receive some air.

I know this differs from SH, but I find it works very well. I grow in similar conditions as you.

[Bill U.]

Professor Plant,

-Do you not use Chicago tap water for your phrags due to total dissolved solids (TDS), the chlorine content, or something else? I water my phrag with water that has been allowed to sit out for several days, does that help take care of any of those issues? (Part of the issue with going and buying distilled is exactly that- buying it when I'm on a fairly tight budget...)
--> I also was able to find a Chicago water analysis from March 2012 (most recent I could find quickly) with a TDS of about 175ppm. [source= http://www.cityofchicago.org/content...rts/cca12a.pdf ]
---> It has been my reading over at Seagrove Orchids, that TDS less than 300ppm should be okay for phrags, although it does not specify for besseae. http://seagroveorchids.com/Culture/Phragtips.htm

-When you allow your roots to "dry off" slightly, how do you judge how long they are "dry"? By the amount of time they have been out of water, or by visually checking the moisture of the media?

A clear plastic pot is on the soon-to-get list, but I have to make due with what I have right now...

Any other suggestions are greatly appreciated!

[silken]

I only have 3 Phrags, one being half besseae. I found they really perked up after switching from tap water to rain water. Mine would get brown leaf tips always and it quit when I switched to rain water. Over the winter I got lazy and didn't always use the rain water I had stored and I now have some brown leaf tips again. I think there are too many minerals in the water and they are sensitive to it.

[quiltergal]

I do not use tap water either. I believe it is the TDS that Phrags don't like. Letting the tap water sit out over night only allows the chlorine to dissipate. The TDS are still there.

We have a couple of grocery stores locally were you can refill water jugs. It's carbon filtered and then run through an RO filter. It's only .41 cents/gallon. You might check into that.