Pot. Ancep Passion 'Hsinying' first bloom

[silken]

Pot. Ancep Passion 'Hsinying' (Rth. Love Passion x L. ancep) is in bloom for the first time for me. Only 2 buds this time but it should be capable of around 4 per spike. I got this 2 years ago as a 'bloom size' in fairly nice shape from Ching Hua. Roots were poor at the time but they are fine now. But this has always struggled with lots of black spots on the pseudo bulbs and ugly blotches on the leaves in my care. I have another ancep cross that has the same problem to a lesser degree. So about 9 months ago I started adding a Cal/Mag supplement to my fertilizer water and also lowering the pH as our tap water is high. I think the calcium is making a difference. The pseudo bulb this is blooming from does have some black areas. But the leaves so far are clean and good looking. I expect the pseudo bulb was already developing before I started the calcium supplementation. The latest growth on my other ancep hybrid is growing clean too and this is a first. I guess it can still go bad, but so far I think I am seeing improvements. I don't know if L. ancep has a higher requirement for calcium or why these 2 hybrids in particular have a problem. I have a species ancep that seems fine.

Anyways, I am hoping this plant can begin growing cleaner and healthier with my new fertilizing regime.

[Leafmite]

I really like the color!

[brsucculents]

That's beautiful. A friend of mine says he's had problems with anceps until he started adding egg shell to their mix.

[silken]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

I really like the color!

Thanks, me too!

---------- Post added at 10:36 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:34 AM ----------

Originally Posted by brsucculents

That's beautiful. A friend of mine says he's had problems with anceps until he started adding egg shell to their mix.

Thanks. I've had other Catts with similar but lesser problems, but the ancep crosses are the worse. All seem to be improving and coincidentally many non bloomed Catts are finally blooming as well. Makes me wonder. I use MSU for fertilizer and it has calcium but either not enough or our high pH water was preventing uptake maybe.

[tucker85]

That's a beautiful L. anceps hybrid. I love the colors. I can't say whether the addition of cal/mag is what made the difference in your particular case but I'm a big fan of using calcium on orchids. I've been using cal/mag for three years now and my orchids seldom have fungus problems and are just all around healthier than before. Calcium has caught on 'big time' in South Florida over the last couple years. Some growers use dolomite lime, some use calcium/nitrate and others use a cal/mag liquid like I do. One friend of mine has two 30' shade houses with about 3000 orchids. She said she used to lose some orchids every year but now that she uses calcium she says she almost never loses an orchid. I don't want to make it sound like a magic elixir but I do think it's important for growing healthy orchids. You've probably seen this article from the St. Augustine Orchid Society but, in case you missed it, here's a link. Again, your L. anceps hybrid is gorgeous. Good growing.
http://staugorchidsociety.org/PDF/20...ps-Calcium.pdf

[Orchids4ever]

Love the colour on this one

[WhiteRabbit]

Wow! Love it!

[fishmom]

What a beautiful color! And that frilly, lightly marked lip--just lovely. Good growing, and good advice on the calcium. I had backed off on adding Cal/mag liquid regularly, and this year I did have more trouble with spots, rotted roots, and the like. Hmmm..

[silken]

Thanks for looking.

Thanks tucker85 for the link. I hadn't seen the article, but I am becoming convinced it is the calcium and magnesium I am adding that is making the improvements. I've had more first blooms in the past few months and not all of them have just arrived at bloom size. Some should have bloomed several years ago, but hadn't. I still have a few more in spike to look forward to.