Growing Big! Paph. Avalon Druid

[Optimist]

This is going to be a very large plant. I have re-potted it twice and the roots are crazy. It loves water. I have a ton of new leaves started but no spikes. I wonder why?


I am going to use some cal-mag on it, and give it some more fertilizer.

[Bohata]

I kind of doubt "more fertilizer" would help. Paphs as a group are easily overfertilized. What kind of light do you give it?

[Optimist]

Originally Posted by Bohata

I kind of doubt "more fertilizer" would help. Paphs as a group are easily overfertilized. What kind of light do you give it?

Right now just east window. It spends the spring summer fall outside in a shade house. My water is pretty hard as well. Lots of minerals. I have to use RO water for some, but other's love the hard water.

Maybe I mean change to "flowering" fertilizer.

[Leafmite]

Wow, that is a monster. Hopefully someone can help you bloom it. I'll bet when it does bloom, it will be covered in flowers and a sight to see!

[Optimist]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

Wow, that is a monster. Hopefully someone can help you bloom it. I'll bet when it does bloom, it will be covered in flowers and a sight to see!

I've seen it with one flower so far, but it has had a few. Now it is in the low 50's in the early morning so still it is too cold to keep them out over night.

Okay I have to do this to all my plants. So, this is Avelon Druid. It is

50% Paph druryi
37.5% Paph. primulinum
12.5% Paph. Glaucophyllum

Druryi, pollen parent grows on mountainous terrain (Kerala, India only) and gets bright light during normal growing stage and gets higher light during winter.

In its natural habitat, It is rainy season from end of May till end of October during which it is hot and humid and winters are cool (~10 Degrees Celsius-- which is 50F which means I could actually keep it out tonight).

So I think my problem was it did not get the higher light inside.

[PaphMadMan]

More light and less fertilizer. There is no reason to switch to a "flowering" fertilizer. Those are more marketing hype than actually effective.

The Paph primulinum/glaucophyllum half of the ancestry means any seasonality needs of the Paph druryi side are probably minimized. You are growing it well so don't change the basics. Just decrease fertilizer and gradually increase light

[Optimist]

I also just noticed that it is not really affected by my hard water, like my Phrags are.

[PaphLover]

You'd think the razor blade on the table next to it might be perceived as a 'threat', thereby influencing flowers out of fright.



It's a gorgeous, healthy paph. Can't wait to see the blooms!

[Bohata]

One thing that might be mentioned: if you have "hard water", extra calcium and magnesium would be a bad idea. Hard water is caused by dissolved salts of magnesium and/or calcium. At best, you would be throwing your money away. And I second PaphMadMan's post. Extra fertilizer sometimes causes faster growth at the expense of flowers. And one rule of thumb of plant growing in general is if a plant is big and healthy enough to flower but doesn't, check the light levels. This applies whether you grow orchids or African violets!
Having said that, just remember that some people are "doing good" just to keep a plant alive!

[Optimist]

Originally Posted by PaphLover

You'd think the razor blade on the table next to it might be perceived as a 'threat', thereby influencing flowers out of fright.

If you notice a lot of my pictures, I live in a construction site, not a house. We've still got a lot of exposed studs, plaster and lath etc. Hey I bbought the house for 15K and it's paied for and works!!!

I agree about the sun, & not to add Cal/mag. I have put it in a hanging basket. Once the plants go outside, I will be putting them in the shade house, with a (new) mist-sprayer.