Random orchid thoughts in the shower...

[Kristaz]

I am frequently in Hausermann's orchids (highly recommend their low cost-high quality orchids, BTW) and of course like to pick their brain when I can, and I know they have a "hot house" that the put orchids in to hold off blooming. Somehow this creates more buds that will bloom at the same time. I have never looked up the science behind it since I don't have a hot-house


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[PaphLover]

Originally Posted by Kristaz

I am frequently in Hausermann's orchids (highly recommend their low cost-high quality orchids, BTW) and of course like to pick their brain when I can, and I know they have a "hot house" that the put orchids in to hold off blooming. Somehow this creates more buds that will bloom at the same time. I have never looked up the science behind it since I don't have a hot-house


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Aha! That makes sense to me too.


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[bil]

Following Ray's advice, I have noticed that my paphs and phrags are doing very nicely.

One question. I have a Paph philippinense, and it is flowering after only one year on a single 8 leaf fan. I was under the impression that they took a long time to reach flowering size?

[estación seca]

This is known as a humblebrag, by the way.

[jkofferdahl]

Originally Posted by Ray

OK, this is going to sound like an ad, but please bear with me as this is really just a description of my observations.

Paphs were some of my early loves in the orchid world, so I've had more experience with them than any other genus. Even at that, in the best of times, I might get a new growth every nine months or so, which would bloom upon maturing.

My plants were either in semi-hydroponic culture, or under "ordinary" culture using 75% #5 Orchiata and 25% coarse sponge rock, and for the last several years, I stuck pretty strictly to a single regimen: I applied about 25 ppm N (K-Lite 12-1-1-10 Ca-3 Mg) in RO at every watering, which averaged 3x/week. Once a month, I added KelpMax to that at a 1:250 concentration (1 tablespoon per gallon), and two weeks later, Inocucor Garden Solution @ 1:85 (3 Tbsp/gal).

After a couple of years of that, I started noticing that the slippers were growing and multiplying much more quickly than they had ever done in the past. A mature, single-growth complex hybrid (purchased from Hillsview in bud), became 4 growths later that year. A 2-growth Paph. delenatii was 12 about a year later, and that trend continued with all of the slippers, including phrags. The same was true of cattleyas, encyclias and the like, and others. My first attempt to mount two single-growth Aerangis luteo-alba v. rhodosticta plants on a cypress knee now has 5 growths total, although it is not doing nearly as well in a kitchen window as it did in a greenhouse.

With more mass, and more growths maturing together, I have gotten some of the best shows of blooms I've ever seen.

I think that lots of water, and little food, although mostly nitrogen, is the key to the growth, and the KelpMax, being loaded with a lot more growth-affecting chemicals than just rooting hormones, is probably helping with the multiplication as well as the growth rate. The Inocucor product may very well be enhancing the growth as well, but at the very least, it is probably keeping pathogens at bay, taking away the plants' need to utilize resources to battle them, so they can be dedicated to growth and blooming.

Ray, this isn't an ad at all! (And, ES, I've not seen humblebrag too bad in this thread, which I find quite helpful.) In fact, I find it quite interesting and informative. Reading an outline of someone's growing methods is often extremely useful. As I mentioned before, I'm a Paph neophyte myself, despite my decades of growing orchids. To me, Phals and similar plants are so easy that they're instinctual for me, but Paphs are a mystery. In my first orchid life I had several, which managed to live and even bloom, but which ALWAYS struggled. Thus my comments about the magic involved in growing those big specimen plants.

A year ago my sister gave me a Paph. Raisin Pie. Right now it's the only Paph among about 130 plants. I almost killed it before some great suggestions and thoughts from the OB saved it, and the plant has just bloomed for the first time in my hands. Encouraged, I've just ordered a spicerianum, a Paph I grew before, to see if I can keep it alive, too. Thoughts in this thread will certainly benefit the spicerianum!

[smokinjoe1952]

JK,

Can you expand on the "great suggestions" that allowed your Paphs to do better? I have one right now, and really like them. It seems to be doing well, but am always looking for other secrets to success.

Thanks,

SJ