G'Day from Downunder !

[Freckles.Au]

Hi everyone, my name is mark and i live about 100km north of Sydney Australia. I am a 32 year old nurse and i have been interested in Orchids since i was a young boy. My father took a fancy to cymbidiums when i was a child and i always dispaired he would not take things further...

Fast forward 20 years - we're now about to glass in the side of our house for dads plants. I have recently bought a 12 foot long glasshouse and a 6 foot long fish tank where i am currently incubating our (steadily accumulating might i add) phalaenopsis collection (a fan is suspended at one end of the tank). The tank has white pebbles in the bottom where i have encased 2x 75w aquarium heaters in a mesh shroud - i then fill this with rain water to the top of the pebble. Tank sits around 85-90% RH, 30c

I like to experiment: i am growing my keiki under blue and red LED light and fertilizing with seasol - the keiki are loving it, they are crisp, lush and full of vitality. I keep the keiki in rockwool and sphagnum which i have treated with great white mycorrhizae. I think the plants will take off even more once i begin to give the plants c02 of a night (produced via fermenting bread yeast).

I have collected flasks of the following species so far: amabilis, sumatrana, violacea, cornu cervi red, manni, serpentingula (lots of them died.. fungus.. mea culpa ), tetraspsis, schilleriana and a single keiki of gigantea (currently trying to import a flask from Bali for a good price)

anyway, talk soon everyone !

mark

ps: anyone checked out reichenbachia or the orchid review ? is over on the internet archive which is an online digital archive of old books... google it