new here-need help with paphs

[diana long]

The catt is C. Green Emerald, "Orchid Queen". The other is a paph I've had for 10 years labelled Phillipinense xEsquirrolie that has never bloomed. Here are some orchids I have that are blooming.C chocolate drop, Ryncholaelia digbyana, Haraella retrocalla. The pics of the pathetic little paph is a spicerianum I recently bought. It only had the blooming fan and one new one coming. The leaves of the blooming fan turned brown and died. I'm hoping the rest of it survives. My Paph venustum died the same way. I sprinkled it with cinnamon to try to stop what looks to me like fungus.
Actually I will have to put the pics of the spicerianum in another post cause my computer won't access them.

[The Mutant]

First of all, that Paph philippinense x squirolei is one beautiful specimen plant. Marvelously well grown.

Secondly, after reading about esquirolei, since I know next to nothing about that one, apparently it wants the same light as the philippinese and that one wants Cattleya light levels to flower, so more light.

Also, both philippinense and esquirolei are calcaerous, so it won't dislike some lime supplement (note, not all Paphs like lime in their substrate, venustum would be one of them). On the other hand, you've had it for 7 years, and it has grown into such a large plant. I don't really know if you should change anything, beside the light levels. It quite clearly are getting what it needs, as I can't see any sign of deficiency. Try increasing the light first, do it gradually so you don't burn it.

If that doesn't work, try that temperature drop, as I can see the esquirolei experiences down to around 12ºC (~53ºF) in its natural habitat. Philippinense is a warm grower, so it's up to which genes are dominant in the hybrid I guess.

You can read about all your Paphs and the parents to your hybrid here: slipperorchids.info. This is a great site, and it'll tell you a bit about what kind of conditions they might prefer.

Flowering with 2 fans each is not a problem (and spicerianum is a small species). If the Paph in question only has one, you should cut the spike, either before it develops the spike too much, or right after it has opened the flower if you want to see what it looks like. This to ensure it doesn't stress the plant too much (apparently staying in bloom takes energy from the plant, not only developing the flower, or maybe this is what we keep saying to ourselves after we let a one growth Paph flower before cutting the spike ).

Why your venustum and spicerianum both died after flowering, I don't know and I wish I could help. My guess is that what the others have said, is most likely the cause.

Good luck with you monster plant and let us know what happens!



Oh, and you can make emoticons with 'quick reply', too if you know the code for it, for example this one:



is written like : scratchhead :, but without any space between the colons and the word.

[Greenthumb.5]

You said you sprinkled cinnamon on the plant. How did you apply it? Did you cut off the infected part?

Cinnamon can severely dry out a plant even on its healthy tissue if a little got on the uninfected tissue. As it doesn't absorb water, which is why cinnamon makes it ideal as a fungicide.

[diana long]

Thanks again. If my philipinense x esquirolei ever does bloom, I will post a pic (after I pass out from shock, I checked the tag and I've had it ten years!). I will leave it out during the next cold (for S Florida) front at the end of the week when it will go down to near 50 deg F.Maybe that will help?

I did cut the dead leaves off my Paph spicerianum before applying the cinnamon which I just sprinkled on top of the leaves. So far it is still alive so I have hope.