3'x1.5' Growbox
 

My growbox is officially one year old so I want to show what it looks like.

As you can see from the title it's quite small in terms of space but I've managed to cram a lot in there. Whether it can all stay is another question.

The plants in the picture are:

Top:
P. Corningiana
P. Bellina
P. Bear Queen
Vanda Batram

Bottom:
Cattleya Toshie's Magic
Cattleya Varut Startrack
Cattleya Burana Beauty
Cattleya Ports of Paradise
Cattleya Prapa Green
Cattleya Labiata
Brassavola Little Stars
Dendrobium Anosmum
Rhynchostylis Gigantea
Aerides Houlletiana
Perreiraara Rapeepath
Vanda Ploenpit Prize
Vanda Sukontharat
Encyclia Fragrans

Pretty much all of them were bought to fill this box, some of them are a bit older but most are still settling in.

Although only a couple of phals have flowered I think the light is strong enough. Possibly the Toshie's Magic is about to flower for the first time which I am quite excited about.

Powered by an Arcadia 18 watt Jungle Dawn light bar.

10C temperature drop at night.

Nothing much to look at yet but I think things will get going soon here.

edit: there's actually 3 more stuffed in there I forgot to mention. 21 in total. Took some careful planning

https://i.ibb.co/YX68BsJ/IMG-0536.jpg

Bet it took a lot of organising getting everything placed just right fot its needs. Looking good and you are getting blooms, so its definitely working for you.

Wow shade, love the box and set up. Very meet …and lovely collection.

What are those white balls in the vanda medium?

Very nice looking. Did you make your own grow box?

The plants all look happy! I hope you will continue to keep us updated!

Looks great. If I may, I'd like to make a couple of suggestions:

1) Paint the interior walls bright matte white, as that will give you better light dispersion.

2) Don't worry about "enough light" for the phals. They will bloom better with less light.

I was asked for an update so I will show a latest update.
It isn't much change, the toshie's magic flowered so that's 4 of them that flowered in total and the anosmum against the left wall is producing a bud.

Otheriwse I aint coming back. I left in a huff and there was a good reason for it. This site is mainly used to wannabe growers trying to prove their knowledge.

The problem I have with this is most these OB experts spend more time on OB than growing orchids and my big gripe was coming to the realization that after spending a year listening to the experts on OB I had picked up so much bad misinformation along with the good that I would have ended up a worse grower because of it!

I said a while ago how I have been testing different wall reflectivity for years, longer than Ray has been growing with artificial lighting and I was the one who told him it makes so little difference which is why I don't even bother yet as soon as I leave he "meaningfully" points out I need to use reflective paint.

Have you started stocking it then Ray? But that is not why I came back here for. I just want to point out the biggest observation I made. Listening to the advice here made my plants suffer terribly in hindsight so much so I would have had to buy expensive probiotics and enzymes and kelpjuices just to make my orchids grow properly.

I tried it. It's a bogus way of growing but I know that is a matter of opinion just like I believe an apple a day keeps the doctor away yet other people prefer to see the doctor and get as many prescriptions as possible and if that causes a new sideeffect the doc will have a pill to treat that too.

Different opinions and there are just far too many of those all clashing with each other on here. I am far happier not trying to bark my opinion over others the loudest. I know I will not be the last to realize that actually using msu all year does not result in very good results. Even a basic 10-10-10 fertilizer is better imo.

But again difference of opinion. So having said all that how are the plants doing? It's still middle of winter here so not much. But 10 orchids are producing spikes. It's hard to quantify what that means as every year new orchids start to bloom regularly at mine as they mature but it's a new record...
But I myself still have so many questions I cannot answer I have decided I cannot promote my beliefs until I understand what I have observed better.

I am at the moment comparing my new orchid focus fertilizer to my new improved blend and both are showing improvements over the old msu formula alone but both are growing very differently so it will take more time to observe.

Then another thing I mentioned was that I started feeding my phals a bloom feed all year long instead of a grow feed all year long.

Why? I still don't know but I am very happy with the results so that is still an experiment I have to complete, a phal grown on grow feed and a phal grown on bloom feed all year long.

So then the question arises if phals grow better on a bloom feed all year long what about other orchids. If phals benefit from a bloom feed more than a grow feed what about other orchids, particularly other monopodial orchids like vanda's? I do not have the answer yet and need to investigate further.

But these orchids have all been on the new feed for several months, roughly 4 by now. So far so good.

Sorry about the long post but I feel I had to explain a bit better why I am not coming back anymore. When a grower gives you advice that you end up believing causes a couple orchids to die, well I hold a grudge like that! IT's something we don't think about much willingly giving out "meaningful"advice all day long. If said advice is not right for siad person or siad climate then an orchid can and usualyly does literally die. The people that goe the advice what happens with them? Well either they think it was their fault or something else, rarely do they think they got bad advice. Well I know on two occasions I got bad advice whch ended up costing me a coule of orchids and when that happens, well I am generally quite a grumpy person but I kind of hold a grudge towards that. And then you see these people giving out the same bad advice over and over again. You point out their flaws and get accused you are not an icconoclast and so don't know what you are talking about.

I'm sure plenty can relate, others will say I'm just a wannabe grower but that is why I am happier not arguing over how to grow them. I know my tehniques are invaluable, heck I still can't water orchids. Judging how much each orchid drinks and which like to dry out and whch like to stay wet I am frankly clueless on those things. Hence I do my own methods where that is not too important. But hey I don't know what I'm doing so I will carry on doing my own thing. I don't want to start a fight here. I honestly wish there was a nice place with nice people where I could discuss grwoing my favorite plants. But I pointed out all the flaws these long standing members have it is easy to fall into the trap that they are the only people that know what they are talking about.

The only thing I have not been doing as much as a result of leaving OB is take as many pictures which is a shame, that is the only thing I miss so here is a picture ;)

https://cdn-images.imagevenue.com/36...ME14DFB9_o.JPG

Take care everyone

Right. Everyone else is the problem and you’re the victim. Totally makes sense. :roll:

Bye Felicia. Try not to let the door hit you on the butt as you leave.

sorry Sabrina, it seems it was a revolving door and I ended up back in the lobby.
Now I feel like The rock when he is wearing the pink tutu in the toothfairy the way I am portrayed.
I know I am a victim. Nobody likes you very much either stephen, so it seems you are the same as me yet you still feel like you have to stick with the OB crowd and diss me, lmao. They won't like you any more for it, trust me!. It feels in order to be a true OB'er you have to disagree with everyone otherwise you are a noob. You like said stephen are one of the most disliked OB'ers from what I've heard yet every time you feel like you have to put your foot into it more. Maybe I am the most diliked?
I just feel I am the most discriminated against.

Uusually the one and the other are very closely linked.

And why? Because I am trying to grow good orchids and others just like to agree on things they have read in books so would never try anything they haven't read from an expert before and anything different needs to be mocked to gain popularity.

It's just complete and utter discriminatory and pathetic behavior. And for what? To have a bit of a laugh?

I was going to show a great picture this morning and explain to other growers what I see on this picture because there is a lot going on.

I was going to explain how one can from a picture tell how healthy your orchids are. Now they might all look the same but I specifically took this picture in the light that I did to illustrate my point but every week I discover something, come on here to see if anyone else is interested and everyone just goes bla, bla bla, ha, ha, ha and we do not care.

Go back to bed shade. So once all the A-holes have left OB, will I start posting meaningful helpful things again.

I know I have seen these rants from other members plenty too and thought, ha, what have they got to teach us anyway. And so I can relate but if you guys here keep dismissing absolutely everyone then eventually yes the potential for learning gets reduced.

You might say we have nothing to learn, we know all there is to know.

And I do believe a lot of long standing OBer's believe that but I believe someone has only reached that stage when they never lose a single orchid anymore. If anyone has reached that point, I will allow them to ignore me or anyone else by calling them gay or a woman.

But if you have not reached that stage then insulting others and encourage them to go where the sun don't shine for trying to improve the hobby, well, that is frankly just idiotic.

How are we going to get better if we don't listen. See, that is part of the problem. The people that aren't listening are the people that truly believe they have nothing more to learn and I don't think anyone in the world has reached that point yet.

I think it is dismissive and derogatory and part of the big problem here on OB. The members here think they are the best growers in the world. I would encourage you all to join a facebook orchid group with more than just 10 members....

I no doubt will get an infraction for this post for having gotten offended by yet another A-hole grower givng me stick.

https://cdn-images.imagevenue.com/5d...ME14IG3X_o.JPG

Please just go away, like you've promised to do over and over and over. You simply come here to troll and talk about yourself. Then you describe how much you hate the OB and how much you hate the people on the OB. Then you attack people and pretend to be the victim. FB is the perfect place for you. Seriously.

It sure gets old, doesn't it? :rofl:

:rofl::rofl:

ShadeFlower, stop playing the victim card and stop with your long rants about the forum and specific users. Ray didn't attack you or criticize anything you said, he merely gave suggestions.

You have repeatedly stated that you dislike this forum, the users, the atmopshere and that you will be leaving. We all get the point and have heard you loud and clear. Yet once again, here you are making yet another likely empty threat. If you don't like the forum you are free to leave. You are under no obligation to stay and being here seems to make you miserable. I don't understand the logic. There are plenty of other forums or even FB groups for you to try and maybe you will find one more to your liking.

Thread closed.