Question about growing paphs...........
 

I'm an experienced orchid grower but I'm getting ready to buy my first paph. What kind of pot and medium do you recommend for growing paphs?

I am not an expert but do manage to keep few species alive and happy and one is even pushing out a bud now.
Mine are mostly parvisepalum subgenus and seem to like the small unglazed clay pots with chc.
I found very helpful this article here:
Quick Start - Buying and Growing Your First Paph.
Good luck.

In my experience and conditions, they seem to do best with an airy mix. I've used bark mixes, CHC and S/H. I currently have most in CHC, which they seem to like as long as I flush every other watering. CHC seems to get fertilizer build up quickly.
I keep them in the smallest pot I can squeeze the roots in, and use the tallest container I can find. I use foam peanuts or rocks on the 1st inch or so of the bottom of the pot to help with drainage.
Paphs take real well to S/H, but I find I have to water frequently(like every other day).
What are you thinking of getting?

Good Luck, Bill

That's an excellent article. Thanks for the link.

---------- Post added at 12:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:54 PM ----------

I'm not sure what I'll get. There's a big orchid show this weekend. Do you have any suggestions?

Someone recommended Lynnleigh Koopowitz as a very easy starter paph and so that's what I bought in November. So far, it is just chugging along, even starting a spike, despite me not realizing I should have been keeping it moist. Oops. At my last OS meeting, I was thankfully given good advice. Everyone in our society gives their paphs a good dose of lime/oyster shell at the beginning of January.
Leafmite

Leafmite, one of the parents of your plant is delenatii - non-calcicolous(did I spell it right?) paph. I read that delenatii wouldn't like lime/oyster supplement as it prefers acidic substrate. I am not sure how it works with hybrids though and would like to know the experienced opinion on that.
Thanks

I'm kind of partial to the multi florals, but they do tend to take up a lot of room. You can't go wrong with a delenatii, easy to grow, nice bloom, beautiful foliage.

Bill

If you are looking for a bullet proof Paph. that anyone can bloom get Pinocchio, or if you prefer species liemianum. Both are sequential bloomers, and one spike can bloom for more than a year. I have a Pinocchio that has been in non-stop bloom for the last 3 years. It's not at all fussy. Both of the above have attractive mottled foliage. Delenatii is also a small relatively easy grower.

Like Bill all of mine are in CHC, and I also flush the pots well. I prefer to pot mine in plastic pots as summers here are hot and dry. Plastic tends to keep more moisture in the pot, and if you use clear pots you can see when you have active root growth.

Leafmite, Orchideya is correct. Not all Paphs are calcificarous. Delenatii is one that does not like lime. I have a list at home somewhere that outlines which Paphs will benefit from oyster shell and which won't.

I like multi-florals too, but they are rather large and take up a good chunk of shelf space. My biggest is William Ambler.

I actually gave the oyster shell to it in early December and so far, the plant is really looking healthy. It could be dumb luck that this individual offspring inherited the malipoense love of calcium or perhaps time will prove that my ways need mended. I really appreciate the information. Thankyou.
Leafmite

we are on the same boat, Tucker...I am a brand new Paph grower. The first two plants was given to me by GlenGary and two others was given to me by a florist friend in the flower disctrict of Manhattan...I noticed that the mix is finer than that of the Phals...I think Phals have the large barks whereas the Paphs have the small barks...I have bark, charcoal, lava rocks and hydroton clay on one that just bloomed for me...that I just replanted on a bigger pot using the same media...
at first i was scared to own one thinking they are delicate by the way I see it in pictures: but I was wrong....Paphs are very easy to grow and so far it is thriving happily and healthy in my care.