Please help me not kill my first Paph!
 

At the Honolulu Orchid Society show yesterday I sort of accidentally bought my first Paphiopedilum. It says it is: Paph. (Hsinying Makuro x Hsinying Dragon) x (Hsinying Coronato x Hsinying Rook). I really love its patterned leaves!

I've been reading up on what it might want, but I had a few questions. First, my tap water is very hard. Should I use distilled water, at least some of the time? Different pages seem to say "distilled water is good" and "don't use distilled water".

Second, I see references to "low light"...should that be Phal type light, or even shadier?

Paphs like lower mineralised water I am told. Mine have a light level that is a teeny bit brighter than the phals.

i water them with RO water and fertiliser at every watering at 25ppm N

Nice haul! What are the 2 little ones in front of the Phal?

For the Paph, Phal type light is perfect, though they can take a bit less. You'll also want to water it a bit more often than Phals, I water mine when they are still a bit damp. Pure distilled water is fine, or you can mix it with a bit of your tap water. Do you have access to rain water? That's an ideal type, and easily obtainable if you have a collection system. With pure water you'll need to add a low amount of fertilizer like Bil does.

Thanks for the advice, bil and camille! I definitely want to build a rain catchment system, but it's having to wait in line behind some more urgent house maintenance. I'll try distilled with some fertilizer in the meantime.

The small fry in front of the Phal are a Vanda Pachara Delight and a teeny Ren. Kalsom. (If I buy small orchids, they don't count towards having "too many" plants, right? :biggrin: )

I just potted up my box of baby Den. samarai in little baskets with some moss around the roots and bark in the bottom; I hope some of them make it through. ^^;

You need not worry about the water for the Paph. And as far as light levels are concerned, the same as the phal, to slightly brighter is fine.

I'd agree with Ray on not worrying about the water. In fact, a lot of Paphs really like calcium, coming from environments where they grow on limestone. Some people who use pure water use limestone chips or dolomite lime as a top dressing. But plain ol' tap water would accomplish the same thing painlessly. According to the manager of the very large orchid collection at the Huntington Botanical Gardens, most of the Paphs get well water (range from 200 - 800 ppm TDS, heavy on the calcium carbonate), they use RO for the mounted rain forest plants, etc. (they have whatever resources they need, so don't need to compromise) So I would not worry about hard water on the Paphs.