paphiopedilum in s/h

[tmoney]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Phal. deliciosa is a warm to hot growing species. 15C / 60F is too low. Phal. taenialis expects to be very during the cool winter. I stongly suspect your problem is a cold and damp winter, not S/H.

I wouldn't subject any Phals to 15C at night on a regular basis, unless the next day is a lot warmer than 23C. There are a few deciduous ones from cool and dry winter areas. They won't be happy with cool and moist. Not many people grow those.

I especially would not subject Phals to these temperatures in S/H due to the evaporative cooling. I would guess most winter nights also have low humidity so the roots mass might get even colder. A heat mat or terrarium might help.

I'm not clear on how you water. After draining your reservoir, each time you water, do you completely fill the container to the rim, displacing all the air with water?

Weekly kelp is unnecessary and possibly harmful. Ray recommends monthly.

Unless you can find a way to make a warmer space in winter with a heat mat or enclosure, I would not try to grow Phals.

well, im not sure if you meant phals in general, or phals in s/h. all of our phals are thriving (including all the seedlings) in regular potting media and made it just fine through the winter. so i guess the evaporative cooling is more than i anticipated! yeah, gotta find a better heat situation for next winter at the least.

as far a watering, the res is drained each time any new fliud goes in. just cause i feel like it cant hurt and its not much water to fill it back up. i probly should cut back on the kelp a bit. but weekend is fertalizer in water (with kelp usually) and then tuedays usually is multiple flushes (with draining the res first). ive been really worried about salt buildup so i probly flush a lot more than needed (?)

[Ray]

I recommend filling the pot to the top at every watering, and just letting it drain, as that flushes & saturates the medium, and refreshes the reservoir chemistry in one step. As far as I'm concerned, you should NEVER just refill the reservoir.

Flushing never really removes all of the residues - even multiple flushes in a row - and your current technique flushes half as often as my recommended technique.

[estación seca]

What Ray said. S/H is a lot of work.

[tmoney]

i see! i guess i need to go back and study up some more, as i thought we were flushing enough. but for sure, i guess we can up the flush schedule!

i admittedly don't flush the phal that often, as when all of them were dying i theorized it was cause they were taying too wet. but hey, it can't hurt to flush them more as well....

back to the drawing board!

thanks for your input guys....

[Ray]

Originally Posted by tmoney

i see! i guess i need to go back and study up some more, as i thought we were flushing enough. but for sure, i guess we can up the flush schedule!

i admittedly don't flush the phal that often, as when all of them were dying i theorized it was cause they were taying too wet. but hey, it can't hurt to flush them more as well....

back to the drawing board!

thanks for your input guys....

Wet + cold = miserable phals with dying roots. That is especially true if the plants have a lot of bellina, venosa, and speciosa in them.

Excessive buildup can also get you there…

[tmoney]

Originally Posted by Ray

Wet + cold = miserable phals with dying roots. That is especially true if the plants have a lot of bellina, venosa, and speciosa in them.

Excessive buildup can also get you there…

i know i've read that about those particular species, probly from another of your posts! makes sense that our phals arent doing great then, and perhaps you remember the thread i had about one of them and crazy salt buildup. never did get that figured out and ended up pitching the container and that plant. oh well!

just to add a comparison shot from a couple days ago, here are the maudiei (sp?) vinicolors. the new leaves on both were exactly the same size when switching the one over to s/h. just starting to poke through. so clearly the s/h one is growing faster than in coco husk.

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by tmoney

just to add a comparison shot from a couple days ago, here are the maudiei (sp?) vinicolors. the new leaves on both were exactly the same size when switching the one over to s/h. just starting to poke through. so clearly the s/h one is growing faster than in coco husk.

Is this the photo from when you got the plants, or from a couple days ago? They seem to be the same size in this photo, and both starting a new leaf.

[tmoney]

Originally Posted by camille1585

Is this the photo from when you got the plants, or from a couple days ago? They seem to be the same size in this photo, and both starting a new leaf.

hey camille, this is from last weekend....yeah, admittedly not the best comparison photo. in real life you can clearly see the difference from when the leaves first emerged.

just got out the measuring tape, and the s/h leaf measures 21 mm from base to tip, the coco leaf is 8 mm. they appeared on the same day as a less than 1mm emerging leaf tip. the one was repotted the day after i noticed the leaves emerging (so approx 3 weeks ago).

[DirtyCoconuts]

heat mat? put then on a PC cabinet? reptile warmer?

lot of ways to add heat to a small area

[estación seca]

Most Phals aren't truly happy until they're much warmer than most people ever keep their houses.