Phalaenopsis in water culture

[OrchidInEveryWindow]

A fragrant Blc George King 'serendipity' in algae water since 7/2/08.

I just ordered two live algae cultures from Ward's, Chlorella and Chlamydomonas, both unicellular green algae commonly used as laboratory cultures. Since these will be pure cultures, as well as KNOWN species, I will have a better experimental basis for comparison, as opposed to starting an algae culture from whatever floats in on the wind or in the tap water.

Also ordered Get-Back-Teria from Nutriflo Hydroponic Systems in Australia. It's a "friendly" bacteria culture which promotes growth in hydroponic systems. I'll post results when they become apparent.

Red flag!
A mosquito got into the house a few days ago, and just this morning, I found a wriggling larva in one of my orchid vases. Note to self: Add Mosquito Dunk to all water vases.

[OrchidInEveryWindow]

Correction. That was a Phal orchid world 'sweet fragrant', not a Blc George King 'serendipity'. Oops!

[Sun rm.N.E.]

Orchid

That is a beautiful Phal. Is it fragrant?

I am really interested in your experiments. Could you post the reference for the studies on the friendly bacteria cultures that you found useful?

One night last Summer I woke from a dream about mosquitos biting and found them doing just that. I eventually ended up finding larva in many of my containers. However just when I was about to order Bt cultures I was able to eliminate them just by changing the solutions and flushing several times in succession. I suppose since you only do partial solution change this would not work for you.
I never used the dunk before just the cultures of Bt that comes in a bottle. How much of the Mosquito Dunk would you use for this purpose? I was also wondering if whatever else is in the the Mosquito Dunk would interfere with algae growth? Another interesting experiment.

[OrchidInEveryWindow]

This is the Blc George King 'serendipity'. No bloom yet, but it looks pretty healthy in that little vase.

The Phal orchid world was SUPPOSED to be fragrant, but it isn't very. It may be possible that the plant was a little shocked during the transition from bark to water, since it was already in bloom at that time.

I bought some mosquito dunk at Home Depot this afternoon, and I'm dissolving it in some water to make a solution. Hard to say how much. I broke off about an eighth of the puck-shaped "dunk". Some of it seems to dissolve, but there are still big bits floating on top.
It's very specific for mosquito larvae, which eat the bacteria. It is not harmful to plants, animals or general water quality, but people shouldn't drink it.

[OrchidInEveryWindow]

References to beneficial bacteria can be found here:
Practical Hydroponics & Greenhouses Magazine

and a more scientific discussion...
Hydroponic plant culture systems - Patent 6314676

A more thorough search will undoubtedly reveal much more information on this topic.

This stuff is cutting edge water culture!

[Sun rm.N.E.]

Thank you for the references. I always wondered how they handle the problem of pathological organisms since many of them reproduce best with alternating wet/dry cycles.
Fortunately for us as long as the parts with systemic infection are kept under water constantly sometimes the disease can be kept from spreading to the new growth. I have an example of this on my gallery and included the thumbnail.
The picture shows that the plant had extensive rhizome rot as can be seen on the scraped area in the middle. The bottom of the first new growth was also affected by black rot and could not produce any roots. However, it put out another growth whose rhizome developed clear under water and produced all healthy roots. The plant was without roots for months and I just kept it to see what would happen. The following year all new growths were normal and they produced normal flowers.

[OrchidInEveryWindow]

My Brassia Datacosta 'Coos Bay' AM/AOS just started blooming the other day!



It went into the water vase on 7/9/08, well over a month and a half before the first blossom appeared. I think it likes "wet feet"!

[Sun rm.N.E.]

Orchid

That is a beautiful flower.

[OrchidInEveryWindow]

Thanks!

The other one (in the amber Murano vase) is in bloom too. I split them up from the "mother plant" just before I put them into water culture.

It's true that some orchids like water culture better than others. I had a miniature Microsaccus griffithii that finally kicked the bucket after languishing for almost two months in a shot glass. But the great majority seem to be loving their water roots!

[OrchidInEveryWindow]

Since I started growing orchids and other flowering plants in water culture, I have come to the conclusion that some plants love it and some hate it. A little more than half of my water culture specimens have "gone to orchid heaven", but the remaining ones are either "surviving" or "flourishing". The notable success stories are my phalaenopsis (growing vigorously), ruby leopard paphiopedilum, green elf dendrobium and Brassia datacosta.
This is the ruby leopard, in algae water for the last seven months. Just bloomed the other day.



It's actually a very low maintenance method of growing some orchids, as I just keep the water topped up and do a fresh algae change about twice a month or less. Plus they look better in fancy vases than in clay pots or S/H plastic pots, IMHO.