New Primeagra question/problem

[adriponic]

Hi all

I have been breeding carnivous plants from 1990 up to 2001, mainly sarracenias and nepenthes. I remember having better results when sarracenia seeds were started on 2mm
round hydroton pellets using RO water with average salinity
of 0.5 to 1.0 ppm salinity. In fact results on clays pellets were always far much better than on spagnum moss.

But one day a newly started plate showed white chalky
uniform deposits on the surface. I thought that my wife
had been using tap water rather than RO water, but was
disturbed by the fact that a few plates with leaf cuttings
of Saint Paulias I started 2 months earlier had but tap water and was not showing any deposits. I then realized that the clay pellets for the newly statred sarracenias
came from a fresh batch.

My wife decided that if the problem was the clay pellets
she had to demonstrate it. So she poured 1 liter of the
new batch of pellets in a plastic pale and then added 1 liter of RO water and stired all for a while an then
collected back some of the water and tested its salinity.
It came out to be 42 ppm. The test was repeated a few
more times and salinity of the collected water was always in the range 40 to 50 ppm. It was evident that this batch of clay contained soluble salts.

We then tried with a few other fresh bags of pellets. All
were absolutely clean until on the seventh bag we came
across salinity in the same 40/50 ppm range.

But do not discard the "contaminated" pellets. Let them
soak into 25% v/v kitchen vinegar for a few days and
rinse with RO water and you are done.

Hope I have been of assisstance

Cheers from Mauritius

[BettyE]

Most of my orchids are in LECA, potted in clear plastic containers. I take off labels of empty food containers, cut holes in the bottom,slits ( usually four ) on the sides, trim down top if I need to do so. I then put a few lava rocks in the bottom to make the container heavier. I then put the orchid in the pot, and fill with LECA. Most of my collection is now in LECA, I use well water & have not had any build-up of chemicals. When I re-pot, I do take the used LECA & heat it to 400 degrees in the Bar-b-q (gas ) for a hour. I then turn the gas off & let it cool for a day before re-using. Just my opinion, & what is working great for me/my orchids. BettyE

[greenpassion]

Not up to speed here I guess. What is the 'new' Primagra'? Does Ray sell it?

[Ray]

The "new" PrimeAgra has been the only thing available for about the last ten years. It replaced the original stuff when that factory went belly up.



Ray Barkalow
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