Orchids on a Wabi Kusa Wall

[DirtyCoconuts]

You are correct. It was probably more like 12 days but the list is long

First, two were cuttings from my plants established outdoors! So dumb. I neither properly let them dry nor acclimate them. Super dumb

Two were for higher elevation cloud forests bc I was being hasty and wanted to achieve outside of my abilities I figured that the difference in day/night of 12 degrees would be sufficient if they were cool enough. Wrong.

The fifth was a bit of a fluke and I will take the L but it might have been sickly. I placed five different pleuros on a bark branch and four immediately took off and rooted and the fifth just turned to mush. I dunno on that one. It was a really tiny plant and they have such small margin for error


Like i said. This was a cautionary tale lol. Learn from my mistakes so you don’t have to make them, eh?


I also have a stupid habit of letting my curiosity and tinkering impulses get involved when I am planting....then I start asking what if I do this? And it leads in all sorts of different directions. Some awesome some dead plants

[Tonio]

I started making the wall.
It is 5 mm black acrylic with some 2 cm long 8 mm wide pieces glued on top of it to keep the pads in place.


for the pads I used coarse filter foam, because I had it laying around and is it black. I also have some floor pads that are very similar to epiweb but those are bright red. On top of it I glued the hygrolon. If my measurements are correct it should be a few cm in the water. The uncovered part will act ass a black background for the aquarium part.


today also the LED's arrived, among some other supplies so I can continue the build tomorrow.

[Ray]

I like it!

Way back when, I did something similar, but I had an overflow to a hidden tank that contained a submersible pump, rather than an aquarium and reliance on wicking.

[Mr.Fakename]

This looks like a promising thread!

[harpspiel]

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

You are correct. It was probably more like 12 days but the list is long

First, two were cuttings from my plants established outdoors! So dumb. I neither properly let them dry nor acclimate them. Super dumb

Two were for higher elevation cloud forests bc I was being hasty and wanted to achieve outside of my abilities I figured that the difference in day/night of 12 degrees would be sufficient if they were cool enough. Wrong.

The fifth was a bit of a fluke and I will take the L but it might have been sickly. I placed five different pleuros on a bark branch and four immediately took off and rooted and the fifth just turned to mush. I dunno on that one. It was a really tiny plant and they have such small margin for error


Like i said. This was a cautionary tale lol. Learn from my mistakes so you don’t have to make them, eh?


I also have a stupid habit of letting my curiosity and tinkering impulses get involved when I am planting....then I start asking what if I do this? And it leads in all sorts of different directions. Some awesome some dead plants

It's so easy to get swept up in the excitement of a new build, but this is why when I'm creating any multi-plant arrangement, I leave the orchids on their original mounts and just tie them in place for a month or two. It lets me see how they like the placement and remove them easily if they're taking a nosedive. And if I end up needing to adjust their position slightly due to size or growth habit or I find the spot is a little too wet or dry, I can do that without disturbing their roots.

I just recenty ordered a Lepanthes telipogoniflora from The Tarzane Group (proven healthy plants), had the *perfect* spot picked out for it, I even removed another pleurothallid from the exact spot because it was thriving and I knew it would get a little too big. The plant arrived with a number of buds, and since I was so certain of placement I took it off its mount and tied it in place, and it crashed. Within two days blasted all the buds, lost about half its leaves. I panicked, put it back on the mount and into a grow bin that stays around 95% humidity and under 80F. Still not sure why it crashed, maybe just sulking from shipping, but once it has recovered I'll try it in the same spot again and just leave it on the mount for a while this time.

[Tonio]

not giving in to the urge to buy to many plants once you start shopping is always difficult, but once you have killed enough you learn sooner or later to restrain yourself a bit. Mistakes and bad luck can always happen of course and cost you plants.

anyway the LED's (196x Bridgelux thrive 5700K) can give at max power 177 umol/s. it feels a bit to much maybe, i was thinking of driving them on a lower power. What do you think?

there is no substantial natural light.

[harpspiel]

Originally Posted by Tonio

anyway the LED's (196x Bridgelux thrive 5700K) can give at max power 177 umol/s. it feels a bit to much maybe, i was thinking of driving them on a lower power. What do you think?

there is no substantial natural light.

Here’s a handy guide. Pleurothallids, which is most of what will do well for you, are on the low end - mostly 50-100 PAR. Dendrobium cuthbertsonii (which might do well) would probably like up to 175. Light drops off steeply the farther you get from the source, so I would just say mount it a few inches above the wall. You’re gonna need as much light as you can get in order for some to penetrate the water.

Oh, Lepanthopsis astrophora can take more light than people think. I had it up near my light source, probably around 175 PAR, and the leaves all went purple but it bloomed like crazy.

[Tonio]

Originally Posted by harpspiel

Here’s a handy guide. Pleurothallids, which is most of what will do well for you, are on the low end - mostly 50-100 PAR. Dendrobium cuthbertsonii (which might do well) would probably like up to 175. Light drops off steeply the farther you get from the source, so I would just say mount it a few inches above the wall. You’re gonna need as much light as you can get in order for some to penetrate the water.

Oh, Lepanthopsis astrophora can take more light than people think. I had it up near my light source, probably around 175 PAR, and the leaves all went purple but it bloomed like crazy.

Thank you, that link is very helpfull!
under water only some very low light plants will be used, nothing to worry about light wise. with all the ferns orchids and other plants shading it, it will be dark for sure.

[SADE2020]

I love this project! Looking forward to see the evolution. Good luck and have fun.

[Tonio]

its a bit of a mess with the wet sand sticking to everything. But this is how it looks now:



next is water.
I use de-ionized water with some minerals added back. My mixture contains: Calcium acetate, Potassium bicarbonate and Magnesium sulfate.
My normal dosage gives:

K 12,5 ppm
Mg 3.3 ppm
Ca 7.6 ppm
S 4.3 ppm
TDS 74 ppm (calculated)

I dont think it would cause any problem for the orchids, do you?