Vanda Pakchong Blue in an apartment

[VandaFan]

Originally Posted by cirillonb

I collected enough leftover coffee to drench the pot. This was based on studies done by a scientist with the USDA Extensions service in Hawai'i on caffeine killing the snails.
Nick

Nick,
Thanks for sharing your environtal friendly organic method. I really appreciate your quick reply.
You did not have to dilute the coffee, did you?
Just a thought, when we feed the plant with coffee, will it stay awake and continue growing during the night?

[cirillonb]

straight coffee although mine has been reported to be strong. The biologist who wrote the article on this used 1% and 2% which is much stronger than coffee.

[dgenovese1]

Hey Nick....WOW! That is fantastic that you were able to bloom this guy so wonderfully in your conditions. That is a job worth a or even

Thanks for sharing your success with us!

[Sun rm.N.E.]

Hi Nick

Thanks for posting. I was waiting for your results. I think your success is valuable information for many of us who grow in the house and I doubt that you could easily find anything like this for Vandeceous orchids on the internet.

I have a suggestion if you are are interested in making your method more available for others. The post could be relabelled something that contains the words "Vanda, culture, pot". I only stumbled on it because I remembered your user name from the previous thread which I found only by accident. I hardly ever click on the Vanda section just scan the pictures in the gallery.

One day I googled "water culture" to find an old article to share with someone and Google search immediately brought up one of my own posts on someone else's thread on Orchidboard, titled "Phaleonopsis in water culture", where I explain my method.

After that I titled my posts something like " Oncidium Sharry Baby in water culture" or "Cattleya in water culture" , etc. in order to elicit other people's experience which has started coming in and inspired me to try new things. I also think people visit my gallery (7,000+ visits since I started posting on this board 4 months ago) mostly for this reason. Otherwise, there is nothing remarkable there, such as photography skills or the orchids I grow to attract this kind of interest.

[cirillonb]

"sun room..."
Let me think about your suggestion. Perhaps it would be better as a separate (?)article.
I'll let you know if I want to fill this in by PM later.
Nick

[Sun rm.N.E.]

Nick, thanks for taking time to consider this. I am certainly interested.

I agree.

My suggestions: separate article, in the
Advanced Discussion. I always visit that one even if I just have a few minutes, but I don't know the statistics. Or, if you rather post it in VAnda it could be made a sticky. Before and after pictures for quick credibility appeal, it always gets me to look. You could also paste the outcome image, actual size, instead of the thumbnail link.

[greenbean]

Thanks for giving an indoor grower hope! I would love to add some vandaceous orchids to my collection. An article would be wonderful.

[LindaG]

Green with envy - I managed to kill off an ascocendra gift in very little time - too cold last winter, too dry in the house etc. What is EpiWeb? I've never heard of it - it looks very interesting. Is it for rooting? Can we get it on Vancouver Island?

[cirillonb]

EpiWeb is a plastic recycled material made from plastic milk containers. It is made in Scandinavia and imported into the US by first rays orchids at firstrays.com. They are located in Pennsylvania. It is very light. Ray sells it as sheets for mounts and in 1 inch cubes. There is currently very limited experience with using it in orchid growing. It is chemically inert. It does not absorb water although some water is briefly trapped in the tiny holes in the material. When amassed in a pot it provides a very stable media to hold the roots. As I mentioned in the article, I wonder whether roots can penetrate it however, I have a Tolumnia mounted on a small sheet of the material and its fine roots have entered it.
Ray is very helpful and answers his e-mails readily. He may have a mention on Canadian shipping on his site or can respond to your request.
Nick