Growing techniques?

[JKeys]

Just wondering about what your phrag growing techniques are, and what media you use.

Two popular ones I've heard are growing in S/H or sitting in saucers of water.

[jeremyinsf]

I have about 25 and grow them a few different ways. Bark mixes, Sphag, and a few months ago started some on s/h.

All have their pros and cons, in my mind. And of course each needs to be treated differently.

I have some phrags that are in bark mix and they clearly have not been re-potted in quite some time. They arrived in good shape and now that I'm giving them love and attention (fert, seaweed, plenty of water, and petting/kisses) they are all doing amazingly well. So, I'm not going to disturb them for the time being. We will see how I feel in a year or so.

The saucer of water is a reservoir for between watering. You still use some other media for the actual plant and roots. It's just that the whole thing sits in about an inch or so of water in the saucer so it can 'suck up' more water between watering if it wants to.

Many phrags grow in areas that flood regularly, hence why they can take so much water.

My phrags in bark mix and sphag sit in saucers. The sphag ones though I don't have quite as much water in the saucer. Just a bit so I can see it's still wet.

[CPKidofAugusta]

The only 3 I have are 3 divisions of the same plant, a Mountain Maid that was created with a flavum variety besseae. Two I grow in sphag and the other I grow in cypress bark, and I can't entirely tell the difference in growth yet. I water with distilled water every 3 days or so and they stay sitting in roughly 1 inchr ofdistilled water, just like Jeremy, and i'm fairly certain, most other people will say. Every 3rd watering they get fertilized with urea free Growmore 20-10-20 at one half strength and every 3rd fertilizing they get, instead, Carter and Holmes Cal-mag 15-5-15, also at one-half the recomended strength.

One interesting side effect of this is that they produce drops from nightime perspiration nearly every night, some nights it is so much that it's practically dripping off the leaf. This happens with both the ones I have in sphagnum and the one in the cypress. pics included. I have yet to find out if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

[billc]

Originally Posted by CPKidofAugusta

One interesting side effect of this is that they produce drops from nightime perspiration nearly every night, some nights it is so much that it's practically dripping off the leaf. This happens with both the ones I have in sphagnum and the one in the cypress. pics included. I have yet to find out if this is a good thing or a bad thing.

My phrags do that when I have them outside in the summer. It's more humid in the northeast in summer, I've always thought of it as the plants are sweating. There are no ill effects that I can see.

Bill

[MrHappyRotter]

I love phrags! Don't tell the paphs, but phragmipediums are my favorite orchid genus. They're just plain easier to grow, grow faster and flower more often than the average paph.

Most phrags need to be kept in very moist or wet potting conditions. The exception is the long petalled species and their hybrids, which prefer similar moisture conditions as paphs. However, when it comes to the long petalled hybrids, they often have water loving parents in the background, so at the end of the day, you may want to experiment a bit and see if they can handle wet feet.

All phrags need clean, fresh water. Get a TDS meter, even a cheap one will help. Use rainwater, distilled water, RO water or other very pure water sources mixed with tap at a ratio of 3:1 or 4:1. For the water loving phrags, I've found it's better to leave water sitting in their saucers at all times. However, empty it out and refill/rewater with fresh water daily if possible, but no less than 2 - 3 times a week. While they like sitting in water, they won't handle stagnant conditions very well.

Feed very lightly. Your average orchid fertilizer will work, but you'll only need and want to use a fraction of the amount they recommend. Having a TDS meter will help significantly with determining the correct measurement. I feed with almost every watering, so I keep the TDS below 100 ppm, and try to never let it go above 200 ppm. This usually amounts to 1/4 - 1/8 the recommended amount on the label, but different brands vary in that respect. These are not exact numbers, though, and I don't treat it as a science.

At least once a month, flush the pots with pure water. This means running several volumes of water through the pot to remove any built up nutrients and salts that could harm the roots.

So, watering and water quality seem to be the biggest, most important factors in healthy growth. Otherwise, phrags are pretty adaptable to your growing conditions. They're fine with intermediate to warm growing conditions. Many of them are fine with medium-low light levels but will also grow in cattleya level light (once acclimated). They prefer elevated humidity levels, but don't fuss too much as long as it doesn't drop much below the 40% - 50% range. I've found that good airflow is very important, the same as it with paphs, you tend to get bacterial or fungal problems if there's not some air movement to keep things at bay.

In terms of my growing conditions...

I grow indoors, on shelves using fluorescent lights with some supplemental light from a window. My plants are anywhere from 1" to 8" from the bulbs. The majority of my plants are water lovers, so I keep water in the saucers at all times. I top the water off daily or as needed, and empty the saucers and refill with fresh water every 2nd or 3rd day. I use a variety of fertilizers in rotation, but feed very lightly at almost every watering. Ferts include miracle grow orchid fertilizer, seaweed extract, calcium nitrate cal-mag product, super thrive, aquarium plant fertilizer and I even mix in aquarium water from time to time. Once or twice a month, I flush the pots. My favorite potting mix is rockwool based, but I mix in lots of other goodies including a tiny bit of sphagnum moss, medium charcoal, aliflor (LECA), sponge rock and a small amount of a few other miscellaneous things like oyster shell, sand and eggshells.

[jeremyinsf]

Originally Posted by MrHappyRotter

I grow indoors, on shelves using fluorescent lights with some supplemental light from a window. My plants are anywhere from 1" to 8" from the bulbs.

Nice summary!

What kind of bulbs are you using? And how many hours are your lights on?

[MrHappyRotter]

Originally Posted by jeremyinsf

Nice summary!

What kind of bulbs are you using? And how many hours are your lights on?

Nothing too fancy. For most of my growing years, I used 4 foot T12 shoplights, mixture of warm, cool and grow bulbs.

Then a few years ago, the T8 fixtures and bulbs started to show up and were just as inexpensive as the T12s, so I switched to those. The local hardware stores don't carry the same variety of bulb types, so I use the 6500K bulbs exclusively. Each shelf has 4 bulbs, except I do have one shelf with only 2 bulbs where I grow smaller orchids and those with lower light requirements.

One thing to note, I have to hang the T8 lights further from the plants than I did the T12s. I didn't think there'd be that much difference in output, but there apparently is as evidenced by the excessive red pigment I was seeing in a lot of plants, and the very light leaf color I was seeing in others. Since moving the lights higher from the plants, more normal coloration has returned.

In the past, I've run the lights up to 16 hours a day, though this year I've been experimenting with dropping that to 12 - 14 hours. I haven't noticed any difference in growth or flowering. What I currently do is run the lights on a timer from 7 a.m. to 1 p.m., turn them off from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., then back on from 4 p.m. to around midnight.

[JKeys]

I know a lot of people have said things about RO or rainwater. Where is the best place to get pure water like this?

[MattWoelfsen]

Originally Posted by JKeys

I know a lot of people have said things about RO or rainwater. Where is the best place to get pure water like this?

Without stating the obvious regarding rain water...reverse osmosis water is available at water stations at grocery stores. Or you can purchase an RO filter from FirstRays.com--they have a "counter top" version that I think is around US$125. If you don't have a lot of plants to water, this RO filter can produce 50 gallons a day. I am not affiliated with First Rays, but Ray is a frequent poster, and member here.

[jeremyinsf]

Originally Posted by JKeys

I know a lot of people have said things about RO or rainwater. Where is the best place to get pure water like this?

Before you spend a bunch on a system, perhaps consider getting a TDS meter (amazon) to check what your existing water actually is. I have no idea what Boston's water supply is but it's possible you already have very clean water... I know NYC has amazing water, and I here in SF do too. My TDS is so low it would be a waste for me to get a system, when I can just get clean water from the tap. This is not, however, the case for most people so you want to check what you have and know what you are working with.