Phalaenopsis gigantea - long term growing project

[DBoro9]

Originally Posted by Mr.Fakename

Here are mine:

Grown under LEDs, Cattleya light levels. After they're done with their current leaves, I'll put them even closer to the light bulb.
They get a bit of natural spring light during the afternoon; but direct summer sun is not possible under my conditions, I don't want to end with a bunch of roasted salads.

Temperatures are hard to bear for humans, but plants love the heat.
They usually see 30-40°C during summer days, 15-25°C at night. Winter days 18-25°C, nights 18-22°C.

The main issue is RH, 20-30% in winter, under 10% day and close to 90% night during summer.

Gigantea #1 (longest leaf 23cm) is potted in big bark, allowing for very frequent and thorough watering, keeping the moisture relatively even inside the pot.
Gigantea #2 (longest leaf 12cm) is in tightly packed Sphagnum, and will go in S/H soon.

I water them with tap water and RainMix (MSU for Americans); I also regularly swap fertiliser for a bunch of organic products like aloe vera extract or fish emulsion.
I strongly believe in the power of beneficial microorganisms, and use fungi and bacteria monthly.

Are the 2 plants the same age? Have you noticed a difference in the plants based on the pitting mix you’re using?

[Mr.Fakename]

Originally Posted by DBoro9

Are the 2 plants the same age? Have you noticed a difference in the plants based on the pitting mix you’re using?

They're not the same age, the alba was younger by a solid year or 2.
It unfortunately died when I moved; I didn't have time to really compare.

My remaining gig has been with my parents since the beginning of the year, as I moved (again) and couldn't accommodate such a big plant.

It's been watered only occasionally, not fed once, outside in the elements, and has now decided to grow a new leaf while night temps are 8-10°C. Pretty sure I couldn't kill it if I tried at this point.

I have bought a grow tent, it'll join other plants and benefit from much better conditions shortly, and will hopefully become a nice mature plant in the coming years.


Edit: leaves are dirty and old ones are fading to feed new growth, but it's not doing too bad

[tmoney]

yo mr. fakename! you’re back! how are those little gigantea alba seedlings you got doing? the one we kept from your little group is still doing well, but those things have a few years before flowering i think, hahaha....

[neophyte]

Wow, they certainly live up to their name; it will definitely be interesting to follow these plants!

Originally Posted by camille1585

Once it recovered from that, it was attacked by a mysterious pest/disease that left awful pitting on the leaves and caused them to shed prematurely.

Did you ever find out what was causing that pitting? I remember you posted about that a while ago and don't exactly recall what the consensus was.

[camille1585]

Nice looking plants Mr.Fakename! Your large one certainly looks in better condition than mine. I'm surprised by how round your leaves are, while mine are long and narrow. Could be due to the amount of light it gets, I might be pushing it in terms of hours of direct sunlight. Though the leaf color (a light yellow green) is about where they say it's supposed to be at...

Originally Posted by neophyte

d you ever find out what was causing that pitting? I remember you posted about that a while ago and don't exactly recall what the consensus was.

No, I didn't.
Last summer I wiped down all the leaves (front and back) with rubbing alcohol, and so far I'm not seeing the pitting develop on the newer leaf, but it would often spread primarily late spring to summer so it's to early to say that I'm out of the woods. My guess at the moment is that it was some sort of microscopic mite. I did visually inspect and wiped the leaves with a rubbing alcohol soaked tissue, but never saw the tell tale signs of mites.

IF the pitting reappears in the coming months, then I'm going back to the original hypothesis that it's some sort of fungal infection.

[Mr.Fakename]

Originally Posted by camille1585

I'm surprised by how round your leaves are, while mine are long and narrow. Could be due to the amount of light it gets, I might be pushing it in terms of hours of direct sunlight. Though the leaf color (a light yellow green) is about where they say it's supposed to be at...

I don't remember the exact location/leaf shape relation, so don't consider this 100% accurate; but I believe the rounder trait comes from Sabah and Sarawak, and narrow leaves from East Kalimantan.

I'll ask the local nursery's Phal aficionado next time, he's very much into gigantea

[camille1585]

Time for an update on my plant.

My gigantea has been in a 9cm pot since buying it, and has never been properly repotted since they don't like it much. I had simply picked out as much of the old media as possible and replaced it with leca. As it's approaching blooming size, I thought it would be good to get it into a larger pot sooner rather than later. And the old pot was starting to get deformed from the pressure of all the roots inside.

My idea was to use a double pot technique that an Italian vendor uses on many plants, which consists in potting in a net pot and setting it in a slightly larger standard transparent pot. The roots can then grow out of the net pot and benefit from the more humid environment created by the second outer pot. The challenge however was that net pots large enough for a gigantea (12cm+ diameter) have a mesh which is too large for most leca balls. The solution was to 3D print a custom made pot. I explained to my boyfriend what I wanted and he designed and printed the perfect net pot for me.





I discovered when repotting that it was perhaps slightly on the small side since I had trouble getting fresh leca in on all sides, but this already took 14 hours to print, and reprinting a larger one would cost even more time...

Here is my Phal in its new home, and I hope that if it ever outgrows it I can simply set the entire thing in an even larger net pot. The advantage of the leca is that it dries out fast and I can give it the huge amounts of water (and food) that it needs.

[katsucats]

I picked up a gigantea recently from Big Leaf / Peter Lin. Maybe I'm being stubborn and it's a bad idea, but I had decided that I would grow all my Phals the same way, in a two-pot semi-hydro, with a net pot on the inside and a deeper plastic clear pot on the outside. It's deeper so that even when the water dries below the net pot, it still forms a humidity zone between the reservoir and medium, since the net pot hangs perfectly over the outer pot.

The general advice seems to be that gigantea doesn't like too much water, but... we'll see.

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by katsucats

I picked up a gigantea recently from Big Leaf / Peter Lin. Maybe I'm being stubborn and it's a bad idea, but I had decided that I would grow all my Phals the same way, in a two-pot semi-hydro, with a net pot on the inside and a deeper plastic clear pot on the outside. It's deeper so that even when the water dries below the net pot, it still forms a humidity zone between the reservoir and medium, since the net pot hangs perfectly over the outer pot.

The general advice seems to be that gigantea doesn't like too much water, but... we'll see.

What I understand is that while they don't like too much water in the sense that they stay wet, they do like having lots of water in terms of frequency of wet/dry cycles. (so more watering because they dry out faster). This would make sense as it does come closer to what they experience on a mount, which is generally their preferred cultivation method.

So far, this has matched my experience. Once I switched to leca (standard culture and not s/h) I was watering much more frequently than when it was in bark, and I saw a lot of root growth, along with 2 new leaves in one growing season, which I had never seen until now.

Is that really s/h you are doing if the reservoir level is under the net pot? Do you have some photos of the potting set up? I'm not sure I'm visualizing it correctly from your description.

[Shadeflower]

Originally Posted by camille1585

Is that really s/h you are doing if the reservoir level is under the net pot? Do you have some photos of the potting set up? I'm not sure I'm visualizing it correctly from your description.

a small gap at the bottom, the pot gets filled to submerge the net pot slightly, then as the water level drops it drops below the net pot, letting the net pot dry out but creating a humid environment.

I think Camille's idea is fine as phals really don't like to dry out so having that gap to let the net pot dry out more than what Camille has shown is not beneficial imo but it would work.

Great pot Camille, thx for sharing that it took 14 hours to print it lol. I bet it cost a couple of euros in plastic too, I've been wondering if a 3D printer will help me with anything but considering how expensive the material for printing is I worked out it's still cheaper to just find everything yourself (if you can find the right size that is)