Giraffe paph

[Paphs-in-Colo]

I have two exceptionally tall plants: a Lawrenceanum and a Barbatum. They are about 3 years old, with several healthy growths, and properly-colored leaves. Both have a "stem" along which the leaves grow at intervals of about 1". Each division has 12-15 leaves; yes, the plants are over a foot tall with healthy leaves from top to bottom.

Little root buds form between each leaf, but none has ever grown, even when I tried moist moss wrapped around them.

I was considering "topping" one as experiment - cutting off the top half to try to root it. Then I saw Lawrenceanum is beginning to spike. I'm really going to need a tall stake for this one!

By the way, my Callosum (nearest related paph I have) grows normally in a bit shadier location, otherwise same routine, media, pots, etc. Weird, huh?
--Jaye

 

[Kavanaru]

pics?

 

[likespaphs]

i may be mistaken, but it's not terribly unusual for these plants to do that.
(also, since they are species, the species names should be lower case {i.e. "lawrenceanum"}).
there was a thread recently by Hardy about topping some of his Maudiae-type Paphs. it may have some helpful info
http://www.slippertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=17840

 

[goldenrose]

Sounds like one healthy plant we'd like to see!

 

[Paphs-in-Colo]

Thank you!!

I have been looking for exactly this information for a long time. In fact, I'd been reading old messages here and just didn't run across that one.

I'm going to try it on my lawrenceanum (not Lawrenceanum - I truly did know that) after it blooms. I'll post my results, whether or not I'm successful.
--Jaye

 

[Eric Muehlbauer]

That is not an unusual growth pattern for these types of paphs.

 

[John M]

'Would still like to see pics, please.

 

[Paphs-in-Colo]

I took pictures. 'Convenient' digital camera will require further adjustments, but I promise I'll post them.

 

[Paphs-in-Colo]

my giraffes

Here they are. Barbatum is on the left and lawrenceanum on the right. See the brown root nubs all up and and down the stems? They've grown lots the past two years, and I love the leaves...but it will be a challenge to stake the upcoming bloom.

I plan to try hardy's method of stem cuttings (thanks again for that link, Brian!), and I'll document my results.

Now for a game. Find the leftmost fan of lawrenceanum at the top center of this picture. Follow it down to where it disappears beneath the large leaf that's roughly the center of the image. Look to the immediate right - it's the same stem. Heh! The growth was leaning, then I staked it, so it executed a fancy "s" curve there.
Jaye

 

[Kavanaru]

That's the new intergeneric Vandhiopedilum!

 

[goldenrose]

Gez ... can't say that I've seen anything like that!

That's the new intergeneric Vandhiopedilum!

:clap: :rollhappy: or a Paphanda!

 

[L I Jane]

HOLY SMOKES-I've never seen anything like that!

 

[hardy]

WOW!!!

 

[hardy]

Hi Jaye, would you mind sharing the growing conditions of the plant? With that shape the plants may become challenging to manage but perhaps can help with mass propagating the maudiae types. As your photo shows there're lots of single nodes, each with a sizable chunk of stem and healthy leaf and roots.... I'm imagining if those were Maudiae 'The Queen' or Clair de Lune 'Edgard van Belle'....

Btw your plants remind me of vanilla vines

I tried topping recently deflasked maudiae seedlings.

If these small pieces can make it, I think single node cuttings obtained from your paph vines will probably be fine!

 

[Shiva]

Maybe you should grow them on plaques with sphagnum moss!

 

[Paphs-in-Colo]

Hardy, their culture is less than ideal, but perhaps something here is the secret to growing long "vines" to clone other, more valuable paphs.

They grow indoors. It's very dry here - 30-40% humidity is the highest I can manage by grouping plants together. Air movement is very good (ceiling fan, especially in summer). They are in a mix about 50% Hydroton and 50% large fir + coconut husk chunks + a few huge charcoal chunks, repotted annually. I use tall, clear plastic drinking cups with vertical ventilation slots. Roots often dry completely between watering (I know, I know...), but they're healthy and seek the bottom of the cup. That prevents me from potting much deeper, by the way.

Fertilizer is irregular, monthly at most, cheap Peters 20-20-20 with micronutrients applied 1/3 strength. Our tap water is quite pure, so I use that and let roots soak a few minutes about once a week. Temps are ~70/80 (low/hi) in summer, 55/70 in winter. Lighting must be okay, judging from the leaves. It's bright indirect light for 2-3 hours in the morning (winter) or afternoon (summer), perhaps 30 minutes of dappled sunlight in there. It's seasonal light (no lamps or lights anywhere nearby) - long summer days and short winter days. Oh, I'm at high altitude, higher than Denver, so sun is intense, and our windows uv-filter coated. Yes, everything blooms anyway.

I earlier said that callosum in the same growing area grew normally. I should amend that. It's only half as tall, but it also has about 3 root nodes between each leaf, sometimes hidden, and about half as much gap between each leaf as these other two.

My strap-leafed hybrids have not done this. I've looked closely between leaves and see no root buds. They get more light, live in fir+chc (no Hydroton), and are in larger, opaque plastic pots. Otherwise culture is the same.

Some growths on lawrenceanum and bartatum have a bare stem (no leaves, no visible root buds) for a finger-length or more at the bottom. I'm curious what those "trunks" would do if all growth above were removed.

Yes, your results are encouraging! I might wait for spring growth to begin my Frankenstein experiments. With your method of single node cuttings, I could end up with 15-25 of each paph, and I don't know what I'd do with that many!

By the way, I like your clever, impossible-to-lose plant labels.
--Jaye

 

[Paphs-in-Colo]

Shiva, I had considered repotting horizontally into a long bread basket, treating the stem as a rhizome and seeing if I could grow a long row of plants this way. But I will try Hardy's proven method. If the resulting (way too many) plants still grow giraffe-style, I may give my idea a try later.

 

[hardy]

Jaye, thanks so much for your detailed info!
The UV screening of the natural light may be a key factor here, just my wild guess. Because some plant species regulate internode length by the ratio of light wavelengths they get. If I remember correctly, more blue means shorter internode, while more far-red means longer ones. Perhaps some of the blue light gets filtered out by the UV screen too? I've read blue-colored screen is used to filter out the red wavelengths for greenhouse mums so that they grow more compact.

Btw, the only "single node cutting" that I tried was one piece with two well developed roots, and a lateral bud already swollen and beginning to grow. I haven't tried taking the nodal cutting with a dormant lateral bud or without roots. One doesn't know until one tries At least that's one proven method for vanilla propagation. It continues to amaze me how some of the terrestrial orchids are so similar! Same in design, while the difference is in proportions....

Again, thanks!

 

[Paphs-in-Colo]

An update on my (used to be) giraffe paphs...

I got tired of my paph "vines" and took the scissors to them in March. CHOP! <gulp>

I cut the stems a few inches above the top of the pot. For the decapitated tops, I stripped off all but the topmost leaves, then potted in my normal bark mix (long old stem held it in place , then sealed them in a zip lock in a warm spot. 3 months later, the topmost 3-5 root nodes have all become niiiice fat new roots, 1-3" long so far. Now I have two normal-looking plants in normal-height pots

I also left the original roots, pots, and remaining old stems intact, watered well once, and bagged them in a zip-lock, just to see what would happen. <3 months later> I have 1/4" growths along the old stems. Must be new plants; they aren't roots. They look like little keikis on a dendrobium. I'll let them grow and see what develops. If I had cut the stems all the way down to the top of the pots, I'd have something normal-looking. These are aerial growths on old stems.

(I didn't try individual nodes "Hardy style" because I just didn't want that many plants. Given the results of my no-sweat experiment, I do think each root node pair would have grown roots and a new top. Prolific paphs!)
--Jaye

 

[Shiva]

Do you live near a nuclear plant? Have you checked if they glow at night?