Rick
Well-Known Member
From Tom Kalina
1st bloom dalessandroi
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So cute!
very nice!
trdyl
Well-Known Member
Nice!
1
17andgrowing
Guest
Lovely
Migrant13
Mature growth?
Very nice and a great example of this species. Any more blooms coming?
Nicely done, Rick. Can you give us some idea of your growing conditions for this species?
Rick
Well-Known Member
Thanks Tom
I'm using the wooden slat basket for this plant and its already run roots through a 4' and now 6" basket.
It gets watered every day with a low TDS water (hardness ~20ppm as CaCO3) with about 3-5ppm N from K-lite. The addition of 6 or so drops per gallon of lemon juice to the mix has improved leaf color in this plant and the beseae.
Humidity has been running 60-95% (even the fogger hasn't been keeping up this summer). Peak noon temps this summer have been as high as 90'ish in the GH, but mostly mid 80's.
What the purpose of the lemon juice? every watering or just one a while ? do you have this plant in full sun? partial shaded? or shaded ?
NYEric
Well-Known Member
Yay besseae!
Lovely Chinese Red with just enough bright orange in the
red to make it stand out. Yeah, about the lemon juice?
red to make it stand out. Yeah, about the lemon juice?
Thanks Rick. Are you using the lemon juice to reduce pH of the irrigation water?
Rick
Well-Known Member
I started a thread on the lemon juice (citric acid) about a month ago, and it has a couple of links that explain better than I can in a single post.
It also chelates metals, neutralizes the alkalinity buildup in the roots caused by nitrate induction, and signals /facilitates a lot of metabolic processes within the plant.
Note that a low dose of citric acid is common in fertilizers already (like standard MSU and K lite) primarily for chelation.
Lemon juice is not pure citric acid, so who knows what other positive side effects are happening.
I "fertigate" daily, and the rate of lemon juice is 6-10 drops per gallon.
Rick, I wanted someone else to ask it, but are you using "fresh" or purchased liquid from concentrate lemon juice?
Rick
Well-Known Member
I'm using that lemon juice concentrate that comes in the fake plastic lemon.
Hate to admit it, but I may do a little experiment with fresh squeezed!
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Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD
Do you think it is the acidity or is it something else in the lemon juice that does wonder to the plant , maybe vitamin C or other nutrients' factors?
Rick
Well-Known Member
I think a few others are also trying the fresh squeezed and a few are trying straight citric acid, so have at it:clap:
It really needs to be added in conjunction with alkalinity monitoring (pH is an OK surrogate).
Don't let your pH fall below 5.5 s.u.
Since I start out with RO water touched up with my well water, I start with very low alkalinity (<20ppm as CaCO3) so a little acid goes a long way. If you are adding it to your basic drinking water with alkalinity > 100ppm, and you add buffering components to your potting mix (or use Orchiata bark), then you would need more acid to counter act the total alkalinity of the system.
Rick
Well-Known Member
https://books.google.com/books?id=H...citrate and nitrate balance in plants&f=false
Hien Check out this link. All plants use citrate/malate to regulate pH at the roots for different reasons. So I'll let you pick your favorite reason from the many possibilities. My favorite is in the 4th paragraph.
O
orchidman77
Guest
Beautiful! And great information about the lemon juice. I think I'll start doing that!
David
David
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