Albino maudiae type -- From deflasked seedling to first bloom

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hardy

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Hi, I have not posted for a looong time. :rolleyes:

About three years ago I bought my first paph flask. I had no experience at all
with seedlings just out of flask. Time really flies, few days ago the very first
flower opened. I've been quite lucky with my first flasks, thought I'll share
my experience with an albino maudiae type hybrid.


I bought the flask in a show in Dec 2007. The parentage is Alma Gevaert
'Green Dome' SM/TPS X Hsinying Citron 'Ching Hua Giant' GM/TPS (now
registered as Hilo Citron). There were a number of Hsinying Citron siblings on
show and they were stunning. The flask was expensive at US$100 but I just
had to buy it on impulse.

I searched the internet for deflasking techniques and was tempted to try the
agar-on method described on ladyslipper.com. But since I was going to grow
them under lamps, I decided to clean and separate the seedlings to give
them more space and light. The plants spent the first year under lamps, and
the first bloom opens 2 yrs and 9 months out of flask. Here's some pics and
growing details:



*****First 4 months*****
- Compot, with a mix of perlite and sphagnum loosely placed around the
roots, with a topping of perlite to prevent algae
- Grown in a toppled fish tank (40-cm size) with cling wrap cover to give
extra humidity
- Light: 26 W (2 X 13W compact fluorescent tubes, Philips, 8500K)
- Temp: 18-25 centigrade (air conditioned room-cold weather outside)
- Watering once in about 2 weeks with fertilizer solution at 1/10
recommended strength; I kept the medium between quite wet (roughly
halway to saturation) and almost dry
- Occasional leaching

The fish-tank environment for the compots:
5.JPG


The compots at the end of the 4 months:
1.JPG


2.JPG




*****next 9 month*****
- Still in compots
- Lighting: 27W Philips compact fluorescent lamps (8500K), roughly double
light intensity than in fish tank
- Temp: 25-28 centigrade (air-conditioned room, warm weather outside)
- Humidity not measured, but I guess around 60%
- Watering with fertilizer at 1/6 strength when the medium is almost dry until quite wet
- Leaching after 3 fertigations

This is how the plants looked a year out of flask (upper left corner; three
seedlings were big enough to fill 4-inch pots):
6.JPG




*****13th months onwards*****
- Grown in a rain shelter, under corrugated clear plastic and 2 layers of 30% shadecloth
- In clay orchid pots, with bird nest fern root medium (Asplenium nidus;
boiled, washed, and separated into small chunks), loosely wrapped around
the roots
- Temperature:
6 months of rainy season: around 28/22 centigrade day/night temp
6 months of dry season: around 28/13-18 centigrade day/night temp
- Daily watering with very dilute fertilizer (1/10 strength), the medium
alternates from wet to just moist, but never soggy for long period due to
the very open nature of the material, and there's some leaching at every
watering too.

This is how the plants look about 2 years out of flask:
2010-23-21-32-32-5-IMG_6085.JPG


At 2 years, the plants were growing vigorously, but no flowering yet.
One of the parents is a giant albino and I guess it may be a polyploid plant.

At 2 years and 9 months: (at the front right corner of bench)
3.jpg


And finally the first bloom a few days ago: Paph. Hilo Citron 'Hardy #1'
4.jpg


Very pretty shape and color, but at 11-cm natural spread, it is smaller than
expected considering its parents. Hope it'll get bigger and better at the next
flowering.

There are a couple more plants showing bud, the rest should follow soon.

It was an impulse buying, and the deflasking involved lots of worrying at the
beginning, but luckily I made the decision to buy. In total there were 27
seedlings and I may just be lucky that I lost only one to rot. Growing
conditions differ, but hopefully the experience I just shared would be useful
esp. for those new to delasking paph seedlings.

Please let me know what you think. Thanks. :)
 
Congrats on growing from Flask to Bloom. Thanks for the rundown on how your culture has changed as you have gone from flask to compot to seedling to adult. Good story that shows the dedication required. Nice flower as well. Love the wide dorsal.

Darin
 
You're obviously very good at growing these. Congrats. Unfortunately, for me, when it comes to paph slippers, they're more like sleepers. :)
 
:clap::clap: EXCELLENT JOB!!! :drool::drool:
I, too, have seen Hilo Citron at a show, it was huge & truly spectacular & I wanted one but I'm not a maudiae type! I don't think $100 was expensive, in fact could be on the reasonable side considering the quality you're getting. I'm certain that first bloom will improve as the plant matures & who knows there may be a 'giant' among them yet to be found!
 
Fantastic post. Thanks for the information. Very interesting and useful for me. Really nice flower as well.

So you have no air movement in the fish tank?

David
 
Thanks for all the information. It's always useful to find out how someone grows their plants. They look incredibly healthy and vigorous. You seem to have done everything to their liking. Congratulations!
 
After looking at your photos and reading your techniques, I find it hard to believe you haven't been growing plants from flask to blooming size for many many years! First one? Very impressive -- congratulations!
 
Thank you all for the encouragement :), glad to share the information here.

:clap::clap: EXCELLENT JOB!!! :drool::drool:
I, too, have seen Hilo Citron at a show, it was huge & truly spectacular & I wanted one but I'm not a maudiae type! I don't think $100 was expensive, in fact could be on the reasonable side considering the quality you're getting. I'm certain that first bloom will improve as the plant matures & who knows there may be a 'giant' among them yet to be found!

Thank youuu :) Yes, I've seen how big some of the albino maudiaes can get!!
Looking forward to some really big ones. Also, some Hsinying Citron has light
yellowish green color, very ghostly-looking, I really hope this color will show
up in some of the plants too.

Fantastic post. Thanks for the information. Very interesting and useful for me. Really nice flower as well.

So you have no air movement in the fish tank?

David

Hi, yes, you're right, the air was almost stagnant because I only left a tiny
opening at one corner. Personally I prefer to keep the seedling roots on the
moist side, but I was careful not to keep the leaves wet for extended
periods. By the way, I've tried to grow some flasklings right into sopping wet
live sphagnum and they grew quite well too, but that's another story
altogether. Here's a teaser: paph thaianum flaskling in live sphagnum ;)
21.jpg

I'll find the time to write a post about that.

After looking at your photos and reading your techniques, I find it hard to believe you haven't been growing plants from flask to blooming size for many many years! First one? Very impressive -- congratulations!

Yes, first I bought two flasks, then the following year I bought four more.
Been very lucky that I've had minimal losses. The rest didn't grow as well as
the Hilo Citron flask, but when it comes to flasklings I'm happy as long as
they survive. :)
 
Thank you guys for your compliments and encouragement ^^

WOW... Thanks for sharing... :) Were they grown in the aquarium while you were studying in Hong Kong..? I remember you bought a flask of sanderianum too.. How are they doing now..?


Hi Paphioboy, yes, I grew it in my dorm room in Taiwan. I bought not just
one, but two flasks of sanderianum a year apart, same parents but reversed
cross. Here is a repost of the same pic and some pics of sanderianum and
others:


The sanderianum plants from the 2 flasks are on the front left corner of the
bench. Btw, three quarter of this bench is occupied by plants from just 4
flasks alone! It is quite scary how small seedlings can occupy so much space
over time. At the back right corner are callosum f. vinicolor plants almost 2
years from flask.
3.jpg




Here's a closer look of the sanderianums. At almost 2 years and 3 years from
flask, there are a few husky plants, most are still quite small and in compots
and no large plant yet. They have been growing slow and steady in birdnest
fern for 8 months now. I don't mind waiting, as long as they're alive I'm
happy. :p
23.JPG




Older pics of the seedlings:

Grown in live sphagnum. 20 months (above) and 8 months from flask (below).
Young sanderianum plants seem to love live sphagnum, which is also real
good stuff for salvaging the tiny and rootless ones.
22.jpg




In semi-hydro in orchid stones (pumice-like stuff, but sinks in water). The
three compots just in front of the maudiae-type was a year from flask, and
grown directly in semi-hydro from the very beginning. The three at the left
were 2 years from flask, having spent the first year in sphagnum moss and
spent the second year in semi-hydro. (The maudiae type compots were
callosum f. vinicolor in sphagnum medium, a year from flask)
24.JPG

The yellowing and pitting on some leaves were due to red spider mite
infestation. I find semi-hydro using 1/6 recommended strength Hyponex
solution to be excellent for sanderianum just from flask and the losses were
minimal.


So the 6 flasks were Hilo Citron, callosum f. vinicolor, 2 sanderianum and 2
thaianum. Hilo Citron grew the fastest and thaianum the slowest. I've tried
to pack as much info as I can; not very systematic I know but you get the
idea. ^^

Currently I'm out of space to buy more, but I'm looking forward to the time
when my growing space can expand further to accommodate new flaskslings. :D
 
Well done again!!!

Could you please tell me how do u keep the moss alive and multiply? Did you find it outside or from a store? Generally, how did you disinfected it without killing it? Any tips? TY
 
Hi,

Chilean sphagnum moss sometimes regenerates itself in clear orchid pots. I
propagate a small amount of the mosses myself, since it's not easy or even
legal get live sphagnum from nature in Taiwan. I simply used some dead
sphagnum moss as the growing medium, and propagate by cutting the tops
of the live moss onto new beds of dead sphagnum. I dunk the pots into a
shallow layer of peat and water. Frequent watering from the top with good
quality water is the key to keep the moss alive, while drenching with even
1/10 strength Hyponex is lethal to the moss under my conditions.

I harvest them for use by cutting the top and leaving about 1 cm of bottom
stumps, which will sprout new heads of sphagnum also. I have some photos
of the culture of live sphagnum and its use for paphs. I'll arrange the pics
into a post in the future.

25.jpg


26.jpg


Cheers!
 
Excellent post...I love growing out paph flasks too. Especially liked the photos on sphagum culture.

Thanks for sharing and congratulations on your successful growing.
 

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