Basket culture update 1 year 8 months later

[Rick]

Ok here's an update and some interesting info after running the basket culture for 1 and 3/4 years.

Some of these plants are from the original start in December 2010/January 2011.

This kolo was one of the first. A virtually rootless 6" seedling, and put it into a 4" basket. Now it has almost a 24" span, 2 new growths, and roots all over. Now two other bigger kolos went into 8 inch baskets and have gone nowhere in comparison. I recently downgraded them into 4 and 6" baskets with a higher percentage of limestone gravel in the mix.

 

[Rick]

This henryanum is also one of the originals and has done great. This is its second blooming since going into the basket.

I put two pieces of this badly abused roth (which I've had since 2002) into 6" baskets in Jan 2011. This piece did great. Leaf span is twice what it ever did, several new growths, roots poking out all over. The other piece went nowhere, and I recently downgraded it to a 4"basket. 2 of 3 roth seedlings that went into 4 " baskets are doing good too.

 

[Rick]

Phrag wallisii is also one of the originals (maybe by 3/2011). Also has stunningly good. Also getting good results with lindenii in a 4" basket, besseae in a 6" basket, and a kovachii in a 6" basket. My extaminodium started going downhill in its 6" basket after blooming and replanted in a 4" with much more rock.

Here's some pearcie starts I put in a 4" basket.

Regardless of how I've set them up in the past, I've never been able to get divisions of pearcei to start before K-lite. But that's a different part of the equation.

 

[Rick]

This big stonei doing great. Two others in 8" baskets are holding their own, but not quite as good. I dumped most of the old moss and replaced with large gravel.

This villosum has been in the basket maybe one year now, but roots coming out all 4 sides and the bottom.

 

[Stone]

So far so good! Whats that white **** on the bottom? You may find that you can decrease your feeding to (almost) 0 as the mix in the baskets humifies to dust or, you can give it a good high pressure hose out at the end of the season. I always find it gets things going again after I do it.
But good growing Rick
I have a gratrix in a basket approaching those sizes.

 

[Rick]

Here's a barbata to cover another subgenera. This one has done great as have most of the barbata types. But I do have some stall or show stress, and find that sometimes the roots are poor. So I pull out the old moss and increase the percentage of gravel when I do so.

This may be the clincher.

I checked water chemistry of water I was able to squeeze out of old (1+ year) and new (2 day) moss. And for comparison I have the chemistry of my basic irrigation water.

Irrigation water pH = 7.43, conductivity = 65, hardness = 28, alkalinity = 32
New moss pH = 5.68, conductivity = 299, hardness = 19.2, alkalinity = 22
old moss pH = 7.33, conductivity = 1800!!, hardness = 419!!, alkalinity = 190

With a hardness of 400 and a conductivity of 1800 there must be additional accumulation of potassium and sodium salts to get the conductivity that high. My full strength well water has a hardness of around 400 with a conductivity of 650 to 800. Most of the TDS is from calcium sulfate with the balance calcium and magnesium carbonates. Only 3 mg/L of sodium and potassium was nondetect. So to pick up more than 1000 useimens of conductivity there must be a bunch of monovalent cation in there somewhere.

Contrary to convention, the acidity is not going up with age, but the amount of sequestered salts is pretty amazing. Maybe one of the scary things is that if the moss is sequestering basic salts, its probably sequestering the trace metals to toxic levels too.

A commonality of the plants that are doing good vs the not so good, is the roots coming out of the moss and fully exposed. At that point they can access low salt low micronutrient water I guess.

 

[Rick]

So far so good! Whats that white **** on the bottom? You may find that you can decrease your feeding to (almost) 0 as the mix in the baskets humifies to dust or, you can give it a godd high pressure hose out at the end of the season. I always find it gets things going again after I do it.
But good growing Rick
I have a gratrix in a basket approaching those sizes.

That's some kind of fungal growth on the bottom of the peacei basket. It's been there a while and doesn't seem to make a difference to the phrag.

Yes I think I can cut down the feed more, and I have recently started the pressure blasting to get the muck out.

I'm finding a good correlation to the ones doing good and the ones doing poor, that I need to use more gravel and less moss initially. The moss is still accumulating too much nutrient/salt/metal so if the plants don't bust roots out the side before the moss loads up then things go downhill.

 

[JeanLux]

Om., those look superb Rick !!!!!

Do you think that replacing the sphagnum by fern roots could be an alternative, or do you believe that the moss is needed at the start ? Jean

 

[SlipperKing]

Great info Rick. Can you show PICs of some of the ones you think are going downhill? I'll get a better feel for the overall picture.

 

[Ray]

I wonder if the moss is, indeed, acidifying with age, but its mineral accumulation has just overwhelmed it.

(this may be a toh-may-toh, toh-mah-toh thing)

 

[emydura]

WOW. A kolo that grew from 6 inches to 24 inches in 21 months. That is just incredible. Way quicker than mine.

 

[Leo Schordje]

Great successes Rick. I will try to use more baskets myself. I would need to sort out how to change my watering schedule.

I believe Phrag exstaminodia, more so than its cousins, wants a more acidic pH at its roots. You might try that, and repot often to avoid the salt build ups.

 

[keithrs]

I wonder if replacing the moss with straight orchiata would work? Maybe up the watering alittle with it?

 

[eggshells]

Do they stay wet like this all the time? In my experience paphs that are in plastic pots. The root tips stops growing when it reaches the top of the pot or the holes in the bottom. I suspect that they detect that its dry and just dries out. I wonder if one grew them wet like these. Will the root tips not dry out even if its exposed to the air.

 

[Justin]

That stonei is a BEAST!

 

[Rick]

WOW. A kolo that grew from 6 inches to 24 inches in 21 months. That is just incredible. Way quicker than mine.

I couldn't believe it myself so I went out and measured. I admit I exagerated, it came out to 20" (no stretching).

But it may have actually been less than 6 to start and didn't have any good roots. It was intended as kind of a research last ditch sacrifice plant, but it did way better than 2 healthier plants.

 

[Rick]

I wonder if replacing the moss with straight orchiata would work? Maybe up the watering alittle with it?

I've replaced a couple of the poor doers in my CHC mix which seems to be fine for a handfull of paphs I didn't change up. The basket is still lined in moss to keep the CHC in. I've resisted the urge to go out and get Orchiata since I have tons of regular bark, CHC, and moss in hand. I may have to water a bit more.

In generall I've increased the amount of limestone gravel in the mix. This is very corse gravel between 1/2" and 1" diameter. I doubt it has any direct effect on chemistry or "calcium" availability. It just there to supply an inert substrate for roots to grow on, that doesn't have ion storage capacity.

I was hoping the moss would just provide water storage with minimal IEC, but it looks like I underestimated the IEC capacity.

 

[petro]

That is one happy henryanum! Nice work with all of these.

 

[Rick]

Do they stay wet like this all the time? In my experience paphs that are in plastic pots. The root tips stops growing when it reaches the top of the pot or the holes in the bottom. I suspect that they detect that its dry and just dries out. I wonder if one grew them wet like these. Will the root tips not dry out even if its exposed to the air.

Things do dry out a bit more than shown in these pics, but air humidity is 70% pretty much at a minimum. Sometimes the tips turn around an go back into the moss too, but the plants that do the best seem to be the ones where the roots are showing.

 

[Rick]

Om., those look superb Rick !!!!!

Do you think that replacing the sphagnum by fern roots could be an alternative, or do you believe that the moss is needed at the start ? Jean

I'm trying some changes now Jean. I don't have a bunch fo fern handy, but I have done a little with shredded leaves from the front yard (after fall leaf drop) and some bark or CHC. Mostly just trying to replace more of the organic with inorganic media.