John M
Orchid Addict
I'm enjoying these on my kitchen windowsill at the moment. I've finally figured out the trick to Disas.......high light in the winter and massive amounts of air movement and lots of water in the summer. For the first time, I put my plants under bright lights in the basement for the winter and they have done really, really well.
My track record with this Genus has had it's up and LOTS of downs. Since I started growing them ~about 2004, I've spent about $12,000.00 and killed about 24,000 seedlings, as I learned through trial and error. I was trying to develop them as a commercial crop. I'm not there yet; but, I have made some very important advances in cultivating them successfully. I seemed to do well for awhile; but, I'd have troubles in the summer and then again in the winter. What was left would rally back in the Spring and Fall. The summer was too hot inside the greenhouse with not enough air movement. Last summer, I was down to only about 200 plants and I tested this theory by growing some plants on the bench; plus, I put a few plants right next to the intake of my 4' exhaust fan where they got BLASTED by the air as it was pulled past the plants and out of the greenhouse. To stop desication from the "wind", I stood them in an inch of water at all times. The plants on the bench were only about 10 feet away; but, in a completely different microclimate and they suffered big losses again. The high volume of air rushing past the plants near the intake of the fan cooled them by evaporating moisture from their leaves and pots. This cooling effect was much stronger than for the ones on the bench. The plants by the fan not only survived, they flourished over the summer, even though the ambient temps were hot. The MASSIVE amount of air movement made a huge difference.
In the fall, I put them all outside to get the chill.....and many of the stressed ones rallied back. Then, I managed to frost them all! Lots of damage and some deaths! I knew that the temps were going down to 0*C or even a bit lower; so, I covered them to protect them from the frost. All the literature I've read goes on about how they survive just fine in their habitat when they experience freezing temps. Well, plants in pots don't like that! However, lots of plants did survive. The newly beat up survivors then went into the basement, not back into the greenhosue. This avoided them suffering through another long, dull winter. I put them in the basement under four, 8' long, daylight Fluorescent tubes on a table 2' wide x 8' long and completely wrapped in tinfoil to reflect all the light back onto the palnts.....nice and bright. I set the day length to be just 8 hours in December and January. Then, in February, I increased it to 16 hours and began to fertilize weakly.
The few plants that were sickly to begin with just died off. The hot summer and frost in the fall was just too much for them. However, about half of the frost survivors were in okay shape and they flourished over the winter, especially once the day length was increased.
The pots are 4" clay and I stand them in a puddle 24/7. I use R.O. water and foliar feed them about every two weeks once the daylength is increased up to when they bloom. Then, I stop feeding while they're in bloom and don't start again until I see new growth. They are potted in 2/3 perlite and 1/3 peatmoss.....very acidic. I think I'll add some chopped sphagnum moss and styrofoam chips when I repot in September.....just to lighten the mix a bit and make it more "fluffy". By now, the peat/perlite mix is pretty well compacted.
My track record with this Genus has had it's up and LOTS of downs. Since I started growing them ~about 2004, I've spent about $12,000.00 and killed about 24,000 seedlings, as I learned through trial and error. I was trying to develop them as a commercial crop. I'm not there yet; but, I have made some very important advances in cultivating them successfully. I seemed to do well for awhile; but, I'd have troubles in the summer and then again in the winter. What was left would rally back in the Spring and Fall. The summer was too hot inside the greenhouse with not enough air movement. Last summer, I was down to only about 200 plants and I tested this theory by growing some plants on the bench; plus, I put a few plants right next to the intake of my 4' exhaust fan where they got BLASTED by the air as it was pulled past the plants and out of the greenhouse. To stop desication from the "wind", I stood them in an inch of water at all times. The plants on the bench were only about 10 feet away; but, in a completely different microclimate and they suffered big losses again. The high volume of air rushing past the plants near the intake of the fan cooled them by evaporating moisture from their leaves and pots. This cooling effect was much stronger than for the ones on the bench. The plants by the fan not only survived, they flourished over the summer, even though the ambient temps were hot. The MASSIVE amount of air movement made a huge difference.
In the fall, I put them all outside to get the chill.....and many of the stressed ones rallied back. Then, I managed to frost them all! Lots of damage and some deaths! I knew that the temps were going down to 0*C or even a bit lower; so, I covered them to protect them from the frost. All the literature I've read goes on about how they survive just fine in their habitat when they experience freezing temps. Well, plants in pots don't like that! However, lots of plants did survive. The newly beat up survivors then went into the basement, not back into the greenhosue. This avoided them suffering through another long, dull winter. I put them in the basement under four, 8' long, daylight Fluorescent tubes on a table 2' wide x 8' long and completely wrapped in tinfoil to reflect all the light back onto the palnts.....nice and bright. I set the day length to be just 8 hours in December and January. Then, in February, I increased it to 16 hours and began to fertilize weakly.
The few plants that were sickly to begin with just died off. The hot summer and frost in the fall was just too much for them. However, about half of the frost survivors were in okay shape and they flourished over the winter, especially once the day length was increased.
The pots are 4" clay and I stand them in a puddle 24/7. I use R.O. water and foliar feed them about every two weeks once the daylength is increased up to when they bloom. Then, I stop feeding while they're in bloom and don't start again until I see new growth. They are potted in 2/3 perlite and 1/3 peatmoss.....very acidic. I think I'll add some chopped sphagnum moss and styrofoam chips when I repot in September.....just to lighten the mix a bit and make it more "fluffy". By now, the peat/perlite mix is pretty well compacted.
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