gigantifolium

[Bjorn]

anyone that grows them from flask? The reason for asking is that I have one flat of them that does not seem to grow well, gets pale leaves and almost no Growth. Any experiences out there?

 

[tnyr5]

I had a seedling once that did the exact same thing and later died. My Chiu Hua Dancer tried to do it as well, until I moved it into very low light. My suggestion, for what it's worth: Give them half as much light as you think they need.

 

[Stone]

Hi Bjorn,
I deflasked some about a month ago. Surprisingly they are doing very well. I have only just started to feed them. I water all my seedlings in with worm tea now to set up an appropriate bacterial community and feed is pretty standard. They are getting bright light and dry out between watering.
I have deflasked about 8 Paph species recently and have not lost a single one with the tea.
I've also started using charcoal in the medium again. I don't know why but it seems to help....
9 times out of 10 I find pale leaves is due to lack of roots. It doesn't matter what the fertilizer is. I can only suggest you repot them into a coarser mix and be patient with them.

 

[Bjorn]

Thanks guys, light might be an issue that is right. Except for that, I've had them for a long time with no losses, but also without much progress:rollhappy:
Should perhaps check their roots.....

 

[Rick]

Hi Bjorn

Didn't get mine from flask, but got about a 1/2 dozen as real bitty seedlings (4-6" span).

When I fed at the MSU weekly weakly rate they refused to grow, and would cycle roots real bad. Ultimately lost 3 from the original old group.

Cutting back to almost no feed (especially K ~1ppm max, and 5ppm max on N) the survivors took off and within 3 years went from 6" max to over 18# leafspan. Lemon juice use for 2 years now too.

They seem to like just about anything my kolos like. Fairly low light, temps under 85F, and lots of water.

I have most of them in wooden baskets and like my kolo's and supardii they seem to want to run shallow roots sideways for quite a distance from the plant rather than ball up roots compactly in a pot.

 

[Bjorn]

Thanks Rick, I am growing kolos quite sucessfully, so.........perhaps I should move them together with the kolos, and topperiis etc?

 

[naoki]

Bjorn, I didn't start from flask, but I had one seedling, fairly small one from Hung Shen about 2-3 years ago. It did well in the summer time, with rapid root growths visible via a clear pot (but relatively slow shoot growth). But it stopped growing and declined in the winter here, and eventually gave up. So I guessed that my condition was a bit too cold.

I looked up the climate data of Sulawesi, and Palu might be the closest to the habitat (link here).
Max/min of around 31/25C (88/77F) year around.

But the elevation of Palu is around 118m, and this slipperorchids.info page says P. gigantifolium is from 700-1000m. So using the lapse rate of 6.5C (11.7F) per 1000m of elevation, you want to make it 3.8-5.7C (6.8-10F) lower than the table. So this means that they are in a fairly warm condition: max/min of 26/20C (79/68F) (with the middle point elevation of 850m).

How warm are you keeping your greenhouse in the winer?

 

[Rick]

Thanks Rick, I am growing kolos quite sucessfully, so.........perhaps I should move them together with the kolos, and topperiis etc?

That's a logical strategy.

My kolos are within a foot or so of the giganifoliums so getting the same light/temp.

 

[Bjorn]

Naoki, they are not in the greenhouse, but under lights getting a min of 17-18 and a max of approx 28C. Right now the greenhouse is cooler some 14/22 in the "warm" section where the multis etc are. Might perhaps be best to shade them as their color is indeed consistent with too much light. When it comes to fertilising, my plants get low doses, some 15ppm N during the season. Right now nothing, but I will start again soon. Later, when temps are higher, I will move them into the greenhouse.