Good fun and THE GAUNTLET

[gonewild]

Lance- Actually if you go back and look at all the pictures, this is what it is.
Heavy feeders- all the new roots are relatively new and up in the air. and I do not see hardly any new roots other than a few on the neofenitia of the latter group. All others in this latter group have older roots from previous season (main cattleya types and others are buried in the semi hydro pot and can't see those).

If you look at those mounted orchids on the heavy feeder group, they are heavily covered with green stuff.

Plus, green stuff on the wood, little is still "existence" while your earlier claim was "no existence", which makes a huge difference to me and probably to a lot of other readers as well.

and who knows how old those woods are. Maybe the heavily greened up one might just have been around longer or something.

Lastly, by looking at the pictures, you still can't back your statement overgeneralizing organisms not being there.
The only thing you can see is the green you mention and they are present in both conditions as opposed to what you say.

There's a difference between the areas and the plants whether you can see the differences I point out or not I see them.

 

[SlipperKing]

Well I really didn't think I would have to go hear. Just show some orchid plants but to help everyone reading this thread to understand the "environment" my plants grow in I need to post more PICs. Also, this thread started out in the Paphiopedilum folder but really it should be in the culture one.

Realize none of this existed when I fed at the higher concentrations 100-150 ppm of total nitrogen with Peter's balance fertilizer, 20-20-20.

My carpet

It has even spread to some of my benches

Many of the pots have moss popping up

As you can see this S. Apprentice was last re-potted in 2/2012

90% of the S/H where there is not organics added except for what Mother natural has created

Mosses even come out of the drain holes

Baskets
philippinense

parishii

I've even found it when I peek through the wire! (this is for Eric). That's the vinyl plastic its growing on.

New additions in the last couple of years... toad stools

 

[SlipperKing]

Now my newest development and I'm not sure if its a potential problem or not is this dark, dark green stuff growing right in front of my wet wall.

This dark stuff grows only in the area of the splash from the w. wall. The wall is ran with city water. The irrigation water is rain (and I've had plenty of that!)
The second PIC above in the bottom right corner this dark/black area has height to it. So a new moss? or the same but affect by the city water?

If anyone was wondering if I didn't have adiquote air movement then here

3 rescued A/C fans set on individual thermostats pulling air through the wall.

 

[SlipperKing]

Oh, my take on the root issue brought up; When a plant is getting its needs met with the correct concentration of food why make more? Such as, why fix what ain't broke? Root lost due to an imbalance in the pot of course the plant needs more. My plants have roots just not making as many because it doesn't need to.

 

[Bjorn]

Good Pictures Rick, guess you never saw that moss before cutting down on the fertiliser? I have always had a lot of it, but in my days of heavy feeding (was up to 3-400ppm TDS) the moss used to disappear during summer when evaporatkion (and hence upconcentration of salts) was heavier. During winter when feedeing was reduced, it used to come back. Actually, the moss is a nuisance. It outgrows the seedlings so I have to weed moss additional to the ferns that pop up everywhere. Here are a couple of recent pictures (10ppm N) taken in April and May 2015


randsii's growing vigorously

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Dendrobium parishii, not that big this year but I liked the photo

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Dendrobium pierardii

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vietnamense carrying two flowers on one stalk:drool: With some ferns:evil:

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I have waited for a long time for this one, mexipedium in a bonsai pot. Two flower stalks flowering now but I do not have more recent pictures. seems to branch? This is a good moss-picture and gives a sneak-view under the benches, more ferns.

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More under the benches, I planted these a couple of years ago and they are allowed to sprawl freely. The adiantum is spontaneous btw.

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more understage. I use water-filled containers to moderate temperature fluctuations and inbetween I have placed some birds-nest ferns (aspleniums) Its pretty dark there so almost no weeds thrive

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[SlipperKing]

"canhii on concrete," Oh Brother! That is amazing Bjorn!

Wow, your "Back to Nature" might be approaching the "out-of-hand" situation! You may have to consider buying a machete and start cutting the undergrowth! LOL
Nice PICs

 

[Bjorn]

Oh Brother! That is amazing Bjorn!

Wow, your "Back to Nature" might be approaching the "out-of-hand" situation! You may have to consider buying a machete and start cutting the undergrowth! LOL
Nice PICs

Its worse:rollhappy: no room for a machete!!!!:sob: I really have to expand soon.........

 

[NYEric]

I've even found it when I peek through the wire! (this is for Eric). That's the vinyl plastic its growing on.

New additions in the last couple of years... toad stools

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Thanks. All this mossy, green, goodness. I wish I could do this in my apartment without dripping into the neighbor downstairs apartment.

 

[orcoholic]

Oh, my take on the root issue brought up; When a plant is getting its needs met with the correct concentration of food why make more? Such as, why fix what ain't broke? Root lost due to an imbalance in the pot of course the plant needs more. My plants have roots just not making as many because it doesn't need to.

I think the purpose of roots is to support the top growth, and in the case of orchids to make it grab onto the trees.

The fact that you have less root growth is an indictment of the low ppm method.

There is no reason, I can think of, to grow more roots if the green parts aren't improving and growing well and thus requiring better root growth. If the green is growing well the plant will need more roots to support it - more nutrition and water are needed for more green.

I see you have some really nice moss colonies, but don't see what that has to do with growing better orchids? Just because there's moss around some orchids growing in the wild, doesn't mean orchids can't be grown better without moss. Orchids in-situ often look pretty sad. I think they would improve a lot with more fertilizer. I am convinced that you need low ppms to grow moss.

 

[SlipperKing]

Back to your point, so you still think our plants are starving?

 

[orcoholic]

Here's a couple more pics. Fortunately they are growing a lot of nice new roots.

Lost tag, but I think it's Epi. Joseph Liu


Closeup of flowers



Lycaste Dainty


It looks like there's only one low ppmer with good enough orchids to pick up the gauntlet. Where are all of you???

With the climate the madd virologist is in I think his orchids could take a lot more fert. Way better location than mine. It's right on the Gulf of Mexico where the humidity must be perfect, the sun stays up a lot longer during the winter and the temps rarely go below 32F. I'm in mid-atlantic region. For some reason we are hotter in the summer and way colder in the winter.

I could really pump in the fertilizer if I were there. There should be one of those devil imoticons here but I don't know where they are.

 

[TyroneGenade]

Rick H, your "dark green stuff" is probably Cyanobacteria. Its a poor competitor with other green things so I wouldn't worry about it.

 

[SlipperKing]

Rick H, your "dark green stuff" is probably Cyanobacteria. Its a poor competitor with other green things so I wouldn't worry about it.

Clearly its the only thing that can grow in our city water at 750 uSi

 

[TyroneGenade]

Cyanobacteria can stand high salinity/tds but generally can't compete well with other plants/algae in a healthy system. The stuff is bubbling out of my aquarium filter but doesn't survive in the tank itself... Some cyanobacteria can fix nitrogen so they are not a terribly bad thing to have around.

 

[Bjorn]

Come on, here are some entries from the 10ppm-club. Most taken during April or May 2015 otherwise, mentioned.
Phragmipediums 'Yelva' towering in bud

Some of my roth seedlings, pls note the New-leaf sizes

Dendrobium moschatum. These canes are 1.5m long!

coelogyne rocussenii

paphs, kolopakingii in the back, in bud approx 1m leaf-span

St. Swithin x Michael Koopowitz April 2015

Dendrobium pierardii

Slipper theatre Jan 2015

Micheal Koopowitz March 2015

Exul, March 2015

Kovachii, end of March 2015

Kovachii, same plant end of May 2015

C. labiata, mounted November 2014

C bowringiana mounted, November 2014

Some BIG Cattleya. Each flower as big as a hand. Mounted

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[Stone]

I wonder if Stone, who waters at .8-1 too has any moss?

No...and I don't want any either! It's the best thing for killing orchid roots when it grows on the pot's surface. It just gets in the way of good air exchange and it has little value in high quality orchid cultivation IMO. It might be nice to play with but that's it. If you have moss covering the pot surface or surrounding your baskets, you WILL get rotted roots sooner rather than later. The only way it may work long term on the pot surface is if you have many holes on the side. But really, what's the point?
My orchids always grow better without moss of any kind. (except maybe Den cuthbertsonii on a treefern slab)
Moss on cork is also a disaster after a while.
We do not grow orchids on mossy trees or rocks. We grow in plastic pots which breathe from the top only.
Get rid of it!

 

[Secundino]

Oh my, I envy that water quality! I'd like moss growing everywhere, it would mean the water is 'pure'.
Lots of good air around the roots, that's true!

 

[SlipperKing]

Funny Mike every plant I've ever gotten from QF,HOF out of Hawaii has had plenty of moss and they are the finest grown plants I've come across. Ask Limuhead, Fred, in Hawaii mosses are unavoidable.
I can't recall ever loosing a plant due moss growing in association with the plant. Lost plenty due to algae, esp the slimy ones but that was due to excessive fertilzer feeding the algae rather then the orchid.

 

[orcoholic]

Bjorn,

Your plants look really great. What's in that Norway water? I may have to reconsider my fertilizing regimen and go to .75.

Really nice looking orchids. I'm kind of astounded.

 

[TyroneGenade]

Bjorn, how often to fertilize at 10 ppm?

Orcoholic, how often are you fertilizing?