Greetings from Tucson!

[DavidH]

Greetings from warm and sunny Tucson...109 F today!

I grow paphs and phrags, with a couple of catts and vandas. I've got a small greenhouse with about 250 plants and am still trying to figure out how to shove more stuff in there. My recent idea is to cut off the bottom shelves, add a pipe roller, and pull them out into the middle aisle when I'm not in the greenhouse to add another 24 sq ft of surface (bottom shelves are too heavily shaded from all the plants above).

My focus is mainly on species with a few primary crosses and, most recently, a few complex's added to the equation. I'm trying to focus on growing micranthums and armeniacums for my own personal expertise and have about 30-50 plants of each (I've lost a few recently).

The best piece of advice I've received about growing orchids is this: "Plants die, get over it!"

That piece of advice actually makes it easier to swallow the pain/disappointment when you buy a flask for $100, deflask the seedlings, and lose all of them overnight to a bacterial/fungal infection. Especially when it happens to 3 of them at once.

 

[Marco]

Hi Dave welcome Are you the same Dave that sent me the PDF on germination? The f-1 pilot?

 

[DavidH]

Wrong airplane

Marco,

Yes, same guy. And it's the F-16, not the F-1. That's like asking a french pilot if he flies an american airplane (wink).

of course, that's not as bad as when I was stationed in Egypt and, seeing the flag on the shoulder of a military officer assigned to the UN forces, mistakenly asked him if he was Norweigan (it was a Finnish flag).

 

[Marco]

Marco,

Yes, same guy. And it's the F-16, not the F-1. That's like asking a french pilot if he flies an american airplane (wink).

of course, that's not as bad as when I was stationed in Egypt and, seeing the flag on the shoulder of a military officer assigned to the UN forces, mistakenly asked him if he was Norweigan (it was a Finnish flag).

Would saying my typing couldn't keep up with my thoughts be a good excuse. oke:

Neways, thanks for the PDF. The information is great. And it's great to have you here.

 

[PHRAG]

Welcome to the forum DavidH!

I live in Phoenix, so I totally appreciate just how "sunny" it is out here. You don't by chance come up to Phoenix for the orchid society meetings do you?

 

[Heather]

Hi Dave, welcome!
how's the Julius doing? If your's buds before mine, I may have to shoot myself. But definitely post when it does, please, don't let that scare you!
(That was just me quizzing myself on who got which of my plants.)

 

[DavidH]

Phoenix and Julius

I've gone up to Phoenix once for one of the meetings that Norito spoke to. It all depends on my schedule. Ron, from the Tucson society, goes up there for the Thursday meetings.

I've also gone up to visit Aaron, from the Orchid Seedbank Project. I've promised him extra seed from my paph species that I cross. I've got 3 pods of malipoense growing right now.

I'm actually enroute to Phoenix tomorrow for my part-time job (I do part-time work for a company that teaches Fortune 1000 companies).

Heather, as for the Julius, I'll let you know when I have a bud. Right now I've got a St Swithin in bloom, a Song of Love in Bud, a Dr Toot in bud, a liemianum in bloom (I don't think the pollination w/ micranthum took), a Jason Fischer 2N that's really red and large, a phrag Ugandian, another 2 Phrags a friend recently gave me, my awarded Bengal Lancers, and I can't believe it but I have a bud pushing up from an armeniacum (but I'm guessing that it'll blast inside the sheath due to the heat). My two bellatulums are fading fast, as is my Magic Lantern.

Currently in pod I have 3 x malipoense, Bengal Lancers x Magic Lantern, Bengal Lancers x bellatulum, Magic Lantern x bellatulum, and concolor x micranthum.

 

[Gideon]

Welcome to the forum David, hope to see more of your plants