Helena in basket culture

[Bjorn]

Approximately one year ago I aquired four P. helenae and planted them in a plastic basket. The below picture is taken in the end of March this year. The mush. is allowed, its a part of the growing regime I try to apply and seems not to harm at all. :wink:

Now some flowers are appearing, the first one is seen here in this picture from last week. In total there should be some 6-8 flowers coming, but unfortunately not simultaneously. This flower is about to fade now but others appear. 3 stalks are visible in the pic. The petal of the flower has been touching the leaves thats why it has a different angle. There seem to be a certain variability in the flowers of the plants, particularly the one back to the right may be interesting. It seems to lack pigment on the flower sheet. Coult it be an albino? Time will tell..

 

[Bob in Albany N.Y.]

Very interesting. So, all four plants are in the same basket, correct?

 

[Bjorn]

Yes they are, have had a colony of henryanum and one of micranthum going in the same substrate since 1997 now. Might not be that long lasting this time(?) the vitality of the micranthum colony seems to fade now though, but the henryanum is coming with 10 spikes and is actually propagating by seeds in the basket. Will revert to the henryanum later.

 

[paphioboy]

Very cool! Love to see pics when more flowers are in bloom... How deep is the basket and what media do you use? All bark?

 

[Bjorn]

Very cool! Love to see pics when more flowers are in bloom... How deep is the basket and what media do you use? All bark?

I try to imagine how the plants grow in nature and try to adopt a bit to that. This one has a mix of bark, sand, marble pebbles and expanded clay together with some ground dolomite and finally half decayed and minced twigs (there you have the origin of the mushroom). Recently I have shifted towards more stone, almost entirely crushed marble with a little organics for certain species like hangianum etc. A certain addition of minced oak-leaves and twigs is also good for growth together with the decaying twigs. I have had some really interesting growth rates for some plants using this mix. I do however feed additionally with all water. TDS is around 500ppm but cut back during winter.
Had some rot problems but after I reduced on potassium and increased Mg and Ca (according to Ricks ideas), it seems to have improved significantly.
The media is some 10-12cm deep and the baskets are simply plastic baskets that is intended to use for storage etc. I do however melt holes in the bottom with a soldering iron.:evil: The aeration from the sides is important I believe.
The helenae in the pic is about to go now, but a couple new ones are there. will revert with more pics later.

 

[NYEric]

I've always been interested in your culture but my growing area isn't condusive to a media where bugs could become an issue. Looking good though.

 

[paphioboy]

I have had some really interesting growth rates for some plants using this mix.

Can you please expand more on this? Is 'interesting' a good or bad thing? or do you mean growth rate is not at a constant pace?

 

[SlipperFan]

Interesting concept. I do notice that your plants are all similar in size. I don't think it would work if they weren't.

 

[Shiva]

Interesting! The plants look very healthy. What's the temperature range?

 

[Paph_LdyMacBeth]

This is really really neat. It will be something to try when I get a better growing space. Thanks for sharing

 

[SlipperKing]

Great culture techinque!

 

[Rick]

This is too cool Bjorn. We must be psychic twins.:wink: The similarities are striking.

http://www.slippertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18566

I'm also thrilled that you have some plants in baskets since 1997 (14 years!!) Do you ever have to replenish the media? I can't imagine that the organic parts would last for too many years.

I also think the aeration is important. I set up some paphs using the same moss, gravel mix as plants in baskets, but in aircone pots. They started doing poorly fairly fast so I melted a bunch more holes in the pots that seemed to improve their spirits considerably.

 

[chrismende]

I agree with everyone that this is wonderful! I've been slowly planting more and more plants in baskets and plastic pots intended for hydro culture - net pots. Seems the way to go with any paph that is rot-prone or stoloniferous, but clearly most paphs need lots of air around the rootzone.

 

[Bjorn]

I've always been interested in your culture but my growing area isn't condusive to a media where bugs could become an issue. Looking good though.

Frankly Eric, the way you grow, I understand it very well. However bugs is probably not a problem in this set-up, if you want moss to grow its the humidity that may be restricting. And of course the watering. It is not straight forward to water these things without using a hose.

 

[Bjorn]

Can you please expand more on this? Is 'interesting' a good or bad thing? or do you mean growth rate is not at a constant pace?

Interesting in this context is good. I made some pics yesterday and will put it on a separate thread later.:wink:

 

[Bjorn]

Interesting concept. I do notice that your plants are all similar in size. I don't think it would work if they weren't.

Agree if you mix up species, or have plants with very big roots but I have examples of seed germinating and growing to full size together with established plants (in similar set-up). Guess the best is to use it for small sized species like helenae, henryanum +++ Would not expect it to work very well with e.g. four kolopakingii etc. (unless in a veeery big basket :clap

 

[Bjorn]

Interesting! The plants look very healthy. What's the temperature range?

In that part of my greenhouse I try to keep summer temperature below 30C at day night 20C, humidity is high (80-90%). Winter is dry down to below 10C at night for a couple of months while day is around 20-25C. Humidity relatively high 70%(?). I can control this by a combination of AC and fogger.

 

[Bjorn]

This is too cool Bjorn. We must be psychic twins.:wink: The similarities are striking.

http://www.slippertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=18566

I'm also thrilled that you have some plants in baskets since 1997 (14 years!!) Do you ever have to replenish the media? I can't imagine that the organic parts would last for too many years.

I also think the aeration is important. I set up some paphs using the same moss, gravel mix as plants in baskets, but in aircone pots. They started doing poorly fairly fast so I melted a bunch more holes in the pots that seemed to improve their spirits considerably.

The media is replenished to some extent, when moss gets too excessive I remove it and replace top layer with new substrate since some is lost. Perhaps shredded twigs and leaves(oak) should be the best for the top dressing? The medium itself is quite rich in inorganics, notably sand, expanded clay perlite crushed marble and dolomite etc. so its not breaking down too much. Of course the medium changes over time, but I believe the secret to the longivity is the generous amounts of limestone or dolomite. I am here talking about gravel and sand like qualities, not the kind offered to correct pH of the lawn. I know that you understand the difference Rick, but always make sure its not "lime", quick-lime, hydrated lime or something containing it, since thse things are very alkaline. When we talk about lime in this context it is normally as limestone, i.e. the carbonate. Dolomite is of course also crushed stone of the doble carbonate (Ca,Mg)CO3.

 

[Bjorn]

I do not know what happened to the colors, but photography is not my thing.
This is how it looked yesterday, the basket is turned around so the presumably "alba" or whatever is left front. Three flowers, there is another of these buds and two of the "whateveritiscouldbealba" buds hiding.

My old colony of henryanum starts to flower as well here is a pic of the 14 year old colony, two of the 10(11?) flowers. The right one sits on a plant that appeared as the result of a flie's visit to a flower some years ago. The outcome was seeds that were spread around and some(5) plants emerged due to that. This is the first that blooms.

Here is a kindof "overview" of the old "basketculture". It is actuall a plastic box that was used for mushrooms at that time. The quality was very bad and it has become quite brittle by now. Should not touch it too much.
And if anyone looks closely they will find plants in the background that are hardly surviving and that has got a good dose of rot. That is a part of the game though and I continously strive to minimise the appearance of it.:clap:

 

[Marc]

Wouldn't repotting in a same enviroment revitalise the micranthum colony?