Marble chips on Kovachii's potting mix?

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I thought that Kovachii needs low nutrients, I have some other pk hybrids that are grow in same way and they grow well. So do you think Kovachii species must eat more?
I'll do in this way. I'll begin to add one feeding with calcium nitrate and Magnesum sulfate. Can I mix them togheter or is better alternate one week each one?
I grow them in greenhouse, no artificial light but I think light is enough. Multifloral paphio (Roth and Saint Swithin) are flowering at these light levels.
Luca

I grew my kovachii at high nutrient rates (125ppm N) and that was the level that was best. And that was constant daily doses with overhead fresh water mists to keep a flush through. This was before K-lite was conceived and I used a base nutrient supply of the MSU formula with the Calcium Nitrate supplement plus a few extra changes. The plants grew extremely well.

My opinion is that all or most Phrags like high nutrient levels as long as they have a good strong growing environment. You can search back in the forum archives and find threads where I detailed the growth and methods.

You can mix the Calcium nitrate and Magnesium sulfate in the same container at the concentration you will apply to the plants.
 
I'm asking about symptom of calcium deficence, because I'm trying to understand why my Kovachii have bright green leaves, instead of dark green, leaves are thinner and softner than usual plants I have seen.
My fertilizer is K-lite alternate to an european version of Msu, both with calcium inside.
It could be a lot of things but if you are using all nitrate, that might be a reason for the different colour.
Don't worry about Ca deficiency. It's almost impossible. Definitely impossible if you are using tap water, have any kind of lime in the mix or Ca in the fertilizer. You probably have all three. You probably have too much free Ca.
Try cutting your MSU with 50% of some complete ammonium or urea fertilizer when the weather warms up. I think you will be happy....
 
On my monitor the kovachii leaves look perfectly healthy. They look grass-green and that should be fine I think. The plant to the right is in my opinion too dark, has it got an overdose of N or too little light?
Lance; I know that you posted a lot of kovachii seedlings many years ago what happened to those?. Did they grow up and flower?
 
Lance; I know that you posted a lot of kovachii seedlings many years ago what happened to those?. Did they grow up and flower?

I grew about 160 plants, as they reached blooming size I sold some to individual collectors. A few bloomed while I was out of the country and I did not get to see them or even a picture. :(
When we decided to move back to Peru I sold the entire lot back to Piping Rock, Glenn bought them because they were larger than any he had growing. Now where I'm at it is just too hot to keep them alive more than 6 months.
 
It could be a lot of things but if you are using all nitrate, that might be a reason for the different colour.
Don't worry about Ca deficiency. It's almost impossible. Definitely impossible if you are using tap water, have any kind of lime in the mix or Ca in the fertilizer. You probably have all three. You probably have too much free Ca.
Try cutting your MSU with 50% of some complete ammonium or urea fertilizer when the weather warms up. I think you will be happy....


I know that all nitrate N could get light green leaves, and I'll get some ammoniun or urea fertilizer, but the color isn't the only difference. Leaves are also thiner and softer than most plants I have seen on ST or by myself.
So I don't think is just a matter of kind of N. Perhaps it can be one of the causes but not the only one. I agree with Lance that plants are underfeed.


Luca
 
If the leaves are very thin, could they be mislabeled? kovachi does not have very thick leaves, but they are quite hard to the touch.(perhaps not the best explantion:eek:)
 
I know that all nitrate N could get light green leaves, and I'll get some ammoniun or urea fertilizer, but the color isn't the only difference. Leaves are also thiner and softer than most plants I have seen on ST or by myself.
So I don't think is just a matter of kind of N. Perhaps it can be one of the causes but not the only one. I agree with Lance that plants are underfeed.
Luca

With kovachii I noticed that increasing the ammonia nitrogen was not a benefit and produced softer and weaker foliage. (The same observation applies to besseae hybrids as well.)
 
I fertilize one time a week at 250ppm (total), using 90% rain water and 10% tap water.
Ebb and flow system runs one time a day for 15 minutes with pure rain water.
I agree with you that new plant had more nutrients, my doubt is if mine cannot assume all nutrients due to some deficence


Luca

In my opinion using calcium nitrate together with liquid seaweed gives you the calcium you require . This type of calcium is the easiest to be taken up by the roots which, in turn, makes the nutrients from the liquid seaweed easily assimilated by the roots. I may be wrong but in my experience it seems to be working very well.

Ed
 
I grew my kovachii at high nutrient rates (125ppm N) and that was the level that was best. And that was constant daily doses with overhead fresh water mists to keep a flush through. This was before K-lite was conceived and I used a base nutrient supply of the MSU formula with the Calcium Nitrate supplement plus a few extra changes. The plants grew extremely well.

My opinion is that all or most Phrags like high nutrient levels as long as they have a good strong growing environment. You can search back in the forum archives and find threads where I detailed the growth and methods.

You can mix the Calcium nitrate and Magnesium sulfate in the same container at the concentration you will apply to the plants.

Good advise Lance but I would not mix the calcium nitrate together with the Epsom Salts which will cause them precipitation. Better to dissolve them in separate containers and then put them together.

Ed
 
Good advise Lance but I would not mix the calcium nitrate together with the Epsom Salts which will cause them precipitation. Better to dissolve them in separate containers and then put them together.

Ed

I guess I assumed that is what he would basically do. Only mix them together in the fertilizer tank at the rate that goes on the plants.
Dissolve them in separate containers and add them one at a time to the bulk water.
There should be no precipitation at the diluted rate, or at least not much.
 
In my opinion using calcium nitrate together with liquid seaweed gives you the calcium you require . This type of calcium is the easiest to be taken up by the roots which, in turn, makes the nutrients from the liquid seaweed easily assimilated by the roots. I may be wrong but in my experience it seems to be working very well.

Ed

Sounds good. Maybe the seaweed/Calcium nitrate combo is creating chelated calcium making it more easily available to the roots.
 
Increasing from what to what?

From very little to too much.
:wink:
I knew you would ask that.

I don't have numbers for it.

As I said the base nutrients were MSU alternated with Calcium Nitrate.
There is a small amount of ammonia N in that supply.
To verify if more ammonia would help the unknown nutrient requirements of the kovachii I began to slowly add increasing amounts of ammonium nitrate over time.
I did not see any change until I noticed what I considered to be less good growth.
Less good in this case would be darker green leaves that had less stiffness and were softer and thinner. In addition I started to see an increase of older leaf yellowing and drop and the first instances of what appeared to be bacterial leaf infections.
At that point I stopped the use of ammonia and growth stabilized back to where it was.
Based on that observation I deduced that ammonia N was not beneficial for the seedling kovachii.

The above is based on using MSU and not K-lite. How the lowering of the potassium supply relates to the effect of ammonia I can only guess. I would guess that if you increase the ammonia content of K-lite then you may need to increase the potassium content of K-lite.
 
Gold may be the secret for kovachii. Geology in the natural habitat of kovachii is rich in gold. Maybe the kovachii plant is the guardian of Paititi! We just need to go look where the flowers are looking and we will be rich. ;)

Great,when you decide to go i'll go with you!!!I'll help you carry the Paititi Gold!!!
I bet the city will be just under that kovachii alba waiting there!!!!
 

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