My first and only fischeri.

Slippertalk Orchid Forum

Help Support Slippertalk Orchid Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

John M

Orchid Addict
Joined
Jun 7, 2006
Messages
7,060
Reaction score
71
Location
Hamilton, Ontario - Canada
When I got this plant, it didn't like me. The foliage became blemished and horribly marked shortly after arriving. I thought it would die. It tried to bloom twice; but, I nipped off the stem before getting to see any flowers because I was worried that the plant was too weak to carry flowers. Then I realized I was feeding too much calcium and as soon as I stopped, this plant recovered quickly, putting up two nice, clean, healthy growths, one of which has just come into bloom now. This is the first time I've seen a fischeri in bloom in person and I love it! Growing in a 6" net pot in a mix of 1/2 perlite (dust filtered out) and 1/2 small CHC....standing in a 1/8" deep puddle of R.O. water. Located on the West (sunny), side of the greenhouse and growing with intermediate temperatures.
 

Attachments

  • Phrag. fischeri plt - 2c.JPG
    Phrag. fischeri plt - 2c.JPG
    88.2 KB · Views: 70
  • Phrag. fischeri flr.JPG
    Phrag. fischeri flr.JPG
    79.5 KB · Views: 51
That is beautiful congrats, and good to know about the Ca.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro
 
Thank you both!

Jason, I was using R.O. water and 7-11-27 with Calcium Nitrate, with excellent results. Shortly before I got the fischeri, I switched to using water from a nearby stream, which periodically flows over limestone rock rapids. However, I forgot to adjust my fertilizer and I continued to use the Calcium Nitrate even though my water source would have enough calcium. Big mistake! A lot of plants suffered. They all recovered once I stopped using the Calcium Nitrate, even though I continued to use the water from the stream. Now, and since last fall, I've gone back to using R.O. water; but, I still havn't gone back to using the Calcium Nitrate. Instead, I use the stream water when I fertilize to give the plants some Calcium and I switch to R.O. water for my daily misting and spot watering. When I'm not feeding the plants, I use straight R.O. water.
 
I love it! I have a very young one and it's doing reasonably well, but seems quite slow growing. I also
think possibly my growing conditions might be too warm
with a winter low of 60F. Mine is potted in coarse perlite
and Orchiata...perhaps too much calcium?
 
Angela, my plant gets winter lows of about 55*F, not far off from what you're giving your plant. Does Orchiata have calcium in it? If it does and you're feeding calcium, that could be a problem. Although, the excess calcium didn't just make this plant grow slowly, it made the foliage become terribly marked with black blotches that looked like virus or a severe fungal infection. As soon as I stopped feeding the calcium, all the new growth began coming up nice and clean and it stayed that way....and it did begin growing faster, too.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top