Some 12-13 years ago I decided to place my 5-6 Paph henryanums and the collection of micranthums I had at that time, into some plastic containers originally used for mushrooms; approx 20x30x15cm. The reasoning was at least two-fold, the micranthums was always struggling with where to place the notorious runners they tended to end up everywhere- out of the bottom of the pots is one location. Regarding the henryanums, I was looking for an alternative to the regular potting.
Ok, they were placed in a compost with plenty of dolomite sand, perlite and small balls of expanded clay together with bark.
For various reasons, my interest in orchids faded and the plants was under less than optimum care for some 10-11 years.
Then a couple of years ago, I decided to tidy up, and cleared away the weeds; yes they were full of oxalis, the seeds are still sprouting continously as you might see in one of the pictures. During these years, the plants, particulaly the micranthums multiplied and today the originally five plants or so have spread ito the mat of between 30 and 50 growths seen to the left in this picture. Flowering has been consistent, but not massive, today there are 8 buds coming.
The henyanums did not that well, and after these 10 years perhaps two out of 6 had died. But they have bloomed regularly all the time. When the oxalis was cleared, the remaining 4 plants rewarded me with some flowers, and after a year with more. We have now come to fall 2010 and the plants produced 10 flowers. This picture gives an overview of that planting.
As you may have noticed there is quite a bit of moss around and some seedlings of adianthum as well. Maintaining a healthy population of moss is an indicator of healthy conditions in the soil/pot. Too much fertilizer or too low humidity kills moss right off. Soft water may also be a prerequisite in this connection.
Last year while weeding, I noticed that there was more plantlets than there should be. Incidentially I thought that perhaps henryanum could produce runners like the micranthums did and I found this very interesting. The reason for this assumption was that a little digging showed an intimate connection between roots of the "motherplant" and these "satelites".
As we know that henryanum does not produce runners it was then thought that it could have been seedlings from a chance pollination during the "time of neglect". This suggestion proved to be true as discovered by some more careful digging showing that there was an intimate contact between the roots but as separate entities. Most likely the mycorrhizae necessary for germination and growth of the seedlings is found at the right concentration close to the roots of the "motherplants". Below is one of these seedlings by chance.
Somehow, I think I remember that there was a chance pollination some 3-4years ago, the guilty was probably a common fly. This was during a time of great problems with invasions of mice into the greenhouse, a terrible pest that was fought by all means including poison. And well, poison plus mice gives a lot of flies. I eventually managed to seal all openings so now I have got rid of that problem at least...
The seeds must have fallen onto the soil and some of them found favourable conditions and produced seedlings. I believe there must be some 5-6 of them in the planting now.
During the last flowering period I pollinated some of the flowers and will try to replicate this experiment in a controlled way.
A nice story isnt it?
BUT the interesting aspect of this story, the plants are still in the same soil as originally, and I see no reason why I should repot them, based on the vigour of the plants. The status of the container might however soon provoke some kind of repotting, some plastics get extremely brittle after many years exposure to the elements- even if it is in a greenhouse.
It all boils down to the following postulate:
REPOTTING IS NOT ALWAYS NECESSARY AND CAN BE OMITTED IF CONDITIONS ARE RIGHT.
A corollary of this will then be that need for frequent repotting (like every 18months) is an indication of cultivation practises that are sub-optimal.
Ok I do a lot of repotting, but I try to develop methods to avoid it. Maybe because I am lazy, but I firmly believe that there must be better practises than than the repotting every 18months combined with use of fertiliser and fungicide or whatever. The chemicals are likely to influence the biology of the compost negatively, eg. reduce the population of beneficial organisms like mycorrhizae, and with a system out of biological balance more chemicals are needed.
For Epiphytes, probably the only sustainable way is to mount, for paphs it could be that one needs large containers, who knows. Someone has to try and test these things. The results obviously does not come over night, a sucess can be reported after several years. Is there anyone out there having similar experiences?
Ok, they were placed in a compost with plenty of dolomite sand, perlite and small balls of expanded clay together with bark.
For various reasons, my interest in orchids faded and the plants was under less than optimum care for some 10-11 years.
Then a couple of years ago, I decided to tidy up, and cleared away the weeds; yes they were full of oxalis, the seeds are still sprouting continously as you might see in one of the pictures. During these years, the plants, particulaly the micranthums multiplied and today the originally five plants or so have spread ito the mat of between 30 and 50 growths seen to the left in this picture. Flowering has been consistent, but not massive, today there are 8 buds coming.
The henyanums did not that well, and after these 10 years perhaps two out of 6 had died. But they have bloomed regularly all the time. When the oxalis was cleared, the remaining 4 plants rewarded me with some flowers, and after a year with more. We have now come to fall 2010 and the plants produced 10 flowers. This picture gives an overview of that planting.
As you may have noticed there is quite a bit of moss around and some seedlings of adianthum as well. Maintaining a healthy population of moss is an indicator of healthy conditions in the soil/pot. Too much fertilizer or too low humidity kills moss right off. Soft water may also be a prerequisite in this connection.
Last year while weeding, I noticed that there was more plantlets than there should be. Incidentially I thought that perhaps henryanum could produce runners like the micranthums did and I found this very interesting. The reason for this assumption was that a little digging showed an intimate connection between roots of the "motherplant" and these "satelites".
As we know that henryanum does not produce runners it was then thought that it could have been seedlings from a chance pollination during the "time of neglect". This suggestion proved to be true as discovered by some more careful digging showing that there was an intimate contact between the roots but as separate entities. Most likely the mycorrhizae necessary for germination and growth of the seedlings is found at the right concentration close to the roots of the "motherplants". Below is one of these seedlings by chance.
Somehow, I think I remember that there was a chance pollination some 3-4years ago, the guilty was probably a common fly. This was during a time of great problems with invasions of mice into the greenhouse, a terrible pest that was fought by all means including poison. And well, poison plus mice gives a lot of flies. I eventually managed to seal all openings so now I have got rid of that problem at least...
The seeds must have fallen onto the soil and some of them found favourable conditions and produced seedlings. I believe there must be some 5-6 of them in the planting now.
During the last flowering period I pollinated some of the flowers and will try to replicate this experiment in a controlled way.
A nice story isnt it?
BUT the interesting aspect of this story, the plants are still in the same soil as originally, and I see no reason why I should repot them, based on the vigour of the plants. The status of the container might however soon provoke some kind of repotting, some plastics get extremely brittle after many years exposure to the elements- even if it is in a greenhouse.
It all boils down to the following postulate:
REPOTTING IS NOT ALWAYS NECESSARY AND CAN BE OMITTED IF CONDITIONS ARE RIGHT.
A corollary of this will then be that need for frequent repotting (like every 18months) is an indication of cultivation practises that are sub-optimal.
Ok I do a lot of repotting, but I try to develop methods to avoid it. Maybe because I am lazy
, but I firmly believe that there must be better practises than than the repotting every 18months combined with use of fertiliser and fungicide or whatever. The chemicals are likely to influence the biology of the compost negatively, eg. reduce the population of beneficial organisms like mycorrhizae, and with a system out of biological balance more chemicals are needed.For Epiphytes, probably the only sustainable way is to mount, for paphs it could be that one needs large containers, who knows. Someone has to try and test these things. The results obviously does not come over night, a sucess can be reported after several years. Is there anyone out there having similar experiences?
