potting up compots

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ohio-guy

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I got a little ambitious and bought a couple compots from orchid babies, which seem to be growing very vigorously. They were all phrag crosses.

On arrival they were grouped as a bunch of seedlings in the center of a 3.5 inch pot, with a mass of spagnum around them. The roots were very healthy, but mostly long and not many "branches" to them.
As I had spagmun on hand, I have repotted some singly into 2.25 inch pots.

My question is..... what next? Do I pot them all up into spagnum, until roots branch more? How large does a compot plant need to be to go solo? Won't bunching them in a central wad cause root growth restriction and a mess of tangles?

Does anyone have experience with compots, and growing them on?

Presently I have been watering with rain water mostly, and also have the seedlings growing on a seed starter heat matt, to increase bottom warmth, and hopefully increase rooting. I am growing under a bank of florescent lights, and the plants seems to be doing ok. I have not yet used any fertilizer on them, but have some MSU for tap water on hand, but read somewhere that seedling roots are more prone to fertilizer burn.

What have your experiences been with compots, especially Phrags? What kind of successes or failures has anyone else experienced?

Thanks for the help!
 
I have grown many flasks and compots bought from Sam at Orchid Inn, Chuck Acker, Orchid Babies and others. They only sell quality flasks/compots and could have repotted any one of the compots into individual pots upon arrival. I tend to leave the plants in the compot as long as possible and repot into 2" pots with spag. I do get the occasional tangled root and have to either coax them apart or a little snip. Typically the roots are healthly and not much branching. I bought a besseae flask from Chuck (now in compot) with leaf spans of 4" plus. The plants are getting crowded so they will need their own pots soon. Since Spring is here it will happened in the next few weeks. I fert with the same conc (50-75 ppm N from MSU or Dyna Grow 795) in compot and 2" pot as I do with adult plants. This has worked for me. BTW - the phrag hybrids that I got from Chuck are vigorous and grow very quickly. They did seem to have to adjust to my growing conditions. One error I did make, which Chuck quickly corrected, was that I watered with R/O water and fertilized very infrequently. The plants grew and then stopped and then started to die. They exhausted the fert supply in the spag with my frequent R/O waterings. Two weeks later and the addition of more fertlizer, they quickly got back on track.

Good Luck you seem to be on track - be carefull with R/O water. I have seen the warnings on this site many times and luckily Chuck educated me before I did any real damage.
 
Recently, I have one of Chuck's besseae's "A-One" x "Cow Hollow II", a besseae compot from OB (forget the cross), a leucochilim and charlesworthii from Sam. I am potting up the charlesworthii this weekend - there are supposed to be some albums in this cross.
 
My opinions, suggestions and questions follow.....

ohio-guy said:
I got a little ambitious and bought a couple compots from orchid babies, which seem to be growing very vigorously. They were all phrag crosses.

Do you know how long they have been in the compot? When they were removed from the flask.

On arrival they were grouped as a bunch of seedlings in the center of a 3.5 inch pot, with a mass of spagnum around them. The roots were very healthy, but mostly long and not many "branches" to them.
As I had spagmun on hand, I have repotted some singly into 2.25 inch pots.

How big are the plants?
Do the separate easily?
Sphagnum is a good choice for media although I prefer leca. Your best choice is to use the same media you use on your other plants, perhaps a finer grade if it is too coarse.

My question is..... what next? Do I pot them all up into spagnum, until roots branch more?

You probably won't see a lot of roots branching. But rather more new roots growing from the base of the plants. How long are the roots on the plants now?

How large does a compot plant need to be to go solo?

That depends on what works best for you as the grower. The plant does not care. I completely skip the compot stage for the most part. I plant Phrags individually into 3 inch pots directly out of flask as long as the flasklings have decent roots. Smaller plants may go 3 plants per 3 inch pot. I don't like using compots. So you see you can put your new compot seedlings directly into individual pots anytime you like. In my opinion the sooner the better.

Won't bunching them in a central wad cause root growth restriction and a mess of tangles?

Yes, and less light to the leaves.

Does anyone have experience with compots, and growing them on?

Yes, As I said above I would move the seedling to individual pots as soon as they have decent roots. Mostly compots are to save bench space.

Presently I have been watering with rain water mostly, and also have the seedlings growing on a seed starter heat matt, to increase bottom warmth, and hopefully increase rooting. I am growing under a bank of florescent lights, and the plants seems to be doing ok. I have not yet used any fertilizer on them, but have some MSU for tap water on hand, but read somewhere that seedling roots are more prone to fertilizer burn.

Fertilize them. Seedlings when very young are more sensitive to everything including fertilizer because their tissues are thinner and softer. But once they are hardened off they need the same nutrients as older growing plants. You should use the MSU at normal strength (100ppm=N). Frequency of fertilizer applications should be adjusted for the growing media.

What have your experiences been with compots, especially Phrags? What kind of successes or failures has anyone else experienced?

You should have 100% survival rate.
 
Thanks for all the input.

The crosses I got were
Piercei 'little' x Franz Glanz "yellow sunset"
Sunset Glow "twilight" x richteri "twister"
Franz Glanz = richteri "twister" x besseae "neon baby"
Mary Bess = Carcinum "EFG" x besseae "neon Baby"
and a mini compot of Jason Fisher that promised at least
5 plants and had 11!

All told I have about 90 plants, the largest have leaf spans of 8 inches already, the smallest about 2 inch span.

Does anyone else use bottom heat with a grow pad? My growing area can be chilly, 60 f at night 70 f during the day, so I wanted to boost the heat a bit.

I will definately have to start fertilizing.
I have had the plants about a month already, and have already seen some of the bigger ones increase in size.

I was looking this morning and even thought i saw one of them puting out a new growth, but it may be just a root budding.
 
Lance,

I don't know when they were compoted, as I didn't think to ask, but the ad said they were mostly ready for potting up, so I presume they have been grown this way for at least a while.

When I first got the plants I did separate them, and inspected the roots and leaves, and counted them too. some roots were 4 inches or so long, a bit tangled, but easily teased apart.
I did not measure them out, but did take photos of some.
The variation of size was pretty consistant thru each compot with a few really large and a few really small, but most were about 4 to 5 inch leaf span.
I potted the largest off as single plants right away, but had to wait for more pots to finish the others.
They are now mostly in single pots for a couple weeks, and on some of the plants I can see new roots that are 0.5 to 1 inch long, growing laterally out of the base.

I selected mostly smaller "windowsill" types, but if all survive I will have a house full!
 
ohio-guy said:
I selected mostly smaller "windowsill" types, but if all survive I will have a house full!
LOL!:rollhappy:
I saw a couple I dont have in my collection, if you need to get rid of some contact me.
 
Water quality is very important and air circulation is also important. Pesticide and fungicide use should be used very sparingly especially the systemic types. They are very toxic to young seedlings as well.

Paphman910
 

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