Show us Paph. that you've killed.

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my biggest EVER disappointment ..EVER!!

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That's a FCC! How did it die?
 
Do not make me weep:sob: I have lost sooo many flasks and grown plants, notably hangianums, emersonii, tigrinum, sanderianum etc. priced at 1000'nds of USD.:sob: And of course almost all of my micranthums that flowered two-three years ago:sob: And when my wife finds out.......:(
 
Do not make me weep:sob: I have lost sooo many flasks and grown plants, notably hangianums, emersonii, tigrinum, sanderianum etc. priced at 1000'nds of USD.:sob: And of course almost all of my micranthums that flowered two-three years ago:sob: And when my wife finds out.......:(

Don't tell her! It will be our little secret!:evil:
 
Is this a graveyard thread? :p So far, I lost quite a number of paphs when I was away from 2008-2011, mostly due to a severe scale infestation. Most of them recovered after a pretty intensive spraying of neem oil and insecticide. Also a large number of multiflora seedlings.
 
Mine were suicidal. All of them, except Pinocchio.
But lately Pinocchio has looked somewhat stressed.
I'm hoping for the best.


W/O a greenhouse, have found Paphs to be just a hemorrhoid.
 
I grow mostly roths....aside from the heartbreak of losing expensive divisions ...never buy single growth divisions....I also hate when roths decline then die over a two year period after a first blooming. they grow like weeds as seedlings only to give up the ghost after flowering. i've found those that blast instead of spiking, however, grow even stronger afterwards.
 
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!! What happended???

Rot... I just don't remember if it was bacterial of fungal...

But I guess the plant became prone to diseases because of its weakness. Maybe I should have removed the bud... After the death of that beauty, I decided to cut the bud of one of its sibling when it was in low bud. Results :the plant is almost dead now anyway. I have another plant that bloomed and that is still growing but the bloom was not as fine as the one on the picture. I decided to reduce fertilization of all my delenatiis since a few months.
 
Let's put it this way.
I lose a lot, mostly due to overwatering and not giving enough attention.

losses:
canhii
canhii
canhii
sangii
(remember that order of about 40 seedlings from Ten Shin, only 5 are alive still)
Gloria Naugle multigrowth BS... It rapidly goes downhill from here!! :(
 
Eric- Can you tell me what you attribute the losses to the canhii are from more specifically? I am trying to prepare myself for when the time comes.
 
General incompetence. My lack of skill w/ small plants. As my German 'ex'-GF would say, "because you are a male!". Small seedlings w/ not good roots.
 
I bought a few in that order. Most have died. I blame that the seedlings were too small to sell. They were not well established. The plants and roots were all weak.
 
Probably my greatest concentration of paph deaths occurred when I got a batch of Rexius bark from OFE. Horrible stuff...my hands would get splinters whenever I worked with it. It seemed decent enough, but I've never seen bark rot so fast. I should have repotted every 5-6 months. When a hot summer hit, the combination of bad bark and heat was too much. I lost tigrinum, insigne sanderianum, and lots more. Funny...my phrags loved that lousy bark. Part of my problem was that I was really into trading, and I divided my plants too frequently. When I could have had a reserve of plants, I had only one. I've learned since then...and never Rexius bark ever!
 
Compared to many of your stories, I've been pretty lucky over the years, but I've had two major extinction events, where I lost a lot of plants, both times it was primarily phrags.

First extinction event was my introduction to erwinia. This was probably in the 2004 - 2005 range, in the dead of winter if memory serves correct. It seemed like one day, my collection was perfectly fine, two or three days later, nearly all paphs and phrags had some level of infection. It destroyed almost all of my seedlings and took a couple years for the blooming sized plants to recover. I don't specifically recall which plants died, I just know that some were immediately total losses, some simply failed to recover.

The second extinction event was due to my neglect. That was around 2008 or 2009. I was working and going to school full time, plus getting adjusted to new growing conditions, which were already suboptimal, and having to cut back on light and heat because I could barely pay the bills. Over the course of a few months, I lost a lot of plants. Many of these were mature, multi-growth specimens. This second extinction was the one I regret the most. I lost the only plant I've ever had awarded, a phrag. I also lost a particularly nice phrag schlimii. There were many others as well, too many to name or count. Surprisingly, the phrags dealt better with neglect than the paphs did. Or at least I should say, the phrags were easier to recover than the paphs.

The most expensive loss, though was a Phrag. Fritz Schomburg. I bought a near blooming sized plant back when they were really expensive (for me expensive is $100+). It did really well for me, made me feel like a real pro. One winter, it looked particularly promising. It had two growths, one mature, the other new. The base of the oldest growth started swelling, a sure sign it might bloom. And then my roommate's cat decided it was delicious. When I found the plant, what foliage wasn't eaten was just a mushy mess. Needless to say, the plant didn't survive, not for lack of trying.
 
Has anyone ever noticed that the minute a plant is awarded it tries to die? Must be Murphy's Law.

I have a long list of casualties....too long to list here. Mostly from a 'learning curve' on growing but a few from plain stupidity. :sob:
 
And when my wife finds out.......:(

:poke::poke::wink:

Over the last 12 years I probably killed at least one of almost every species of Paph and phrag. In the past I'd loose whole compots of seedlings (usually a slow burn process though).

The barbata types, namely purpuratum and sukhakulii, I've gone through a lot of blooming size plants (I don't have the $$ to keep replacing blooming size multiflorals).

Needless to say (again) the losses and shortcomings have declined precipitously since going low K.

I haven't lost any of my awarded paphs, and out of my Ten Shin order, I've lost no more than 25%. I've only lost 1 of five papuanums and the survivors are doing very well.

I recently lost a compot of wardii to erwinia, but I had only had them for about a week or two before they came down with it. A second compot of older wardii and one of spicerianum right next to them have no losses at all, and growing very fast.
 
I am a scientific person. I am not superstitious...don't believe in getting jinxed, everything is logical. Yet I learned very early on in life, when I kept tropical fish (still do, of course) that when it comes to keeping things alive, whether plants, fish, reptiles.....there is a clear relationship between mortality and cost. The more expensive your plant,fish,etc is, the greater the likelihood of its death, especially with fish. I'm sure this can be scientifically proven.......
 
The more expensive your plant,fish,etc is, the greater the likelihood of its death, especially with fish. I'm sure this can be scientifically proven.......

I'd say that's a fair assertion. That's the justification I've been using the past few months to avoid buying the nice, big, healthy sanderianum seedling I've been eyeing at the local nursery. Though, I don't know if I have the willpower to hold out much longer.
 
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