The Coryopedilum Chronicles VII – Six month status review
This Chronicle documents the status of two flasks each of Paphiopedilum sanderianum, rothschildianum, platyphyllum, adductum v. anitum and randsii six months after they were deflasked and placed into compots.
In Chronicles VI, there were two new additions- freshly deflasked single flasks of Paphiopedilum adductum and praestans. In Chronicles VII, we add Paphiopedilum stonei- but the plants have only been out of flask for a month, so a status report on those will be forthcoming in Chronicles VIII.
The status of each species is presented in a separate section, along with photographs.
Growing conditions - updated
The compots are all together on a single shelf in a bathroom- so no natural light. Artificial light was provided by four Phillips T8 32W 48” Natural Light bulbs, 2850 lumens, 5000k bulbs that were approximately 18 inches above the leaves until three months ago. At Chronicles VI, all plants were approximately 12 inches from the lights, save for a selection of platyphyllum and randsii which were being tested out at 9 inches from the lights.
The increased lighting proved a very bad idea. The subjects of these Chronicles did not suffer unduly, but leading up to a month ago, Paph. villosum compots started shedding old leaves and everyone’s foliage got quite light. To that end, I have gone now very strongly in the opposite direction. Some plants are now 15 inches from two fixtures (or four bulbs) and the rest are about 12 inches away from a single fixture (or two bulbs.) A few of each Chronicles subject are under each condition, and I will explore the results in Chronicles VIII.
The other option would have been to keep two fixtures per shelf and have the plants back at 18 inches from the lights, but that would have meant two growing shelves per shelving unit instead of three, and since the goal of these Chronicles is to be practical- it made more sense to first test out fewer fixtures with the same number of shelves. We shall see what happens.
Watering has been out of the tap for four months with no ill effect. No fertilizers or other supplements have been applied, and at this point none are planned for the foreseeable future. With the decreased lighting, watering is now only necessary twice a week- and every 6 weeks or so I skip a watering to ensure the centers of the compots do not remain too wet.
Temperature and humidity are monitored on an ongoing basis. Currently, with the new lighting scheme and also generally lower winter temperatures (and cooler temps inside the home), there is more fluctuation than was the case over the summer, with humidity ranging from 60% to 72% and temperatures as high as 77 during the day, with a low of 70 at night.
Plant losses defined
One of the statistics reported below in each section is plant loss. Please know that I define a “plant” as having at least two leaves and at least one good root. In any flask, you will always lose some or all of the really tiny plants that have not rooted well. And so I am not including them in the reported plant losses.
Paphiopedilum sanderianum
The three compots that were potted with the agar removed are on the left, and the two with agar partially intact are on the right- along with 3 seedlings that got so large they had to be potted out.
These continue to do well and are growing nicely, if not as fast as before. The increased light intensity has not caused any significant difficulties, but I do think the lower light levels now in place will be better for the plants.
The plants potted with agar intact continue to be a bit more vigorous than the plants with agar removed, but now that the other subjects in these Chronicles are seeing that gap disappear, I have to wonder if the parentage of each sibling cross might be making a difference. Unfortunately, in the case of sanderianum there were not two flasks of the same parentage available as was the case for the other species.
There have been no plant losses.
Paphiopedilum rothschildianum
The two compots that were potted with the agar removed are on the left (they were fairly clumped in flask and so not individually separated- hence two compots vs three), and the two with agar partially intact are on the right.
These were finally starting to take off in Chronicles VI, and are now really growing at an exceptional rate. Until they really start crowding I am reluctant to pot them out though- I want to be sure they are very well rooted. At this point there is not a significant difference in performance between plants compotted with agar intact vs. agar removed.
There have been no plant losses.
Paphiopedilum platyphyllum
These continue to astonish me with their rapid growth rate, and now they are demonstrating the very wide and slightly undulate foliage pattern of mature plants. You only see 4 compots here because these got so big I had no choice but to unpot the two largest compots, plant out the largest 15 seedlings, and then make new compots with the plants not yet large enough to be on their own.
Of all the species, these had the least negative reaction to a test of higher light levels, but do note that some of the smallest flask leaves were starting to yellow slightly- and it was happening all at once. So they might have been on the brink of trouble. Either way, all is great now.
One interesting note- when I potted out the 15 plants in the second photo, all had very good root growth but it was quite shallow in the pot. I will be interested to see if this persists.
There have been no plant losses.
This Chronicle documents the status of two flasks each of Paphiopedilum sanderianum, rothschildianum, platyphyllum, adductum v. anitum and randsii six months after they were deflasked and placed into compots.
In Chronicles VI, there were two new additions- freshly deflasked single flasks of Paphiopedilum adductum and praestans. In Chronicles VII, we add Paphiopedilum stonei- but the plants have only been out of flask for a month, so a status report on those will be forthcoming in Chronicles VIII.
The status of each species is presented in a separate section, along with photographs.
Growing conditions - updated
The compots are all together on a single shelf in a bathroom- so no natural light. Artificial light was provided by four Phillips T8 32W 48” Natural Light bulbs, 2850 lumens, 5000k bulbs that were approximately 18 inches above the leaves until three months ago. At Chronicles VI, all plants were approximately 12 inches from the lights, save for a selection of platyphyllum and randsii which were being tested out at 9 inches from the lights.
The increased lighting proved a very bad idea. The subjects of these Chronicles did not suffer unduly, but leading up to a month ago, Paph. villosum compots started shedding old leaves and everyone’s foliage got quite light. To that end, I have gone now very strongly in the opposite direction. Some plants are now 15 inches from two fixtures (or four bulbs) and the rest are about 12 inches away from a single fixture (or two bulbs.) A few of each Chronicles subject are under each condition, and I will explore the results in Chronicles VIII.
The other option would have been to keep two fixtures per shelf and have the plants back at 18 inches from the lights, but that would have meant two growing shelves per shelving unit instead of three, and since the goal of these Chronicles is to be practical- it made more sense to first test out fewer fixtures with the same number of shelves. We shall see what happens.
Watering has been out of the tap for four months with no ill effect. No fertilizers or other supplements have been applied, and at this point none are planned for the foreseeable future. With the decreased lighting, watering is now only necessary twice a week- and every 6 weeks or so I skip a watering to ensure the centers of the compots do not remain too wet.
Temperature and humidity are monitored on an ongoing basis. Currently, with the new lighting scheme and also generally lower winter temperatures (and cooler temps inside the home), there is more fluctuation than was the case over the summer, with humidity ranging from 60% to 72% and temperatures as high as 77 during the day, with a low of 70 at night.
Plant losses defined
One of the statistics reported below in each section is plant loss. Please know that I define a “plant” as having at least two leaves and at least one good root. In any flask, you will always lose some or all of the really tiny plants that have not rooted well. And so I am not including them in the reported plant losses.
Paphiopedilum sanderianum

The three compots that were potted with the agar removed are on the left, and the two with agar partially intact are on the right- along with 3 seedlings that got so large they had to be potted out.
These continue to do well and are growing nicely, if not as fast as before. The increased light intensity has not caused any significant difficulties, but I do think the lower light levels now in place will be better for the plants.
The plants potted with agar intact continue to be a bit more vigorous than the plants with agar removed, but now that the other subjects in these Chronicles are seeing that gap disappear, I have to wonder if the parentage of each sibling cross might be making a difference. Unfortunately, in the case of sanderianum there were not two flasks of the same parentage available as was the case for the other species.
There have been no plant losses.
Paphiopedilum rothschildianum

The two compots that were potted with the agar removed are on the left (they were fairly clumped in flask and so not individually separated- hence two compots vs three), and the two with agar partially intact are on the right.
These were finally starting to take off in Chronicles VI, and are now really growing at an exceptional rate. Until they really start crowding I am reluctant to pot them out though- I want to be sure they are very well rooted. At this point there is not a significant difference in performance between plants compotted with agar intact vs. agar removed.
There have been no plant losses.
Paphiopedilum platyphyllum


These continue to astonish me with their rapid growth rate, and now they are demonstrating the very wide and slightly undulate foliage pattern of mature plants. You only see 4 compots here because these got so big I had no choice but to unpot the two largest compots, plant out the largest 15 seedlings, and then make new compots with the plants not yet large enough to be on their own.
Of all the species, these had the least negative reaction to a test of higher light levels, but do note that some of the smallest flask leaves were starting to yellow slightly- and it was happening all at once. So they might have been on the brink of trouble. Either way, all is great now.
One interesting note- when I potted out the 15 plants in the second photo, all had very good root growth but it was quite shallow in the pot. I will be interested to see if this persists.
There have been no plant losses.