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Rabbit

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Toronto, On, Canada
I've been reading the posts for a while, but finally decided to register and ask a question. I grow orchids in my Toronto condo in terrariums. I bought my !st orchids in Sept 08 - mostly phals at first, because I thought they were the easiest. Then I got a Paph Maudiae. It bloomed and rebloomed with no trouble whatsoever, so I bought several more - all Maudiae varieties. They are all growing very well with some getting ready to rebloom.

In Feb., I plan to go to an orchid show here in Toronto and purchase some more paphs. Can someone please recommend some beginner paphs that are not Maudiae?

They will be going into terrarium conditions which are quite warm and humid. Summer temps average 26-28C (78-82F) with little variation between day and night. Winter temps are 22-24C (71-75F) daytime, down to 19/20C (66/68F) at night. Humidity averages 60% -70%, but can be 90% overnight and morning, before the lights come on and can drop to 40% if the top if left completely off. Tank height is 24".

Does anyone have any suggestions? Thanks a lot.
 
Paph callosum, Paph. venustum, Paphiopedilum sukhakuli, Paph. victoria-regina, Paph delenatii.

Paphman910
 
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Thanks for your suggestions. I've seen some of these and quite like them. Now I just have to track them down at the Show. How about paph concolor?
 
I will assume a terrarium in an apartment means the night temps are in the middle 60's F (about 18 C) or maybe even a little warmer. Any of the Indonesian and Malaysian species should do well, also the low elevation Thailand, Burma, & Indian species should be okay. I would stay away from the Chinese species generally because they want to be significantly cooler at night in winter. So with these thoughts I recomend:

Paphs niveum, godefroyae, & Greyii - and most of the hybrids in this group.

chamberlainianum (victoria-reginae), primulinum, glaucophyllum, Pinocchio, Salvador Dali, & liemianum; the hybrids here are especially easy.

appletonianum, virens (or javanicum), hookerae, callosum, lawrencianum, cilliolare, urbanianum, sukhakulii, superbiens, & curtisii

the only member of the insigne group I am certain doesn't want a cool off in winter is Paph exul, Paph insigne also may do okay in the terrerium, but if it doesn't bloom for you it might be because it needs a sharper day-night differential.

Paph philippinense, stonei, praestans, lowii, & haynaldianum all like fairly warm temps, but they do need higher light than typical Maudiae hybrids to bloom well. Any rothschildianum hybrid with one of these species will be warm blooded enough that you can bloom them in a terrarium if there is enough light. All the hybrids from these species are easy to grow, especially with Paph lowii. (to some extent you can make up for low light intensity with longer daylength, say 18 hour days instead of 12 hour days)

Hybrids that contain one or more species from this list should be easy in your conditions. If you run you home cooler at night in winter than my assumption, I think you could literally grow any Paph you wanted to, if you got light and other considerations in line. If you drop much below 60 F at night (15 C) you might have trouble with the warmer blooded Paphs on this list, though most of them are pretty tolerant to cooler than ideal conditions.

Have fun, there are really few limits.
 
Welcome to Slippertalk, Rabbit! Lots of good suggestions above.

I just have one question: In your terrarium, do you have any air movement?
 
Wow! That's a lot to digest, but I'm glad I have so many choices.

As far as air circulation, SlipperFan, I have 5 tanks - 4 are 18" in height, 1 is 24". I'm thinking of replacing one with another 24", so I can grow more of the taller plants, so perhaps I'll need to install a fan.

So far none of the tanks have fans. I'm not having any problems with mold or fog. I'm experimenting with various openings in the tanks. One tank is completely open, with only the light fixture covering the top. The humidity is lowest of the tanks at 40% to 50%. The others have glass partially covering the openings. I'm thinking I will have to put a fan into the taller tanks, but as I said, things are growing well and blooming, so should I leave well enough alone?
 
chamberlainianum (victoria-reginae), glaucophyllum, Salvador Dali, & liemianum; the hybrids here are especially easy.

Paph philippinense, stonei, praestans, lowii, & haynaldianum all like fairly warm temps, rothschildianum hybrid with one of these species will be warm blooded enough that you can bloom them in a terrarium if there is enough light.
As mature, blooming size plants these are going to be too big for an aquarium.

Wow! That's a lot to digest, but I'm glad I have so many choices.

As far as air circulation, SlipperFan, I have 5 tanks - 4 are 18" in height, 1 is 24". I'm thinking of replacing one with another 24", so I can grow more of the taller plants, so perhaps I'll need to install a fan.

So far none of the tanks have fans. I'm not having any problems with mold or fog. I'm experimenting with various openings in the tanks. One tank is completely open, with only the light fixture covering the top. The humidity is lowest of the tanks at 40% to 50%. The others have glass partially covering the openings. I'm thinking I will have to put a fan into the taller tanks, but as I said, things are growing well and blooming, so should I leave well enough alone?

It is alot to digest but it will also depend on what is appealing to you.

If humidity is as low as 40-50%, why have them in an aquarium at all? Running a humidifier can give you that & you reap some of the benefits as well! Some of them, with the addition of flower spikes, will exceed 24", a big drop in humidity could be a major cause for blooms to blast.

The fan situation ...... I think you're playing with fire. I have a GH & I saw quite a difference in my plants when I added clip on fans. When it comes to aquariums it's hard to find appropriate size & power fans but they're out there.
 
The reason that I'm growing in terrariums is mainly that I can control the light. In a city apartment, even in the summer, windows and growing space is at a premium. Terrariums look more attractive than large growing stands, and after 11:00 in the morning, I have no sun due to balcony overhangs and the like. Light meter readings in the middle of the day are under 1000, even under 500 fc.

As long as plants grow and bloom for me, I'm not going to install fans. I'm trying to keep it simple. Thanks again for everyone's advice.
 
I would get a delenatii, Magic Lantern, Ho Chi Minh, Pinocchio, villosum, insigne, spicerianum, Satin Smoke, Deperle, or Norito Hasegawa (or all of the above :p). There are tons of easy-growing Paphs out there. These are just some of my suggestions based on my own experience.
 
Joe - I'm puzzled by the recommendation of Ho Chi Minh & Satin Smoke (or most parvis). According to Nick Tanacci good air circulation is a must & to be honest it wasn't until I added more fans & lightened my mix that I saw an improvement in mine. We know they are sensitive to neem but should he have a fungal problem that could further weaken the plant(s) & now are there other chemicals that they could be sensitive to? I wouldn't think Satin Smoke or any slow grower would be easy.
 
Joe - I'm puzzled by the recommendation of Ho Chi Minh & Satin Smoke (or most parvis). According to Nick Tanacci good air circulation is a must & to be honest it wasn't until I added more fans & lightened my mix that I saw an improvement in mine. We know they are sensitive to neem but should he have a fungal problem that could further weaken the plant(s) & now are there other chemicals that they could be sensitive to? I wouldn't think Satin Smoke or any slow grower would be easy.

I have never had any problems with any of the Parvis I mentioned. As a matter of fact, I have never had problems with any Parvis, but I listed some of the ones that are cheaper, easier to get, and easier to bloom. For me, they have been strong, vigorous growers and are easy bloomers (though Ho Chi Minh tends to grow slower). Satin Smoke in particular is very easy to grow, no more difficult than a Maudiae type. It blooms reliably each year and clumps up quickly. I am not a greenhouse grower and have no special set-ups. I don't even run fans most of the time. However, I don't grow in terraria. I'm just saying that in my experience, all of the plants I mentioned are easy to grow. I don't know why Parvis get such a bad rap for being hard to grow. Many are slow growers, and many are tough to bloom (and again, none of the ones I mentioned are), but they are not hard to grow. Maybe I'm just lucky.

If air movement is the issue here, I'm surprised you didn't question Leo's recommendation of Brachys, which are perhaps more prone to rot than any other type of Paph (By the way Leo, I'm not falsifying your recommendation, just mentioning it for the sake of this argument).
 
By the way, Nick Tannaci is a great grower. I've read articles he's written, and I use some of his techniques. However, you can't ever follow someone else's growing regimen, because no one has the same conditions in their growing area. For example, in a recent article published by Nick in the Orchid Digest, he describes his four-step watering and fertilizing program that he uses. A great program, but if I were to follow it exactly, I'd get undesirable results; for example, in step three, he waters the plants after they have dried out, I think it says 7-10 days. If I were to do that the plants would have been bone dry for 4 or 5 days before they got watered again. I would have to adjust this so that I water after about 2 or 3 days to get the same effect. Someone else might have to do the opposite.

The number one most important thing you can do to advance this hobby is experiment. Definitely the advice of others is valuable, but it should all be taken with a grain of salt. There is no right or wrong way to grow orchids, and everyone has different experiences. So, I've made my recommendations based on my own experiences, and I stand by them. I do realize that Rabbit is growing in a terrarium, which has higher humidity than my growing areas. But honestly, in high humidity any Paph should get good air circulation, not just Parvis. Rabbit will have to experiment to see what works best for him/her, but I would be surprised if he/she had any more difficulty with the Parvis I mentioned than with any of the other Paphs mentioned here.
 
I completely understand that everyone's growing conditions differ and can produce very different results. My conditions are probably at the extreme end of growing orchids. I have been looking at all your suggestions and will continue for a while. A lot will depend also on what I will find available at the Show.

Right now, because all my paphs are quite similar, I will try to find something completely different, yellow, pink, or white - something like niveum, delanatii, concolor, godefroyae, or hybrids from those groups. However, I might end up with something I don't expect if I fall in love with it at the show.

I am going to keep investigating all your suggestions over the internet. Thanks again.
 
The number one most important thing you can do to advance this hobby is experiment. Definitely the advice of others is valuable, but it should all be taken with a grain of salt. There is no right or wrong way to grow orchids, and everyone has different experiences.

Joe's a wise man. Must've heard one of my lectures. :)

-Ernie
 

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