Watering update!

So it’s been more than two months since I started watering my plants differently.  And so far, I’m really liking the progress my plants are making.  Our orchid society had a speaker come in two months ago, to discuss how he grows his plants.  And his presentation revolved around his watering regime.  The output of his plants was amazing, and everyone in my society had questions.  My friend and I decided we would try his watering technique and see how it would do for us.

Now he grows in a nice big greenhouse, while my friend and I grow under lights in our home.  So we couldn’t keep things 100% the same as him, but we tried as best we could.  Since she started, her plants have exploded with multiple growths, and many are beginning to spike that hadn’t bloomed for her before.  She’s really happy with the turnout.

I have smaller plants, more seedlings than blooming size plants, so I haven’t seen much in the way of blooming, but I have seen a LOT of new growth.  Almost all my plants are growing at least one new growth or new leaves.  All my plants are growing new roots, and they are already reaching the bottom of their pots.

Here are the 6 plants I documented a few weeks ago, and how they are doing now.

Masdevallia ayabacana:

This one has roots growing all over the place.  It’s still putting out multiple growths at the same time.  But there is no signs of spiking yet.  I’m hoping that’ll change near the end of summer time.

Masdevallia bennettii:

This one is growing similar to the ayabacana.  It’s growing multiple leaves, it seems to always be growing some.  It put out two new spikes, but one blasted when the summer heat really began to kick in.  As you can see in the second pic though, the roots on this plant are going nuts.  It started with very few roots, but now the roots go to the bottom of the pot, and out the drainage holes.  I’m hoping this means the plant will have a lot of energy and explode with blooms near the end of summer time.  This plant has definitely doubled in size at least.

Leptotes bicolor:

This one is growing well.  For the first time, since I’ve had it, it’s growing two growths at once.  They are growing roots into the pot, and I’m hoping the next time I repot it I can finally get the rest of the mount off of it.  I don’t expect blooms from this, it is still in recovery mode right now, and will probably take some time to get strong enough to produce blooms.

Dendrobium kingianum alba:

This one is doing well.  I don’t usually do well with Dend kingianum.  I can’t provide enough water to it while it’s growing and the new growths tend to desiccate.  But so far, the new growths are still shiny and new looking, and it’s beginning to grow roots out of the pot too.  Hopefully I can get it to bloom once it grows a bit bigger.

Cattelya White Bridal ‘Yuki’:

This one is growing really well.  The roots are growing down into the pot, roots everywhere.  And the new growth is doing really well.  I’m hoping maybe I’ll see some blooms from this one soon.

Dendrobium Rainbow Dance ‘Akazukin Chan’:

I’m so glad I got a replacement of this plant.  I forgot how much I love it.  It’s been blooming for about a month on different canes.  It’s roots are exploding, filling the pot real nicely.  And it seems like every time I look at it, it’s growing a new cane.  This one seems to have taken to the new watering the best.

 

So basically what this gentleman did, was soak Oyster shells in water for a week.  On his watering day, he waters his plants with regular tap water.  He waits 15 minutes and then comes back and waters his plants with tap water a second time.  This acts as a flushing in their pots, to remove any built up salt.  Then he takes water from the bucket that has had Oyster shells soaking in it, adds his fertilizer and waters all the plants again.

If it’s a sunny day, he uses less fertilizer, if it’s a cloudy day he uses more.  If the weather is so warm that his plants are dry by mid week, he waters again, but with regular tap water.

I have not managed to get a bucket yet to soak my Oyster shells, neither has my friend, so we added ours to the top of our media.  We use Miracle Gro All Purpose Fertilizer during growing months, and we will switch to Miracle Gro Tomato Fertilizer during the cooler winter months when growth doesn’t usually happen.

It will be interesting to see if I get any blooms for our show in October.  Crossing my fingers!

I’m thinking of trying something new, I might begin posting a monthly update video on youtube to show my plants, and how they are doing.  What do you think?  Would you watch?

Let me know!

Happy belated Mother’s Day! I’m starting something new..

Happy late mother’s day to any moms out there.  How was your special day?  I got to spend mine with my plants in the morning and my boys in the evening.

Bud Watch update!

Well it’s been awhile since anything was posted, so I should probably give an update.

Many plants have been growing strong.  Many are beginning their growth spurts, some have started growing that I thought were just sitting there doing nothing since I had gotten them.

Schoenorchis fragrans and other new growths

Valentine’s day is coming!  Which means spring is around the corner!  New growths should begin sprouting, and plants will begin growing like weeds!

It’s been awhile…

I have been so busy lately, that I haven’t had time to post.  We had a city water pipe burst a few weeks ago, that flooded our property and part of our basement, so we’ve been in repair mode.  The house looks like a disaster zone, but the orchids were untouched.

Being so busy with trying to clean up the giant mess, I haven’t had much time to look after the plants.  I still managed to water them when they needed it, but I didn’t pay much attention to them to see about new growths and what not.  You’ll understand my surprise then when I finally had a few minutes to look at them and notice all the changes.

All the plants I purchased at the Orchid Show last month have been moved into the main case with my other plants.  So I was able to inspect each plant.

What a nice weekend!

Over the weekend it was the Fraser Valley Orchid Society Show and Sale, my mother and I went for some “girl time”, and had a really nice time.  This is one of the bigger shows to go to, and I was really excited to go because they usually have vendors from all around the world.  I wasn’t disappointed!

I forgot to take my camera with me so I wasn’t able to get pictures of all the displays from the local Orchid societies, but they were amazing.  There were lots of miniatures, and some massive specimen plants there to be seen.  I was there for the juicy stuff in the next room though.

In previous years when I’ve gone, I brought a long list of plants I wanted to get, hoping I would find them there.  This year I went with a different approach, I had an idea of some I would like to get, but there was only one or two I was specifically looking for that were must haves.  Sadly for me, I couldn’t find any of my must haves, but I didn’t walk away empty handed.

Fall arrives.. and we get a spike and two more plants!

It’s obvious, summer is technically over, but the warmth is hanging on – that too will finally starting to make it’s way out.  The cooler, more humid temps of fall will make their way into the spotlight.  I, personally, love fall, I hate summer, it gets too hot, too dry… you get sunblock all over your clothes, it’s nice because stuff grows but that’s about it.  I’m not a summer person.

Fall brought new worries this year for me.  This is the first Fall since I started collecting Orchids again, and I’m worried that things might get too cool or wet for my babies.  Hopefully this won’t be a problem.  But it brings to the forefront the idea of lowering watering amounts, fertilizing less and possible winter rest periods for some plants.

I’ve done some looking, and most of the plants I have bloom in the Fall – Spring period.  So while summer was mostly bloomless for me, I’m hoping something will bloom in the next few months and brighten up the cold days.

The cooler weather also means I’ll be going longer periods in between watering.  I don’t want root rot to set in, but some like the Bulbo like being wetter, so I’m going to have to start playing it by ear.

How many more ways can I say stuff is growing?

Every week I’ve posted something talking about how each plant has grown.  Well last week I decided I wasn’t going to post anything because saying “a root grew an inch!” just isn’t exciting…

So my updates will probably be fewer, so as not to bore people.  That being said, the past two weeks have been great.  The weather has been super hot, but really dry.  I had all the plants in a humidity tray, that had a lid to keep humidity up.  With all the plants growing so much though, space was really cramped.

Queue my darling hubby.  Due to a move at his work, he was able to snag a glass container for me!  And it’s awesome!  It’s 4 shelves tall, all glass except for the base and top, and has a spot for me to hook up a light at the top.  I’ve moved all the plants to it, but it makes me realize I have a LOT of free space now.  Keeping humidity up in the new cabinet is challenging.  With so few plants, humidity is lower, I’ve now resorted to leaving a tub of water inside it, and spraying the glass several times a day to keep it around 40%.

I’ll probably end up having to make a sheet of plastic wrap to put down the edge of the door, so keep humid air in.  And I’ll probably think about using some Aluminum foil to reflect light back into the plants.

But this is a site about plants, so here’s what’s going on with them.

With cooler temps, comes less watering

Well the hot summer temps seem to be over for now in Vancouver, which means more clouds, higher humidity and the plants aren’t drying out as quickly.  I’ve begun to reduce watering to avoid root rot, so the updates aren’t as frequent.  But the change in heat, hasn’t stopped the plants from growing like mad!

My Phal. NoID that I believe to be Phal. Ever Spring Prince is growing quickly.  It’s new leaf is coming out a nice round shape and a healthy green colour with little freckles all over it.  It’s exploding with roots from the crown, and existing roots are growing thick and healthy into the media.  I know this one just finished blooming, but I’m hoping maybe when the temps get really cool, I’ll be treated to another spike from this one.  I really liked the small purple blooms.

And the growing continues…

My last update was almost a week and a half ago.  The three new orchids are doing well, I kept them separate from the main group up until this past watering because the weather has changed.  Most of last week was a heat wave, some of the highest temps we’ve seen all summer!  The mounted plants loved it outside, I was almost tempted to put everyone out there but decided against it.  Knowing my luck, I’d forget they were there and they’d all burn to a crisp in the sun the next day.

The Leptotes bicolor is growing slowly, the new growth hasn’t really gotten any longer yet, but the new root it was pushing out has grown a few more millimeters and is beginning to turn inwards towards the mount.  Since this species is a late winter bloomer, I don’t know if I’ll be seeing any blooms from the new lead or not.  If I don’t I still have one growth that appears to not have flowered yet.