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!

A few more additions

Hey there!  At our last Society meeting a couple weeks ago, I came home with some new friends.  A member of our society is reducing his collection, and selling his plants off at super low prices.  So I snagged 3 plants for $15 total.  I figured it would be a good time to try something new, or something I’d tried before and failed at.

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.

Spring is in the air….

I don’t know about where you might live, but here in Vancouver, BC winter has held on with it’s icy claws for what seems like forever.  The weather has only just started to change, but it has changed from snow and cold to cloudy and rainy.

It’s been awhile…

I haven’t made a blog post in what seems like forever.  It’s been crazy here. I’ve had family members in and out of hospital, some for short stays and some for extended stays.  We’ve added a new addition to our family, I am now officially outnumbered in this house.

Through all of this the orchids have plugged along.  I admit there was a lot of neglect and many didnt survive.   My collection has shrunk drastically.  That’s mostly because I just got so busy that I lost track and began to lose interest.  When you’ve been up most the night with a screaming baby the last thing on your mind is hauling some 120 plants to the sink to be watered.  So the weak ones died and the strong ones held on.

That being said, I am trying my hardest to regain my interest in my orchids.  So I have a small oasis for me to hide in when the boys drive me nuts.  And to help me stay interested I decided to wipe the dust off this old blog and try to keep it up to date.

Back in October, our society had their annual show and sale.   While there I picked up my first intermediate Masdevallia.  I was scared I would have a repeat of my last try at masdies but from what I read, Masdevallia bennettii should handle warmer temps easily.

After the show was over, we had extra plants left from a vendor.  So they were sold off at a cheaper price.  I picked up a Masdevallia ayabacana (another warm grower) and Anguloa ruckeri as well as a noid Anguloa species.  I’ll have to get it to bloom to find out what it is.

I also picked up a Phalaenopsis tetrapis that has done well.  With Vancouver’s weird weather this winter many of the buds blasted on it but I’ve managed to keep the spike growing.  Hopefully with spring I will get some more blooms.

That’s it for now.  I will try keeping up with the blog as best I can.  Thanks for reading!

Phal Golden Sun

This plant has been in my collection for about a year and a half now.  I got it from Wal-Mart of all places, and was shocked to see it had a tag with a name.  It was partly why I grabbed it, it also helped that the flowers were a yellow-green.

When I brought it home it had almost two dozen blooms on it, all on branching spikes.  It was potted in a coarse bark mix that had seen better days.  I had to wait a couple weeks before repotting it because I didn’t have any bark mix.

Phal Golden Sun, just purchased

Once I unpotted it, I discovered it’s roots were in sad shape.  I expected as much, so I cut the dead roots away, rinsed it all off, and let it air dry for a couple hours.  It is now potted in the same pot in a nice bark mix with charcoal and perlite and some added clay pellets.

Because I didn’t have a smaller pot for it, I used the same one it came in.  So I added more clay pellets to fill up the lower half of the pot.  It grew some new roots, but was fairly slow growing.  It put out this most recent spike, and I was tempted to cut it right away, but I let it go for a bit.

The plant tried to branch the spike out, but didn’t have the energy to produce blooms on the side-spikes.  I got 5 beautiful blooms out of it though.  I sent it to a show, where is won a third place in it’s group.  Once it came back, I cut the spike and let the plant go back into grow mode.

Phal Golden Sun

It is now growing a new leaf, and several new root tips as roots begin to branch off the existing ones.  It will take some time for this little guy to get his strength back, but I’m sure it will continue to give me a beautiful show when blooming.

This plant gets it’s light from artificial lights, the leaves have a nice purple blush to them.  It is potted in a clear plastic pot, and sits in a decorative pot for stability.  It gets room temperature, and humidity around 50-60%.  I water it weekly with a weak fertilizer solution, with monthly seaweed treatments.

Phalaenopsis Sogo Allen

I originally purchased this mini phal at a local grocery store.  It had no tag, but was on sale and had dried, wilted blooms on it.  They were a nasty brown, so I couldn’t really see what the blooms would look like for me (other than pinkish) , but I loved the size of it and the leaf colour.  So it came home with me.

Dendrobium Rainbow Dance ‘Akazukin Chan’

I have had this orchid for a little over a year, it was only 3 old canes with a new cane growing.  It’s first blooming for me was only one bloom, it bloomed a few months after I got it.

Sophronitis cernua & FVOS 2013 Sale / Show

It’s been too long since I last wrote anything, not like anyone reads this anyways haha.  But it’s because I’ve been waiting.  Waiting for a few things, first I was waiting for my Sophronitis cernua to bloom, and then I was waiting for my society meeting so I could have it photographed by the society photographer.

Society meetings begin again!

Last Monday, the Fraser Valley Orchid Society began meeting after a brief summer break.  We had a few new members join, so I wasn’t the newest person (yay!), and we had an awesome speaker.  Glen Decker from Piping Rock Orchids was our guest speaker.