Thought I would pin this as a comment, as lots have asked me about the tap adaptor and which RO system I have 🙂 💧 RO system: amzn.to/3hz5QER - 189L in one day, you can get faster ones but they cost more, and I only need around 80L a week. Tap adaptor, screws onto the tap in place of the aerator- fits larger kitchen type taps www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274403138467 Adaptor to fit RO push fit to tap adaptor: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/153291699254 I fitted it all myself, took a few hours. In the US you can actually buy both parts of that tap adaptor system in one unit, ready to fit your RO up to. Vyair have an instructional video, I watched at 1/4 speed and had it running along as I did each step: ua-cam.com/video/WqU4FHfYB3s/v-deo.html And this guy has a video on fitting the US type tap adaptor: ua-cam.com/video/VQh6w0Viz4E/v-deo.html The ones in the UK I could find have the larger type adaptor so need the second adaptor fitting I linked. Hope that helps!
That looks like a very nice orchid. It also appears to be a great grower since you have had only since 2019 sometime. Thank you for all your tips and tricks on how you grow it. Something I could do on my Cattleya which is no ID. All I know is it has large white blooms and very fragrant. At least that is what I was told when I was gifted by a friend. It has put out 1 new grow over a year and starting a new growth so you knows when it will bloom. Enjoy this orchid and have a great day.
Hi Annabelle, I’m waiting for my orchid to flower which shouldn’t be too long. Your video was very informative as at the moment my plant is in a mixture of bark and leca and I was thinking about putting it in leca only when it has finished flowering.
Yay RO water 💧!! Whenever I have money for my orchid hobby I always end up spending it on new orchids but now I am trying to invest that money in supplies and better lighting for the time being. I might try your Zero water filters in the near future because my tap water is quite hard here at 120ppm.
I'm the same Ian! But sometimes you have to bite the bullet and say, this month, equipment... boring 😴 But it often makes your life easier! Our tap water is around 280ppm, so that's quite high. If your orchids are doing well then 120ppm isn't too bad, but some sensitive rooted orchids like oncidiums and milts might prefer lower to start out before adding fert. I think Cattleyas, Phalaenopsis etc may be totally fine with the 120ppm starting though, so you could either just filter for the sensitive rooted orchids, or mix filtered water 50:50 with tap to make the filters last longer and bring it down to 60ppm starting. Lots of options 🙂
Nearly all my Phals are now in self watering pots, plus a few other types. So much for having mesh walls! I have modified the pots so I can hang them with my new self made metal hangers.
The Orchid Room I’ve made a video showing some of the self watering pots and the new hangers I made. They are hanging up. I’m not sure about the commercial pots,I’d have to look into that. As it’s winter now, should I still keep the reservoirs full?
Love me a Rene Marquez cross! Love me schilleriana ... this is a beautiful cross! My schilleriana is going well in leca, it took a lot of care and attention to get it established tho. Now a year later, I have one large growth on the way... last year, I had 3 iddy biddy growths that didn’t even break the surface of the what was already there... no blooms, but after a year, it is used to the ‘unusual’ 😉 set up
One day I'll get a schilleriana! I love the coerulea versions, but they're always so pricey, keeping eyes peeled! I just ordered a leopoldii alba 'green jade' 😍😍 It's a seedling, but I just love how quickly catts grow once they get settled in 🙂
I have a Sergioara Yokosuka Story (Rhyncattleanthe x Rene Marques and it looks just like yours (as far as the plant is concerned). The flower is similar to the Rene Marques, except for the lip and size of the flower. It has bloomed for me under phal light too. They get very tall, I saw one at a show and it was a couple feet tall.
Hi Annabelle! Nice video .I have one of those that was in bud and while I was watering I broke off the spike... I waited a year for it to spike... I'm devastated...is it funny how we apologize to the plant repeatedly when we break it or drop it? anyway, You are going to love RO.I never even tried Las Vegas water is so high in calcium carbonate. You should see my yard there's rings of white powder on the root area of all my trees. Go ahead and install that under your sink you will be so happy... .
I have a Renee marquis but mine is mounted. The new growth split and made a double cane. I thought that was kinda strange but OK. That plant looks sweet.
You’re making me want an ro unit now. No leaking? That was what had me leery about the tap adapters but yours seems to work great from that short clip!
No leaking! The push fit adaptors seem really good- I had to tighten the part that screws onto the tap in place of the aerator really tight though. It doesn't affect using the tap as normal either!
Zerowater filter uses citric acid to fool the tds meter. It doesn’t remove solids, but binds them instead. This is why the water will start to taste lemony. When this happens, the ph of the water ends up being about 2.5. I tried it, but started suspecting something was off when I tried the water to acidify my aquarium water, but fish didn’t react to the water as I would have expected(a few died even though they like acidic water)
In my experience it starts to get fishy, not lemony, when it needs changing. Never tasted though, I've used it for 3 years for orchids only. I've used ZeroWater for years and had very good results, noticabley removing all the salt build up I used to get on LECA before using tap water. So it must remove large amount of salts to have had this positive effect, regardless of tds readings. Even if they were all bound, they would still precipitate on LECA... I don't think it is designed for aquariums though. For orchids, works great👍 pH is the logarithmic scale of Hydrogen ions- H , in solution. p in the lower case stands for potential/power of the element Hydrogen-H. Since H is an element, it's capitalised. So pH 🙂 Zerowater when using fresh filters is pH neutral. They only acidify when the filters require changing. They possibly use citric acid in this acidification process- but again, they only start to acidify when the filters need changing, to tell you to change them. For me, using tap water at around 280ppm and filtering around 80L of water a week, the filters lasted a month or two. When they don't need changing, it is pH neutral. I pH down with citric acid anyway- I've shown in quite a few videos why I don't need to pH down when using ZeroWater well after the filters need changing- up to 50ppm, when the pH is around 4-5. By the time I add silicon, this is perfect for me. Anyway, redundant point since I will now be using RO, but I have had great success with zerowater, as you can see here 🙂
Rene Marquez (well, Epidendrum pseudepidendrum) is always dominant in a cross. You need to get three generations from Epi pseudepidendrum to start seeing a change in shape, unless a 2nd generation is crossed with a Dimeranda or Brassavola (although the Brassavola influence still isn't terribly noticeable).
I'll be totally honest.... I added this to the basket because it was €6 and I love Cattleya schilleriana.... Then I investigated and found it was basically a rene marques! I wonder if any of the schilleriana fragrance will be inherited.... but yeah. Very vigorous growing, tough orchid, it's been quite fun to grow. And maybe it would be a fun one to hybridise with, if I get any sort of competence at flasking, since at that stage offspring would be the 3rd generation removed from Epidendrum psudoepidendrum?
One is contaminated 😥 I filmed it quickly then threw it away. The other is still clean though! I can't see anything germinating, but the seeds maybe seem to have a slight profile on the media? It's tough to say, I'm sure I've failed somehow and nothing will happen 😪
@@TheOrchidRoom just like deflasking takes practice to be successful, I'm sure you'll get better with practice. We can't all be perfect like that dang Dustin. He makes all of us look bad.😉
Great root system! Question: with self watering with a wick, will the bottom of the orchid pot be in contact with the water reservoir or only the wick? I’m puzzled by which way is better. Thanks!
Thanks! Just the wick, the wick is what transfers the water between the reservoir and the leca. Much the same- self watering may be a little more airy than semi-hydro, but the difference is minimal. Main benefit is that self watering has a larger reservoir capacity. The point is that there is a significant gap between the base of the inner pot and the outer pot that can hold water.
The Orchid Room thank you, that makes sense. Since watching your videos I have put about half a dozen oncidium types and 1 miltoniopsis (my first and only) into your method of self-watering semi-hydro and they are doing well so far. I had done a more traditional (ala Ray B.) in the past with disappointing results. But, I have added supplemental LED lighting which has helped with overall plant health and growth. Next winter will be the real test to see if they can deal with my climate (north of the US) in semi-hydro. I have a grow space now with strong LED lights that create some heat so the temps will be better for them too. Thank you for sharing so much great info!
Very nice repot Annabel and congrats on the new RO system. Just a point regarding the water holding of leca and lava rock. The leca holds less water because it is hard on the outside and soft on the inside....just the opposite for lava rock. Thanks for showing the video. Take care. Ed.
Hi Ed! Thankyou! Yes, I agree, so many factors when choosing even inorganic media! I was unsure that lava rock would wick efficiently for some reason- I guess because it doesn't seem to be widely used in wicking setups. But it seems to wick very well, completely changed my opinion on it after the media tests 🙂
Thought I would pin this as a comment, as lots have asked me about the tap adaptor and which RO system I have 🙂
💧 RO system: amzn.to/3hz5QER - 189L in one day, you can get faster ones but they cost more, and I only need around 80L a week.
Tap adaptor, screws onto the tap in place of the aerator- fits larger kitchen type taps www.ebay.co.uk/itm/274403138467
Adaptor to fit RO push fit to tap adaptor: www.ebay.co.uk/itm/153291699254
I fitted it all myself, took a few hours. In the US you can actually buy both parts of that tap adaptor system in one unit, ready to fit your RO up to.
Vyair have an instructional video, I watched at 1/4 speed and had it running along as I did each step: ua-cam.com/video/WqU4FHfYB3s/v-deo.html
And this guy has a video on fitting the US type tap adaptor: ua-cam.com/video/VQh6w0Viz4E/v-deo.html
The ones in the UK I could find have the larger type adaptor so need the second adaptor fitting I linked. Hope that helps!
That looks like a very nice orchid. It also appears to be a great grower since you have had only since 2019 sometime. Thank you for all your tips and tricks on how you grow it. Something I could do on my Cattleya which is no ID. All I know is it has large white blooms and very fragrant. At least that is what I was told when I was gifted by a friend. It has put out 1 new grow over a year and starting a new growth so you knows when it will bloom. Enjoy this orchid and have a great day.
Hi Kim! Thanks 😊 I hope your Cattleya blooms for you soon and the fragrance is a good as they told you! 🙂
Hi Annabelle, I’m waiting for my orchid to flower which shouldn’t be too long. Your video was very informative as at the moment my plant is in a mixture of bark and leca and I was thinking about putting it in leca only when it has finished flowering.
Yay RO water 💧!! Whenever I have money for my orchid hobby I always end up spending it on new orchids but now I am trying to invest that money in supplies and better lighting for the time being. I might try your Zero water filters in the near future because my tap water is quite hard here at 120ppm.
I'm the same Ian! But sometimes you have to bite the bullet and say, this month, equipment... boring 😴 But it often makes your life easier! Our tap water is around 280ppm, so that's quite high. If your orchids are doing well then 120ppm isn't too bad, but some sensitive rooted orchids like oncidiums and milts might prefer lower to start out before adding fert. I think Cattleyas, Phalaenopsis etc may be totally fine with the 120ppm starting though, so you could either just filter for the sensitive rooted orchids, or mix filtered water 50:50 with tap to make the filters last longer and bring it down to 60ppm starting. Lots of options 🙂
Thank you for the info!
Nearly all my Phals are now in self watering pots, plus a few other types. So much for having mesh walls!
I have modified the pots so I can hang them with my new self made metal hangers.
How are you finding it? 🙂 you can place holes in the outer masks to hang self-watering or semi-hydro pots just like a normal pot 🙂
The Orchid Room
I’ve made a video showing some of the self watering pots and the new hangers I made. They are hanging up.
I’m not sure about the commercial pots,I’d have to look into that. As it’s winter now, should I still keep the reservoirs full?
Love me a Rene Marquez cross! Love me schilleriana ... this is a beautiful cross! My schilleriana is going well in leca, it took a lot of care and attention to get it established tho. Now a year later, I have one large growth on the way... last year, I had 3 iddy biddy growths that didn’t even break the surface of the what was already there... no blooms, but after a year, it is used to the ‘unusual’ 😉 set up
One day I'll get a schilleriana! I love the coerulea versions, but they're always so pricey, keeping eyes peeled! I just ordered a leopoldii alba 'green jade' 😍😍 It's a seedling, but I just love how quickly catts grow once they get settled in 🙂
I have a Sergioara Yokosuka Story (Rhyncattleanthe x Rene Marques and it looks just like yours (as far as the plant is concerned). The flower is similar to the Rene Marques, except for the lip and size of the flower. It has bloomed for me under phal light too. They get very tall, I saw one at a show and it was a couple feet tall.
Hi Annabelle! Nice video .I have one of those that was in bud and while I was watering I broke off the spike... I waited a year for it to spike... I'm devastated...is it funny how we apologize to the plant repeatedly when we break it or drop it? anyway, You are going to love RO.I never even tried Las Vegas water is so high in calcium carbonate. You should see my yard there's rings of white powder on the root area of all my trees. Go ahead and install that under your sink you will be so happy...
.
I have a Renee marquis but mine is mounted. The new growth split and made a double cane. I thought that was kinda strange but OK. That plant looks sweet.
Another informative video, really interested in your tap adapter for RO water. Thanks
You’re making me want an ro unit now. No leaking? That was what had me leery about the tap adapters but yours seems to work great from that short clip!
No leaking! The push fit adaptors seem really good- I had to tighten the part that screws onto the tap in place of the aerator really tight though. It doesn't affect using the tap as normal either!
The Orchid Room when I recover financially from all the seasonal plant shopping I might have to look seriously into this!
Oh, I relate hard 😅
Zerowater filter uses citric acid to fool the tds meter. It doesn’t remove solids, but binds them instead.
This is why the water will start to taste lemony. When this happens, the ph of the water ends up being about 2.5.
I tried it, but started suspecting something was off when I tried the water to acidify my aquarium water, but fish didn’t react to the water as I would have expected(a few died even though they like acidic water)
In my experience it starts to get fishy, not lemony, when it needs changing. Never tasted though, I've used it for 3 years for orchids only. I've used ZeroWater for years and had very good results, noticabley removing all the salt build up I used to get on LECA before using tap water. So it must remove large amount of salts to have had this positive effect, regardless of tds readings. Even if they were all bound, they would still precipitate on LECA... I don't think it is designed for aquariums though. For orchids, works great👍
pH is the logarithmic scale of Hydrogen ions- H , in solution. p in the lower case stands for potential/power of the element Hydrogen-H. Since H is an element, it's capitalised. So pH 🙂
Zerowater when using fresh filters is pH neutral. They only acidify when the filters require changing. They possibly use citric acid in this acidification process- but again, they only start to acidify when the filters need changing, to tell you to change them. For me, using tap water at around 280ppm and filtering around 80L of water a week, the filters lasted a month or two. When they don't need changing, it is pH neutral. I pH down with citric acid anyway- I've shown in quite a few videos why I don't need to pH down when using ZeroWater well after the filters need changing- up to 50ppm, when the pH is around 4-5. By the time I add silicon, this is perfect for me. Anyway, redundant point since I will now be using RO, but I have had great success with zerowater, as you can see here 🙂
Rene Marquez (well, Epidendrum pseudepidendrum) is always dominant in a cross. You need to get three generations from Epi pseudepidendrum to start seeing a change in shape, unless a 2nd generation is crossed with a Dimeranda or Brassavola (although the Brassavola influence still isn't terribly noticeable).
I'll be totally honest.... I added this to the basket because it was €6 and I love Cattleya schilleriana.... Then I investigated and found it was basically a rene marques! I wonder if any of the schilleriana fragrance will be inherited.... but yeah. Very vigorous growing, tough orchid, it's been quite fun to grow. And maybe it would be a fun one to hybridise with, if I get any sort of competence at flasking, since at that stage offspring would be the 3rd generation removed from Epidendrum psudoepidendrum?
@@TheOrchidRoom how are the flasks doing? Any contamination or germination?
One is contaminated 😥 I filmed it quickly then threw it away. The other is still clean though! I can't see anything germinating, but the seeds maybe seem to have a slight profile on the media? It's tough to say, I'm sure I've failed somehow and nothing will happen 😪
@@TheOrchidRoom just like deflasking takes practice to be successful, I'm sure you'll get better with practice. We can't all be perfect like that dang Dustin. He makes all of us look bad.😉
Great root system! Question: with self watering with a wick, will the bottom of the orchid pot be in contact with the water reservoir or only the wick? I’m puzzled by which way is better. Thanks!
Thanks! Just the wick, the wick is what transfers the water between the reservoir and the leca. Much the same- self watering may be a little more airy than semi-hydro, but the difference is minimal. Main benefit is that self watering has a larger reservoir capacity. The point is that there is a significant gap between the base of the inner pot and the outer pot that can hold water.
The Orchid Room thank you, that makes sense. Since watching your videos I have put about half a dozen oncidium types and 1 miltoniopsis (my first and only) into your method of self-watering semi-hydro and they are doing well so far. I had done a more traditional (ala Ray B.) in the past with disappointing results. But, I have added supplemental LED lighting which has helped with overall plant health and growth. Next winter will be the real test to see if they can deal with my climate (north of the US) in semi-hydro. I have a grow space now with strong LED lights that create some heat so the temps will be better for them too. Thank you for sharing so much great info!
Very nice repot Annabel and congrats on the new RO system. Just a point regarding the water holding of leca and lava rock. The leca holds less water because it is hard on the outside and soft on the inside....just the opposite for lava rock. Thanks for showing the video. Take care.
Ed.
Hi Ed! Thankyou! Yes, I agree, so many factors when choosing even inorganic media! I was unsure that lava rock would wick efficiently for some reason- I guess because it doesn't seem to be widely used in wicking setups. But it seems to wick very well, completely changed my opinion on it after the media tests 🙂