I really loved this video; I'm in kind of the same boat: I bought lots of seedlings in the past eight months and I've messed them around a bit with potting and repotting! Now they are almost all in semi hydro - apart from oncidium and encyclia which did not get on too well with S-h. I have to say that my dendrobiums and cattleyas love semi - hydro : all are now shooting out roots and new growth like mad, and it's so pleasing to watch them even if it does seem to take an age for them to mature: I enjoy watching them flourish under my care. I have a Den cuthbersonii crossed with Sulawesi: I've had for about three months in semi hydro and it's doing ok. One new growth already, but I'm in the U.K. where summers are like your winters! Haha! Fingers crossed it will continue. It's my Den senile that worries me most: it looked a bit poorly when I got it, but it soldiers on and I just hope that semi hydro is to its liking. My catasetum seedling is growing like mad: three new shoots and a root system that looks like a nest of serpents! And boy does it drink!
About your water issue - I would advise mixing your osmosis and tap water together. I believe you will be left with good water with reasonable Ca amount and you would gain a lot more water. Maybe 2/3 osmosis water and 1/3 tap water. I recently purchased multiple Cattleya seedlings from OrchidGarden (Laelia loddigesii, Cattleya lobata, Cattleya Voltaire x 2) and I am really excited about growing them! They all have new growths and it is exciting to take a good look at them every week and see that the growths have grown a centimeter! My Monnierara Millenium Magic is also a tiny seedling, but at least Catasetums grow really fast!
They all look cute :) I agree on having a few mature plants to make the wait more bearable hahah but I find it interesting and kinda more rewarding when a seedling matures under my care and finally blooms I feel kinda more proud hahah I have one Phal. violecia that I babied that way, but it took me about 5 years to see the 1st bloom I was curious to see your vanda seedlings too Danny :)
one more thought, for the roots if you have an issue it's because they get a lot of airflow to the roots where they are positioned in nature i would recommend you put it in a basket type environment so they can get air to the roots, only if you can supply enough humidity , it's hard to do that and do semi~hydro. In case you wanted to know why their roots might be reacting to being in a somewhat closed environment this is what i think using logic.
Can you do a video on how to properly wash and prepare leca that was used in another pot with an orchid that died so the leca can be re-used? I read some instructions online but I’m a visual learner so I’d love to see a video!
hey Danny , i have a lawesii as well and they are lithophytes from Papua New Guinea , i didn't do that much research on it before i got it but there isn't much on the internet. What i noticed and wasn't prepared for when i got them is how much humidity they like, the region they are from is a high altitude mist cloud forest which makes them very very prone to drought if you don't have foggers or misters and just do windowsill type orchid growing. So in a matter of days my dendrobium lawesii lost it's leaves , and the canes were desiccating like mad. The only thing that prolonged the life span of the leaves was having the lawesii permanently in the flow of my cool mist humidifier & still it lost all it's leaves!! i couldn't win. Another thing is they are cool and warm growers and can tolerate both but i would not recommend putting it anywhere lower than 8o% humidity. In nature it's habitat is on cliffs where there is a constant stream of water touching the leaves and it's surrounded by moss plus being the cloud mist environment also gives a lot of humidity to the plant. So it's not easy to have it , to say the least ... and i was so upset you can't imagine. Another interesting angle i found of a youtuber saying that they don't grow any orchids that have very thin leaves like oncidium and dendrobiums types that are not thick like phals because there is a chance that it doesn't survive due to having leaves that require much more moisture than we can provide at home. i thought was an interesting concept / theory although it won't stop me from growing oncidiums but it helped me to understand that Lawesii losing it's leaves and being weak wasn't my fault but that orchids with less substance to their leaves are on the whole harder to maintain. For them it's like we put them in an extreme condition that they can't adapt to. So thats my take .. hope it helps you xoxoL.
Well, I don't have them long, but i have two D. lawesii, and although they do like it humid, they are in no way so sensitive... one did OK for two months on a windowsill humiditi between 30 - 60, other one was is the terrarium, at 75 % or more, they were put outside a moth ago, otside the humidity ranges from 40 to 100, mostly in the 60s. One is mounted, one in pot with bark, both have new growths and I haven't lost a leaf. So i wouldn't sayD. lawesii is that finnicky (they do get crinkled leaf quickly) - to me it sounds like you got D. lawesii with a previous problem.
actually you're right i detected some fusarium wilt on a part of the rhizome so it made sense why it wasn't absorbing the water i was giving it. one of he downfalls of having F. it doesn't take up the water and transport it to its leaves. I saw this after i did all my research , so i thought i would share with Danni , the things i discovered about this orchid!
oh, OK :D You had me a little bit scared for my two - they got a close inspection yesterday (i found out I have three plants, since the one in the pot is actually two), to see any signs of troubles with water uptake. Never had prblems with them , but every new bit of information ... I am very sorry to hear you had trouble with them, they are gorgeous blooms - mine are currently both a bit smaller than looming canes, but the canes they are producing now should be blooming size and I can't wait.
well i'm new to orchids , so it may be fusarium or it may not be , but the plant i received was more of a seedling so it was super susceptible to environmental stress. I really love the blooms too thats why i was so heartbroken that the canes shrivelled up and the leaves dropped.
Hi Danny. Does your Cattleya seedling have problems if potted in too large container? Do they need the Leca to dry up faster to prevent the roots from rotting. Yes seedlings are hard to raise and many times you’ll lose them before you see a bloom. Or perhaps after all the time you’ve babied them turns out to be a different bloom than what you thought. Love your stories and presentation, please don’t stop. Maybe time for a second ro filter and another barrel?? But then you’ll need a green house next... and more water usage... and more backache? Each gallon water needs two extra gallons waste. , or three ? 🙈
Hi Danny, I just watched your orchid seedlings stories and I also have couple of them . Did you repot them in those 5” pots right away and when is the right time to repot seedlings.
huaah... orchid stories... very interesting. I just start my channel, and one of the themes is Orchid Trip, just like your orchid stories, my video about orchid trip will tell you about my trip to orchid natural habitat in my place, Borneo.
This is so sad the Speciosum seedling is soo small, if I could send you a division of mine it would be great but shipping is a bit expensive and it might not make it.
It also does take ten years to be able to bloom. I have experience with these and they are really slow growers since in the wild it is very dry sometimes which mean that they can’t grow very fast.
I really loved this video; I'm in kind of the same boat: I bought lots of seedlings in the past eight months and I've messed them around a bit with potting and repotting! Now they are almost all in semi hydro - apart from oncidium and encyclia which did not get on too well with S-h.
I have to say that my dendrobiums and cattleyas love semi - hydro : all are now shooting out roots and new growth like mad, and it's so pleasing to watch them even if it does seem to take an age for them to mature: I enjoy watching them flourish under my care.
I have a Den cuthbersonii crossed with Sulawesi: I've had for about three months in semi hydro and it's doing ok. One new growth already, but I'm in the U.K. where summers are like your winters! Haha! Fingers crossed it will continue. It's my Den senile that worries me most: it looked a bit poorly when I got it, but it soldiers on and I just hope that semi hydro is to its liking. My catasetum seedling is growing like mad: three new shoots and a root system that looks like a nest of serpents! And boy does it drink!
About your water issue - I would advise mixing your osmosis and tap water together. I believe you will be left with good water with reasonable Ca amount and you would gain a lot more water. Maybe 2/3 osmosis water and 1/3 tap water.
I recently purchased multiple Cattleya seedlings from OrchidGarden (Laelia loddigesii, Cattleya lobata, Cattleya Voltaire x 2) and I am really excited about growing them! They all have new growths and it is exciting to take a good look at them every week and see that the growths have grown a centimeter! My Monnierara Millenium Magic is also a tiny seedling, but at least Catasetums grow really fast!
They all look cute :) I agree on having a few mature plants to make the wait more bearable hahah but I find it interesting and kinda more rewarding when a seedling matures under my care and finally blooms I feel kinda more proud hahah I have one Phal. violecia that I babied that way, but it took me about 5 years to see the 1st bloom
I was curious to see your vanda seedlings too Danny :)
They are lovely your orchids danny and yes would like more videos like this one .
one more thought, for the roots if you have an issue it's because they get a lot of airflow to the roots where they are positioned in nature i would recommend you put it in a basket type environment so they can get air to the roots, only if you can supply enough humidity , it's hard to do that and do semi~hydro. In case you wanted to know why their roots might be reacting to being in a somewhat closed environment this is what i think using logic.
Yay! You saw my comment about the dendrobium speciosum thanks for the update!
Can you do a video on how to properly wash and prepare leca that was used in another pot with an orchid that died so the leca can be re-used? I read some instructions online but I’m a visual learner so I’d love to see a video!
Can you do another seedlings update with bark. I am thinking about buying some seedlings.
I hope your seedlings grow well for you..yes, I have a few of them and I don’t have the patience either..lol
hey Danny , i have a lawesii as well and they are lithophytes from Papua New Guinea , i didn't do that much research on it before i got it but there isn't much on the internet. What i noticed and wasn't prepared for when i got them is how much humidity they like, the region they are from is a high altitude mist cloud forest which makes them very very prone to drought if you don't have foggers or misters and just do windowsill type orchid growing. So in a matter of days my dendrobium lawesii lost it's leaves , and the canes were desiccating like mad. The only thing that prolonged the life span of the leaves was having the lawesii permanently in the flow of my cool mist humidifier & still it lost all it's leaves!! i couldn't win. Another thing is they are cool and warm growers and can tolerate both but i would not recommend putting it anywhere lower than 8o% humidity. In nature it's habitat is on cliffs where there is a constant stream of water touching the leaves and it's surrounded by moss plus being the cloud mist environment also gives a lot of humidity to the plant. So it's not easy to have it , to say the least ... and i was so upset you can't imagine. Another interesting angle i found of a youtuber saying that they don't grow any orchids that have very thin leaves like oncidium and dendrobiums types that are not thick like phals because there is a chance that it doesn't survive due to having leaves that require much more moisture than we can provide at home. i thought was an interesting concept / theory although it won't stop me from growing oncidiums but it helped me to understand that Lawesii losing it's leaves and being weak wasn't my fault but that orchids with less substance to their leaves are on the whole harder to maintain. For them it's like we put them in an extreme condition that they can't adapt to. So thats my take .. hope it helps you xoxoL.
Well, I don't have them long, but i have two D. lawesii, and although they do like it humid, they are in no way so sensitive... one did OK for two months on a windowsill humiditi between 30 - 60, other one was is the terrarium, at 75 % or more, they were put outside a moth ago, otside the humidity ranges from 40 to 100, mostly in the 60s. One is mounted, one in pot with bark, both have new growths and I haven't lost a leaf. So i wouldn't sayD. lawesii is that finnicky (they do get crinkled leaf quickly) - to me it sounds like you got D. lawesii with a previous problem.
actually you're right i detected some fusarium wilt on a part of the rhizome so it made sense why it wasn't absorbing the water i was giving it. one of he downfalls of having F. it doesn't take up the water and transport it to its leaves. I saw this after i did all my research , so i thought i would share with Danni , the things i discovered about this orchid!
oh, OK :D You had me a little bit scared for my two - they got a close inspection yesterday (i found out I have three plants, since the one in the pot is actually two), to see any signs of troubles with water uptake. Never had prblems with them , but every new bit of information ...
I am very sorry to hear you had trouble with them, they are gorgeous blooms - mine are currently both a bit smaller than looming canes, but the canes they are producing now should be blooming size and I can't wait.
well i'm new to orchids , so it may be fusarium or it may not be , but the plant i received was more of a seedling so it was super susceptible to environmental stress. I really love the blooms too thats why i was so heartbroken that the canes shrivelled up and the leaves dropped.
Hi Danny. Does your Cattleya seedling have problems if potted in too large container? Do they need the Leca to dry up faster to prevent the roots from rotting. Yes seedlings are hard to raise and many times you’ll lose them before you see a bloom. Or perhaps after all the time you’ve babied them turns out to be a different bloom than what you thought. Love your stories and presentation, please don’t stop.
Maybe time for a second ro filter and another barrel?? But then you’ll need a green house next... and more water usage... and more backache? Each gallon water needs two extra gallons waste. , or three ? 🙈
Hi Danny, I just watched your orchid seedlings stories and I also have couple of them . Did you repot them in those 5” pots right away and when is the right time to repot seedlings.
Do you still have any Vanda seedlings?
Was wondering if u had any info on the Sacoila Lanceolata or any info on its hybrids or varieties
I don't mind a few seedlings but the death rate can be too high if you set them back. Perhaps it's easier and quicker to propagate from backbulbs.
I think I saw a gnat flying around the second orchid
huaah... orchid stories... very interesting. I just start my channel, and one of the themes is Orchid Trip, just like your orchid stories, my video about orchid trip will tell you about my trip to orchid natural habitat in my place, Borneo.
This is so sad the Speciosum seedling is soo small, if I could send you a division of mine it would be great but shipping is a bit expensive and it might not make it.
It also does take ten years to be able to bloom. I have experience with these and they are really slow growers since in the wild it is very dry sometimes which mean that they can’t grow very fast.
I like the name but you could also call it My orchid journey. Great update.
How are your African Violets?
I don't have patience to grow seedlings, I'm arian😔