monocotman
October 17th, 2009, 02:08 PM
Hi Guys,
Its a bit quiet in the cyp forum so I thought some people might find this interesting.
My cyp collection has grown quickly over the past few years and the largest of the plants now need to be repotted and divided.
The past couple of summers have been 'poorish' in the UK with few days over 28 centigrade and this seems to have helped the growth of some of the plants, especially the hybrids.
Increase in some has been excellent - doubling and trebling the number of stems in some cases.
The first and second photo shows the hybrid Pixi before and after repotting.
I grow everything in large pots, in around 90% super coarse perlite, plus a bit of orchid bark.
Plants spend the summer under a large tree and just receive early morning sun.
The winter they spend in a shed and are basically forgotten.
Perlite is quite cheap - an 80 litre bag from the local horticultural supplies is about £10.
The hybrids receive full rate feed in the spring, especially when they need it most - when you can just see the buds and they are starting to develop and grow. I think this is the most crucial phase when they have much the highest need of nitrogen.
The rest of the year they just sit around and do very little above ground - all the action is under the compost.
So later on it tends to be more haphazard. If I remember they get tomato fertilizer to help the roots.
As you can see, the root growth is great and there are very few problems. I top off the perlite with 'hydroleuca' - expanded clay granules that help to keep the weeds down and the perlite in place.
I've currently run out of orchid bark so they are potted in 100% perlite.
The main reason for repotting this is that after a few years, I tend to find worms have found their way into the pots. They produce casts and increase the amount of organics, so they have to be sorted out. It's also a good excuse to go checking.
The third photo is the hybrid Inge - the tallest one I have - probably a couple of feet high. This just needed repotting as it had grown too big. Nine buds this autumn, up from three last year.
The last couple are of the hybrid Sunny. Four years ago it was a youngster with four buds. The following spring it had a single flower. Now it has 22 buds.
All the new roots that you can see running round the edge of the compost are new this year ( 2009) as it was repotted last autumn into a much larger pot.
Michael Wienert excellent web site recommends dividing cyps if they are larger than 10 buds to prevent disease killing the clump as the old bits of rhizome die and to maintain the high rate of increase of the plant.
There are detailed instructions as to how to do this ( you basically wash all the compost off the roots then tear the rhizome apart)and it worked with another plant but this one was too congested - I couldn't 'tear' the rhizomes and had to resort to a knife.
It is a fiddly and time consuming job and not one to be undertaken lightly! In order to find and cut the rhizome accurately you have to remove every scrap of compost and tease the roots apart slowly. It took me about an hour and a half to get from one photo to the next.
Still - I now have seven plants rather than one and I still have a 'specimen' with 10 buds.
The main plant I cannot split further without butchering it - the clump is too dense.
The smaller pieces came from buds that were a little way apart from the main ones, and I could get a knife in.
Does anybody have any tips on dividing? it is the first time I've tried it this autumn.
Anyway they're all now repotted and fingers crossed they appear next spring.
I now have some 'spares' for swaps or ebay!
Regards,
David
Its a bit quiet in the cyp forum so I thought some people might find this interesting.
My cyp collection has grown quickly over the past few years and the largest of the plants now need to be repotted and divided.
The past couple of summers have been 'poorish' in the UK with few days over 28 centigrade and this seems to have helped the growth of some of the plants, especially the hybrids.
Increase in some has been excellent - doubling and trebling the number of stems in some cases.
The first and second photo shows the hybrid Pixi before and after repotting.
I grow everything in large pots, in around 90% super coarse perlite, plus a bit of orchid bark.
Plants spend the summer under a large tree and just receive early morning sun.
The winter they spend in a shed and are basically forgotten.
Perlite is quite cheap - an 80 litre bag from the local horticultural supplies is about £10.
The hybrids receive full rate feed in the spring, especially when they need it most - when you can just see the buds and they are starting to develop and grow. I think this is the most crucial phase when they have much the highest need of nitrogen.
The rest of the year they just sit around and do very little above ground - all the action is under the compost.
So later on it tends to be more haphazard. If I remember they get tomato fertilizer to help the roots.
As you can see, the root growth is great and there are very few problems. I top off the perlite with 'hydroleuca' - expanded clay granules that help to keep the weeds down and the perlite in place.
I've currently run out of orchid bark so they are potted in 100% perlite.
The main reason for repotting this is that after a few years, I tend to find worms have found their way into the pots. They produce casts and increase the amount of organics, so they have to be sorted out. It's also a good excuse to go checking.
The third photo is the hybrid Inge - the tallest one I have - probably a couple of feet high. This just needed repotting as it had grown too big. Nine buds this autumn, up from three last year.
The last couple are of the hybrid Sunny. Four years ago it was a youngster with four buds. The following spring it had a single flower. Now it has 22 buds.
All the new roots that you can see running round the edge of the compost are new this year ( 2009) as it was repotted last autumn into a much larger pot.
Michael Wienert excellent web site recommends dividing cyps if they are larger than 10 buds to prevent disease killing the clump as the old bits of rhizome die and to maintain the high rate of increase of the plant.
There are detailed instructions as to how to do this ( you basically wash all the compost off the roots then tear the rhizome apart)and it worked with another plant but this one was too congested - I couldn't 'tear' the rhizomes and had to resort to a knife.
It is a fiddly and time consuming job and not one to be undertaken lightly! In order to find and cut the rhizome accurately you have to remove every scrap of compost and tease the roots apart slowly. It took me about an hour and a half to get from one photo to the next.
Still - I now have seven plants rather than one and I still have a 'specimen' with 10 buds.
The main plant I cannot split further without butchering it - the clump is too dense.
The smaller pieces came from buds that were a little way apart from the main ones, and I could get a knife in.
Does anybody have any tips on dividing? it is the first time I've tried it this autumn.
Anyway they're all now repotted and fingers crossed they appear next spring.
I now have some 'spares' for swaps or ebay!
Regards,
David