Hello all and any phrag experts,

I searched the forum on this topic but msot of the discussions were on whether d'allesandroi is a variant of bessae, separate species etc, whether it climbs, and so on. Doe anyone know whether its cultural requirements are different from bessae and if so, what those are? I never did very well with besseae as I tend to grow more warm than intermediate, but I just got a NBS plant of D'Allesandroi and want to see if I can do better with this..couldn't resist. I grow indoors under lights in a basement (both tubes and HID).

Thanks,

Yassir

I have a tiny one and I grow mine just like I grow my bessies.

I have two, a small but mature one with one mature growth and a new start and a mature multi growth plant. They are both grown right alongside all my other besseaes. One is in S/H with Prime Agra and doing very well. The other is in a fine bark seedling mix which my other besseaes and relatives seem to enjoy. Other than that, same culture (South window w/ supplemental flourescent lights.)

Good luck with it!

I have found it to grow better in warm conditions than besseae, though otherwise the same. The trick to these guys seems to be keeping the roots moderately wet with copius air movement to prevent rot that would otherwise flourish and kill the plant and/or roots.
If you have trouble with besseae, try one of the tetraploid ones. My tetraploid grows faster and stronger than any 2n one I've ever owned(and this is usually the opposite in 4n phrags).

Jon

ooh, thanks Jon, I forgot to say, neither Pete nor I have had ours for very long. (Pete's was actually a little division off of mine - divided itself when I went to repot on arrival.)

Thanks all for the encouragement, especially good to hear (Jon) that it can grow a tad warmer..

I was hoping someone would say.." this plant was first found growing in lowland Ecuador at sea level..." or something like that. Guess I was in denial as I usally try to research a plant before adding it to my collection and trying to grow something that I can't or shouldn't ! :ohmy:

The plant I have is in bark, so i'm going to leave it in there for now. I'll probably try to transfer to a clay pot (for cooler roots) when I repot and even try the semi-hydro pots. I've seen photos of phrags grown unfer this method on First Ray's site and seeing is believing.

Yassir -
Let me say a few more things about the one I have in S/H.
When I unpotted it upon arrival, it divided into two pieces, a teeny old growth that the leaves died off of right away, with a TON of good roots, and a new start. So I sent that to Peter since he didn't have one. The other half I kept, this was the new, almost mature growth which had very few roots, but all new and good growing tips. After a month or so, I checked the roots and they'd grown a LOT, and since I was new to S/H and open to experimentation because I had a second dal. by this point, I thought, what the heck, put it in S/H and see how it does. I've had much more luck switching things in ACTIVE root growth to S/H than inactive. So bear that in mind. The plant in my care continues to thrive and grow.

I now have one of each variety of besseae in S/H as experiments and they all seem to be doing just as well as their traditionally potted counterparts. Oh, and I have 16 besseaes (including the two dals.) Though I think six or seven are relatively new. The regular besseae (red) I have in S/H is in spike.

Yassir! Glad you're on this forum! Its been a while...how are things going? Take care, Eric

Do you have 16 different besseae's? Which ones do you have?

Grandma