Good evening all,

With sanderianum Chronicles IV well underway and going well, time for a new challenge!

Been doing some asking around with legal sources and it looks like in the coming 2-3 months I will be able to obtain a few different kovachii sibling crosses in flask to do a proper kovachii Chronicles. Will try to get a few hybrids in flask too, but that is so far looking difficult.

But before I get going, wanted to check in with others and see if we could get some knowledge-sharing going, and also get some opinions on my planned setup for the plants when they arrive. There will be much trial and error surely, but the more educated I can be going into this- hopefully the more useful the Chronicles will be for me and all who read them.

Temperature was my big concern going into this- and the reason I have delayed until now. I was originally planning to create a sealed off growing area and use a wine cellar cooling unit to regulate temps. That is about a $1,000 ordeal, but now it seems unnecessary since the plants can be kept below 75F at all times, and cooled in the evenings. Plus it adds a great deal of expense and violates the spirit of my efforts to find ways for everyone to be able to grow and enjoy these new discoveries on a decent budget.

So here is my current thought process,

1. Bottom shelf of a growing unit with 1 two-bulb fixture of Phillips Sunlight bulbs about 10 inches from the plants (I use 2 fixtures for Paphs about 12 inches from plants) to provide lower light levels.

2. Small fan blowing on the plants at all times- set about 2 feet away from the closest plants.

3. Compots sitting over still water for humidity, but not down in the water. Maybe in the water when they go to solo pots, but in compot I am reluctant to do that unless it will encourage root growth.

4. Each night, a shallow bulb pan between the fan and the plants will be filled with ice to help drop the night temps a good bit for several hours.

5. If it will help contain humidity and the effect of the ice at night, cover the long sides of the growing shelf with clear plastic (leaving far narrow end partially or fully open to keep air flow going.)

6. Compots grown in 4 basic mixes- 1 nearly pure CHC (fine grade broken down even further to achieve seedling bark texture), 1 nearly pure bark, and then more standard CHC and bark mixes- all 4 aiming for higher calcium levels plus anything else I can pick up from doing more research on kovachii's natural growing medium.

7. Water daily or every other day to ensure proper moisture.

What say you all? This seems to me up front the best way to give these what they need and do it in a very economical manner from a financial and time committment perspective (a cornerstone of the Chronicles approach.)

Also, if there are any measures or benchmarks missing from the sanderianum Chronicles that you would like to see here- let me know.

Game plan is to get 1-2 flasks going in the next 3-6 weeks- with 2-3 more flasks to follow this fall when the latest and greatest replates come available to the US market.

Thanks for any feedback!

Sounds like a wonderful idea. I will certianly be watchiing closely Thanks for sharing this with us.

I don't have any kovachiis yet so I'll be watching this thread as well! Thanks! :thumbsup:

.... I've never been successful growning things out of flask. It just requires too much fuss. At what point do they require less of that? For instance, my seedlings are in 2.5" pots, and I force water them each day. Beyond that, there's no temp maintenance or anything like that. I manage sunlight a bit if it looks like a cooker of a day. That's all. Mine are doing great so far.

Mindy

Compots - plants out of flask for a few months! I know what you mean right out of flask, I do pretty good with the compots.

.... so can you just buy compots of plants? They sound like they must be absolutely TINY - and fussy! Hm. I'l have to monitor this post frequently and see how this works, eh?

Min

I'd like to see kovachii chronicles too!!

.... I've never been successful growning things out of flask. It just requires too much fuss. At what point do they require less of that? For instance, my seedlings are in 2.5" pots, and I force water them each day. Beyond that, there's no temp maintenance or anything like that. I manage sunlight a bit if it looks like a cooker of a day. That's all. Mine are doing great so far.

Mindy

Hi Mindy,

Don't mind the fuss of my first post too much- it is just about getting the parameters right.

The whole point of my amateur work is to find ways for everyone to take a shot at these kinds of plants with minimal expense and hassle.

The time and attention pressures I forsee with kovachii are twofold,

1. Right temps- and the ice in the pan at night is an easy daily fix which may prove unnnecessary in the long run, but is important now to be safe (and a lot cheaper than the $900 wine cellar cooling unit I was thinking about.)

2. Watering- and this is unavoidable with all Phrags as you know. Daily watering will be required.

In terms of getting plants through the "danger zone", I have found that once you have Paphs out of flask for about 2 months they are good to go. The hard part is those first 2 months. And I expect kovachii will be the same. Granted you need to provide basic needs after that- but the first 2 months are the killer.

But the whole point of my Chronicles threads are to show how to get through the "killer" process with minimal fuss and expense. Sanderianum was not that hard to master, and I hope kovachii will be the same. There is much mystique surrounding getting Paphs from flask to seedling size, and over time I have found- through trial and error- much of that mystique is easily surmountable. And so the goal of Chronicles is to share what works and what does not- plus get feedback from other growers so that all true lovers of these plants can raise them from flask with confidence since buying these in flask is the absolute most cost effective way to go.

As for the Chronicles, I had a chat via phone today with Glen Decker of Piping Rock Orchids and oh man what a great orchid lover he is. I called him when I was at work, and I could have stayed on the phone all day if we had had the time. He is a fountain of knowledge and a keen devotee of orchids.

He gave me some great tips for dealing with kovachii and I was so excited talking to him that I decided there is no time like the present and the flasks will be in the mail on Monday! So the Chronicles will start July 3rd, and I cannot wait.

On point #4 -- ice at night -- try using the blue ice packs used in coolers and lunch boxes. They stay frozen longer than ice cubes, and you can tuck them around the growing area -- vertical, on their sides. They are reusable almost forever.

How warm is your growing area at night?

.... so can you just buy compots of plants? They sound like they must be absolutely TINY - and fussy! Hm. I'l have to monitor this post frequently and see how this works, eh?

Min
I will check & see or take some shots of the compots I have. Some might be TINY when they first come out of the flask, that's part of the reason you're waiting 3-4 months BEFORE purchasing. FUSSY? I pretty much treat them like any other plant I have. Depending on what type of mix they're in & the size pot, they might require watering more frequently, mine are good for several days.

How warm is your growing area at night?

In the summertime, I keep the apartment at 72 (it would be 68 were it not for the fact the sanderianums would hate it) and overnight it can get down to 70 sometimes indoors.

My hope was that the ice (and great call on the reusable ice packs l'il frog- I have a ton of them and will be doing that) could drop the temp a few degrees for much of the night.

I have done that before and it works. Water is a great and cheap coolant. When I had my homemade greenhouse in Houston during high school- on a hot summer day I would run the garden hose on the fiberglass roof (it had shadecloth sides to allow air flow) for about 20 minutes and the effect of that would drop the temp inside the greenhouse a good 15 degrees for a couple of hours!

Same concept with the ice- and really localizing the area affected by using the plastic covering on the long sides of the shelf should make it highly effective.

Question is- will that be necessary long term? Once we hit winter I keep the place 68 and it gets down to low 60s at night, so come November I do not think I will need to do anything special on temps.

Great thread...do keep us updated! :cool:

hello,

I can give you a few advises for deflasking Pk: very low light, high humidity, fans, NEVER dry the roots completely, pH=7-7,5

good luck :fcrossed: and thanks for your chronicles!:cool:

We have had a fairly cool summer so far with lows around 50F or so, and my greenhouse temperatures have ranged from 85F to 50F with no heating during the summer. My kovachii's seem to like these conditions as there has been no extended hot weather, and they are watered daily depending on the cloud cover. I find that they grow just as quickly as many of my hybrid flasks and seem to be easier than besseae.
They are grown in a medium bark mix with charcoal and perlite with a bit of moss on the surface. The larger bark doesn't break down as quickly as fine bark with the copious amount of watering. So far, so good! It will be interesting to see how they cope with winter conditions.