Constant water or not
Nov 8, 2019 10:19:07 GMT -5
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meizzwang, osmosis, and 2 more like this
Post by boarderlib on Nov 8, 2019 10:19:07 GMT -5
I wrote briefly about my little "experiment" on here a while back, so I thought since I have a few minutes I would go ahead and post the details and the current results for this year. I'm by no means concluding this since it's only been a few months of observation. I think by the end of next year I should have enough information to draw a solid conclusion to this. I'll get into the drier species sub experiment towards the bottom.
First off I live in a somewhat humid climate, so I can get away with more than people who live in drier climates. To give you an idea, mid summer I can leave a 4"x6" pot out of water for 4 to 5 days before it dries out enough that the plant starts showing signs of dehydration. That combined with a lot of reading about Bogman's setups and the rot issues that seem to plague me in summer got me thinking. How do I defeat these issues and be able to maintain my collection to the best my area will allow?
Last year I would let my tables dry up for 3-5 days before I watered. I still lost close to 10% of my collection. Not horrible, but I'm confident I can get that number down.
This year I realized (thank you Bogman) the likely culprit was the fact my pots were becoming stagnant/anaerobic after a year or less of being in fresh peat. How do I defeat this while growing on tables? I decided to try putting a layer of light diffuser down under my pots. This allows oxygen into the drain holes, creating what I hope to be is healthier soil in the root zone. It also allows mother nature to naturally flush my pots, as long as I pull the drain plugs on the tables. Sounds like a win, win to me.
I lined my upper table (flava, purps, and hybrids) with the light diffuser. This table I generally water once the water level gets about halfway down the light diffuser. Which usually buys me about a week to a week and a half after filling the table to capacity. At capacity these pots sit in about an 1 1/2"-2" of water. Step one complete.
The lower table which is a two tier table, one end will have over 2 1/2" of water at capacity, and the stepped up end will have about an inch. This table houses, alata, leuco's, rubra, dionaea, and drosera. The drosera are all in the deep end except my filiformis. This is where the drier species experiment comes in. I also lined the higher end of this table with light diffuser. This table I let the high end dry completely before watering again. The low end always has water, because let's face it who cares what happens to drosera😂.
Up to date overall results for the upper table. Prior to starting this I had already lost 4 plants this summer and had to rip apart a freshly potted plant that was showing signs of rot. I did manage to save 2 of the 5 growth points from this plant which were both returned to this table after a short isolation period and resumed growth by late summer. After the install, not one loss on this table. Looking positive 😃
The lower table which was a double experiment kind of. Leuco's have usually done okay for me, alata's have kind of been the worst performers for me. Hence the difference in watering technique from the upper and lower tables. I want the most from all of my plants, so I took advantage of Jim's brilliant design and tweaked it. The leuco's really still didn't do much this year. However I can say my alata's have never looked better than they did this year. I've had one particular alata that has been teetering on the edge for 2+ seasons now that actually started pitchering and the rhiozome doubled in size. Here's hoping for a good season next year.
First picture is the upper table right after the light diffuser install. That empty strip has been since filled in.
Then a couple alata shots.
I didn't think to take overall end of the season pics before wer got frozen last night.
First off I live in a somewhat humid climate, so I can get away with more than people who live in drier climates. To give you an idea, mid summer I can leave a 4"x6" pot out of water for 4 to 5 days before it dries out enough that the plant starts showing signs of dehydration. That combined with a lot of reading about Bogman's setups and the rot issues that seem to plague me in summer got me thinking. How do I defeat these issues and be able to maintain my collection to the best my area will allow?
Last year I would let my tables dry up for 3-5 days before I watered. I still lost close to 10% of my collection. Not horrible, but I'm confident I can get that number down.
This year I realized (thank you Bogman) the likely culprit was the fact my pots were becoming stagnant/anaerobic after a year or less of being in fresh peat. How do I defeat this while growing on tables? I decided to try putting a layer of light diffuser down under my pots. This allows oxygen into the drain holes, creating what I hope to be is healthier soil in the root zone. It also allows mother nature to naturally flush my pots, as long as I pull the drain plugs on the tables. Sounds like a win, win to me.
I lined my upper table (flava, purps, and hybrids) with the light diffuser. This table I generally water once the water level gets about halfway down the light diffuser. Which usually buys me about a week to a week and a half after filling the table to capacity. At capacity these pots sit in about an 1 1/2"-2" of water. Step one complete.
The lower table which is a two tier table, one end will have over 2 1/2" of water at capacity, and the stepped up end will have about an inch. This table houses, alata, leuco's, rubra, dionaea, and drosera. The drosera are all in the deep end except my filiformis. This is where the drier species experiment comes in. I also lined the higher end of this table with light diffuser. This table I let the high end dry completely before watering again. The low end always has water, because let's face it who cares what happens to drosera😂.
Up to date overall results for the upper table. Prior to starting this I had already lost 4 plants this summer and had to rip apart a freshly potted plant that was showing signs of rot. I did manage to save 2 of the 5 growth points from this plant which were both returned to this table after a short isolation period and resumed growth by late summer. After the install, not one loss on this table. Looking positive 😃
The lower table which was a double experiment kind of. Leuco's have usually done okay for me, alata's have kind of been the worst performers for me. Hence the difference in watering technique from the upper and lower tables. I want the most from all of my plants, so I took advantage of Jim's brilliant design and tweaked it. The leuco's really still didn't do much this year. However I can say my alata's have never looked better than they did this year. I've had one particular alata that has been teetering on the edge for 2+ seasons now that actually started pitchering and the rhiozome doubled in size. Here's hoping for a good season next year.
First picture is the upper table right after the light diffuser install. That empty strip has been since filled in.
Then a couple alata shots.
I didn't think to take overall end of the season pics before wer got frozen last night.