Thread: First Paph.
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Old 04-06-2003, 04:44 PM
Ted Byers
 
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Default First Paph.

Hi Jerry,

Thanks.

faster growing plant. Now, what would you say is the ideal size of pot

for
a given paph? At present, the largest leaves on the larger plant are

about
10 cm long, and those on the smaller one are half that.


When you take it out of the pot (you can even repot it in spike although I
wouldn't unless I had to), look at the roots and choose a pot that they

will
fit comfortably in.

Thanks. So I can expect to use a pot of about the same size as the one the
pair came in for the larger of the two, and probably a smaller pot for the
smaller one. I would suppose that putting the two plants into separate pots
would have an efect comparable to putting a single plant into a slightly
larger pot.


When in doubt, water it. That is in contrast to almost everything
else, where the rule is "when in doubt, don't". Other than that, less
light than your catts. Everything else is about the same. Paphs are
very easy once you have killed a couple... *grin*. Actually paphs are
very easy, and this hybrid is easier than most.

So, then, in a sense, paphs would be better for beginners than phals or
dends, even though the ones I have seen tend to be much more expensive

than
either, because the beginner is less likely to kill them with the

kindness
of watering them at every opportunity. I wonder why they aren't more

common
and affordable?


They are more expensive because they have yet to be cloned so one can only
get copies of a particular plant by dividing it making awarded ones
expensive. And the seedlings tend to grow slower than other orchids
although some paphs grow quickly and some are notoriously slow to mature.
Also, some don't make a lot of seed...

OK. But this suggests that there may be an opportunity for a patient man to
make a bit more from them than would be the case for phals.

Do you have any ideas or info on why they haven't been clond yet?

Also, you can overwater Paphs and some like to be pretty dry (concolor and
the other brachys) although underwatering them is more common, especially
under lights.

Yes, I wouldn't be surprised if they can be over watered, but I am guessing
that is harder to do than it is for phals. But I was thinking of the
beginner, whose most likely mistake is to overwater, something that paphs
would likely handle better than phals. And I am guessing that a watering
frequency that would make paphs happy would likely drown a phal.

Cheers,

Ted