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This Summer's observations...
I've been meaning to post several things out here for some time and have
been so busy. This is a string of unrelated thoughts I'd like to share with my extended orchid family. 1 - Rabbits eat Zygos! I had two nice Zygos that I put on the bottom shelf of a plant stand with the other cymbidiums. I've been fighting a couple of rabbit this year in the flower and veggie garden. The rabbits are gone now but before they entered the food chain they chewed up the Zygos. They didn't bother the cymbos on the same shelf. Just thought I'd share that with you folks who put your plants out for the summer. 2 - Jewel orchids are wonderful! Last year I purchased 2 Macodes petole plants in 2 1/2 inch pots from Oak Hill. They were so tiny. Over the past 12 months I've moved them up first to a shallow 4" bulb pot then to a nice glazed bonzai planter. They look great, grow fast to form a colony, and fill a spot in the greenhouse where other plants won't grow because of the light level. They join a great ludisia discolor that is growing in a larger bulb pan with the surface covered in live green moss. I also have Anoectochilus chapensis (also from Oak Hill) that I've had about 6 months now that is growing very quickly. If you have a nice low light area in your growing area that you'd like to brighten up I highly recommend these jewels. 3 - Oak Hill Cattleya Sale ... I didn't have any more space for plants but I couldn't resist 10 catts for $50. They sent 9 unbloomed plants many showing sheeths and one mericlone. Great looking plants for $5.00 each in 4 and 5 inch pots. If you want an instant catt collection of some really interesting crosses (their choice) I can attest that this is a true orchid bargain. 4 - Bug report ... As you know I have been fighting the nasty two scale and mealies for the past couple of years. Mealies have been gone now for a year and my phals look much better without the mealies. Enstar II was the solution for me. I took several applications but they are history. Scale is another story. For the past year I seem to have been chasing around the greenhouse. Back in June I bought a bottle of the Bayer Advanced Shrub and Tree systemic that people have been touting for a while. My first mistake was not to check my arithmetic and the setting on my dosamatic. I only applied it at a quarter of the recommended rate of 1 Tbs per gallon. The soft scale went away on the soft leaved plants like Oncidium but persisted on the Catts and Dendrobs, specially on the older leaves/stems. After discovering my error I bought 4 more bottles of Bayer and corrected my dosage. For two consecutive weeks I watered at the correct dose. Today I went through the plants the scale really are attracted to and found many dead adults. I will wait a week then do two more applications to get any eggs that hatch. I think I've got them on the run now. Well, that's all that's happening in my collection. I hope everyone else is having a great summer (for those in the northern hemisphere) or your winter isn't that bad (in the southern hemi). Good growing, Gene |
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