July 2004
June 1, 2004
After our phone conversations, I wanted to write the results of our propogation efforts. It was a slow start, and for many months it appeared that I was not doing anything right. Finally, 5 out of the 50 seeds you gave us came up, a 10% germination rate. This really made me feel bad until you said that it was a fairly high rate. Imagine my relief. We had three seeds come up using Oasis foam, and two cam up in #4 Sunshine mix. These Alani seeds got the regular orchid seedling watering schedule for our two inch orchids start. They get watered ever other day with no water break longer than three days apart, ever. I fertigate with our Dosatron injector pumps each time they get watered. Eight minutes of fresh water followed by two minutes of fertigation. The rates of nitrogen our about 250 ppm, 20 ppm phosphorus, 175 ppm potassium, 80 ppm calcium, 30 ppm magnesium, plus trace elements. If any grower is interested in our fertilizer analysis or formula, I can fax it along to them.
I hope that other growers have success with their methods. It was interesting that having such a wet winter helped the Alani seedlings laying on the ground to germinate. Perhaps it was much wetter in times past at the arboretum. This varietal really might prefer, and indeed thrive, in a wetter environment than the drought years recently experienced.
Good growing to all of the readers.
January 13, 2004
Just an update about the attempt to propogate the alani seeds that you gave us. What has happened so far is that about 20% of the seeds have germinated and are in sight to the naked eye. We recently did an over-the-top drench with a combination of Orthene (mites, etc.) and Subdue (root and top fungicide) to try an avert the damping off that you spoke of in the past. We remain hopeful that the rest of the seeds may still come up when the days begin to warm up.
When all of the rain was happening, it was fairly marginal growing conditions in the greenhouse. So it may need more dry conditions than Olinda, and our growing style is on the wet side to begin with, because the varietals of orchids that we produce like it wetter. I hope that some one is having better success than we are and will look forward to reading of it on the website.
December 31, 2003
Well the rains are upon us, and I need to do a root fungicide drench. The seeds have appeared above the surface in about one third of the cubes. We planted them in Oasis starting cubes (1 1/4th inch size) and they are very slow for us. We will see how they grow when the days get longer in the spring, but right now everything in our nursery seems stuck in neutral. Tis the season to have things stall out. Great website. See you in 2004.