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THE METHOD (continued...)
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Cut
away as much of the dead plant parts if possible. This is
to reduce any chances of fungal or bacterial growth on the
dead plant parts.
Try
not to pull off the dead parts as you may rip the delicate
seedling apart - use a clean sterilized pair of scissors
instead.
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I
prefer to take precautionary measures when growing seedlings,
for this reason, I recommend soaking the seedlings in a
systemic pesticide for about 15 minutes to deter possible
attacks by insects.
Unless
there is heavy pre-unflasking contamination involved, I
find soaking the seedlings in a disinfectant, e.g. Chlorox,
unnecessary.
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While
soaking the seedlings, prepare the pots by first adding
your crocking material. It is no good to fill the pots entirely
with the potting medium as some plants are particularly
fussy about having their roots or root junctions too wet.
You
may want to fill up to half the height of the pot with crocking
material although I usually filled them up to about 1/3.
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potting mix to about ½ of the pot or to a height that would
accommodate the root lengths of the seedlings |
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Drain
the seedlings and nestle them on top of the potting mix.
In
the case of thumb pots, if the seedlings are small, you
may wish to lump 2 together within the same pot.
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up with potting mix and press down slightly to compact the
potting mix. This is to allow new roots to anchor firmly.
If the potting mix is too loose, the plants may come out of
the pot during watering. On the other hand, if the potting
mix is too compact, the mix will not drain freely. |
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Top:
Paphiopedilum godefroyae seedling that was unflasked
1 year ago
Bottom:
Paphiopedilum niveum var semi-alba seedling
that was unflasked 6 months ago. The leaves of this plant
is peculiar as it is a lot lighter than the leaves than
the normal Paph. niveum.
I
am lazy to repot these plants but they look so cute in small
solo cups.
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Look
at the root development of the roots of the Paph. godefroyae.
This
is the plus point of using clear cups. But if your fertilizer
or potting mix is particularly high in nitrogen, you may
get algae forming on the surface instead.
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ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR
Orchideenjaeger
is one of our dedicated moderators of the Green Culture Singapore
(GCS) Forum. He is currently doing his undergraduate studies majoring
in Pharmacy at the National University of Singapore. Orchideenjaeger
is a member of numerous world-reowned discussion forums for orchids,
including the Orchid Source Forum and Orchideen-forum.de. His
keen interest in plants started since young and now he focuses
on the growing of Cattleya orchids. He can be contacted by sending
him an email via this link,
or private messages through the GCS forum.
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