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The thread "Our Orchid Blooms in January 2016 Happy New Year" in Orchids forum
Where did that January go?
Another month went by with lots of wonderful posts and good discussions and we are now looking at February. Let me start with some blooms here.
Please join us all.
This teensy Tubecentron Niu Girl opens an ever so tiny spike. I bought it a year ago and I am happy it does ok. This is one of the small Orchids which I keep right above the Fish tanks and it gets watered daily.

This one is another Orchid in the "teensy Department", it is a terrestrial, Cranichis mucosa. It will go dormant during the end of Summer. The individual blooms are in the one to two mm range.

Many of us have a Ludisia discolor in our collection. One usually doesn't keep this one for its blooms, but rather for the pretty leaves, but I just had to shoot a couple of pictures of mine. I haven't done too great with those, but I decided to move this one to Canadian Peat Moss and it seems ok.

This Caulocattleya / Guarthroleya Judy Congdon blooms several times a year, and the blooms last a long time. Under different lights -


I don't take credit for the next two Orchids in bloom, I bought them in spike. I only get credit for not blasting or breaking them?
Coelogyne Jannine Banks 'Snow White'


And Oeoniella polystachys, I like the pretty blooms very much, hopefully this one does well for me.

Oh, what a lovely start to the new month, Ursula. Thanks for the tip on the Canadian peat moss for the Ludisia - mine are still alive but really not doing well, and I sure do have a whole bale of peat so I can give them some. Here's hoping!

The Coelogyne is just lovely, such a graceful bloom and form.

I toured Selby yesterday with my house guests, so will post some pictures in the Orchid Shows forum as I get the time today. Once again busy schlepping everyone outside for the next 3 days' nice weather.

Looking forwards to the Selby pics, Elaine.

About the Ludisia - years ago I had a really nice large planter going with this plant until one Winter it was just done and kept declining. Came Spring I looked at the planter and thought that plant was a goner, I didn't even see good pieces to restart the plant. I didn't throw it out, because I thought I could use the pot/planter again and it wound up in a corner of the yard, which btw was in FULL SUN several hours a day.
At the end of the Summer, I happened to look at that pot again and rubbed my eyes, what?
There was new and really healthy growth coming up and that with NJ Summer sun. The strong sun probably killed off what ever was ailing that plant. I kept it a few more years before it petered out on me for good.

Regarding the Orchid schlepping business - Orchids keep us fit?

Yes they do, and so do house guests. I must remember to tell my brother that a week or 10 days is about my limit for his next visit . . . they've been here nearly 3 weeks.

So there has been an interesting discussion re-surfacing surrounding the use of Methanol with your fertilizer. Apparently there used to be a product called Jerry's Grow years ago that was fantastic for growing.

Since I am always looking for ways to tweak my routine, I mixed up a batch this morning. Here is my mixture. 1TBSP Potassium Nitrate, 1TBSP Epsom salts, 2 TBSP of So Ag Seaweed/Fish blend, 1/2 tsp HEET. Mixed into a 1/2 gallon water to make a liquid dilution. Then I took that and poured into my Gilmour sprayer with my special home-made head attachment (tested for correct flow). I set the Gilmour dosing dial to 4 TBSP per gallon of water and did four rounds of spraying.

Now I am not a math wizard, so I can't tell you the parts per million without a formula but I can tell you that this is very diluted as I want to see some results before going full strength.

I immediately noticed the stomata opening (greening) quickly especially on two Vandas that were particularly stubborn and exhibiting signs of "cork" root water rejection.

Another thing I thought about: wouldn't the Methanol also provide limited topical bug killing properties?

Interesting, wouldn't the Methanol evaporate too quickly to do anything?

Edited
I just looked up HEET, Antifreeze! isn't that Ethylene Glycol? (Not) And the mix seems to contain Methanol.

See below.....

Not the red bottle, the yellow. I have to say that the stomata stayed open and green for a much longer time today. This is going into my bag of tricks. (It is suggested to use this infrequently).

Melissa, perhaps you might check in every so often with updates on the effect of this formula, please.

Is this HEET formulation mainly isopropyl alcohol, Melissa?

No, that would be the red bottle.
Here is the MSDS sheet of the yellow one
http://www.prairielandelectric...

Methanol is a simple alcohol, Ch3OH.

Wouldn't it be a lot safer to add ethanol to your formula instead of methanol? I would be worried about poisoning myself and I'm not sure why what alcohol you use would make a difference as long as it was 99 proof. White Lightning.

I'll go consult with my daughter and get back to you.

Daisy

#1 Daughter says methanol is being metabolized by the plant and will, to a certain extent, encourage plant growth (this is all chemistry so don't ask me too explain ) but it is working like a high powered fertilzer. A little bit goes a long ways and you can disable the metabolism of your plants with too much. The effect could last for weeks.

Ethanol doesn't metabolize correctly and will have the opposite effect stunting or killing plants.

So people can drink ethanol but not methanol and plants can drink methanol but not ethanol. Because of the way plants create and use sugar, they break down a different set of alcohols without being poisoned. We don't create sugars, just metabolize them - its a completely different chemical reaction.

Isopropyl alcohol is good for killing bugs, that's it.

Ethylene glycol inhibits the ability of plants to take up water and sugars and they will die.

Daisy

Cattleya guttata X Cattleya bicolor. I've had this plant for a long time and it blooms year after year

Lovely cattleya, Ceci. Coming down to late summer now there?

I'm with you on the chemistry, Lindsey But we'll get to see if Melissa's plants thrive or die . . Go Melissa! Go plants! (you all know how I love an experiment)

I was driving people to airports (both DH and my bro and girlfriend left out of Tampa) all day today and am blessedly alone now in my quiet house with the windows open and tree frogs chirping outside. I do have a new bloom open out there today, but will have to wait for more light tomorrow morning to post a picture. There's a little purple Den almost open in the orchid spa too.

Ceci, that is gorgeous!
Regarding the name - the RHS lists five grex names if one reverses the cross, bicolor x guttata

Daisy, thanks for your nice explanation!

Thank you Ursula !
When I bought it, several years ago, it was tagged with the cross: guttata x bicolor. That is all I know about its name.

Has anyone had any experience with Motes Orchids? I just found my one of my dream orchids for cheap but have never heard of this company.

Myrmecophila grandiflora

https://www.google.com/search?...

Daisy