cyps in pots 2013

[monocotman]

Thanks for the comments - it seems to have worked.
I was hoping that you'd get much more of a feel for the plants than you do with photos.
Not bad when you're not so tech savvy.
Only problem was it took an hour to load onto youtube!
Peter - I've never had slug problems and there are some big b****s around now after last year's monsoon.
I'm assuming that it is the hydroleca but maybe I was just lucky?
Maggi - you know what it is like when you find that you like a genus and can grow them?
'Stamp collecting' mode kicks in and it is sometimes difficult to stop.
I'm about at my limit now. Will get rid of some at the end of this season,
David

[Peter Maguire]

David,

The snail/slug damage is generally limited to damage to the outer layers buds as they emerge - not fatal, but it spoils the look of the plant, espcially if you are showing, as I do if peak flowering coincides with an easily accessible show (not often!)

I'm about at my limit now. Will get rid of some at the end of this season
If you are selling any surplus at the end of the season - I have space, and according to Maggi when she is acting auctioneer, money to burn! 

[Corrado & Rina]

David, I love your definition of a few .... what a wondrous collection!

Can I join the queue when you start getting rid of them? I have just started my collection and have only 3 .... which is really few, as in the Oxford Dictionary .... :-)

Thanks also for the feeding regime, it is very helpful for us beginners. Can you also tell us which fertilisers you use, or at least which NPK ratio and in what state (liquid or solid but soluble)?

By the way, one of my few, the tibeticum, has been very badly damaged by slugs .... does the clay limit the damage by slugs? (Peter, what do you think?) I do not even know how the slugs got there in the first place, the cyp is on a "moat" filled with water .... or are there other insects who can nib at the leaves?

Best,

[monocotman]

Most of the time I use the usual white/blue powders - nothing exotic or the 'muck and magic' miracle gro types.
No need for expensive trace elements.
Later in the year I switch to tomato feed and a couple of times I add some Epsom salts to the feed.
I can honestly say that I've never had any slug damage on any cyps and I've used hydroleca for several years.
David

[K Andrzejewski]

I can honestly say that I've never had any slug damage on any cyps and I've used hydroleca for several years.

- as everybody knows, all my Cypripedium are permanently outdoors without any cover - and no one time I had any slugs/snails damage. And they are everywhere around (mostly garden snails - Helix aspersa).
Kristof

[Peter Maguire]

Corrado,
I don't yet know the answer to your question about the clay (hydroleca) granules; ask me again in the autumn. 

I have my plants standing on raised trays filled with sand - helps to maintain a moist atmosphere around the plants. Before the pots are placed in the stand at the beginning of the season, the sand is watered with a liquid slug/snail killer which seems to keep them away for a month or two as the new shots emerge.

[SteveC2]

I have had a henryi levelled overnight in the past, it has taken two years to reflower, and already this year several shoots and leaves have been nibbled, this despite my pots standing on a bed of gravel, a grit top dressing and having copper tape around the pots' rims, so yes slugs are a problem.

[Maggi Young]

Incidentally - the video link did not show up in my browser on the forum website (I use Firefox). The fact that I actually opened Windows Explorer to see the link shows you how keen I was to see the video. 

How odd, I use Firefox and all is well here......   

Quote from: monocotman on May 18, 2013, 09:38:22 PM

    I can honestly say that I've never had any slug damage on any cyps and I've used hydroleca for several years.

I am fascinated that the use of these clay granules seems to stop slug and snail damage - I am at a loss to understand why......   

[Anthony Darby]

The clay granules possible work best when they are relatively dry as the may have a dehydrating effect on the snail? I tended to have more palatable plants to temp the slugs?

[glynnffc]

I only have one Cyp,bought by my daughter for my Xmas present this year. Could this be the best present EVER.It cetainly beats a tie!!

[Peter Maguire]

Nice plant.
But the blue one behind it is even better!

[K Andrzejewski]

But the blue one behind it is even better!

- Cypripedium is probably Kentucky Maxi (fasciolatum x kentuckiense) but this one on the wall looks like very rare hybrid Echinacea x Forget Me Not !!! 

[glynnffc]

Glad you like both plants.
The Cyp came from Jeff and is C.victoria.
The one behind is a Picasso and unfortunately not an original.
 

[Peter Maguire]

Cypripedium is probably Kentucky Maxi (fasciolatum x kentuckiense)

Nearly right! Cyp 'Victoria' is parviflorum var pubescens x fasciolatum 

[Graham Catlow]

David - you really have the conditions right for growing as do some others including Angie - despite what she says.

Here's C. 'Pixie' another of Angie's well grown plants, now residing with me. Thanks Angie

Most of mine in pots aren't going to flower this year - a backward step, but I shall persevere. Don't think I'll buy any more though until the ones I have are doing better.

Graham