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Post by H2O on Sept 28, 2015 15:58:24 GMT -5
Very interesting, have you tried this DVG? I wonder how many other mexi-ping species this could apply to.
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Post by dvg on Sept 28, 2015 16:07:48 GMT -5
Joseph, apparently grows all of his mexi-pings in this manner, with much success.
I don't keep mine quite that wet, though I do top water and keep a shallow tray, with plant and pot sittng in it, full to the brim.
I'll allow the water to evaporate and maybe wait a week or two until I top water again.
When they used to be left bone dry, I'd have losses.
Now the only mexi-ping I keep bone dry during dormancy is P. heterophylla, once the bulbs are large enough to last through a long dry dormancy.
dvg
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Post by hal on Sept 28, 2015 21:38:13 GMT -5
The wet method has always worked very well for me, using a mix with a fair bit of peat in it and plain old tap water that's been allowed to sit for a couple of days to let the chlorine escape.
When I first started with CPs I had mostly Drosera and just a few Pings that I'd received in trades. I wasn't that interested in the Pings but I'd read Joseph Clemens' site and seen how successful he was so I treated the Pings almost like my Drosera. 40/60 peat/perlite and in trays of water. The only difference was I'd let the trays dry out for a day or two at a time and I used more perlite than with dews. I fertilized them by misting with a dilute 20-20-20 every few weeks. And most of my pings thrived. And the drosera went to the back shelf. I had giant moranensis and lots of colourful hybrids. I remember a "Pirouette" that had purple leaves. At one point I think I had 8 trays full of 2" pots of pings in peat that I'd propagated from pullings and divisons. I remember taking a few trays to Rug's place for a meet-up and giving lots away.
All the large-leaved Pings, and moctezumae, medusina and gypsicola did well with this technique (moctezumae likes it really wet and peaty), but I had difficulties with the smaller, compact rosette species like esseriana. They would take ages to reach a decent size and I'd often lose them to crown rot. So I switched over to a mostly mineral media and kept the plants a lot drier. I had somewhat improved success with the little guys but my moranensis and gigantea and the other large leaf forms and hybrids suffered. My ping collection waned, life got in the way and I was down to very few plants by last Christmas.
I've recently got back into Pings and am using the wet method with a mix that's about 25% peat and 75% perlite/aps/dolomitic limestone/gravel. I think one of my problems with the smaller varieties was that I often misted them and this promoted crown rot. I'm not planning on misting them again and I will be feeding them ground fish flakes regularly (I have a terrible allergy to freeze dried bloodworms) And I'll continue top water with dilute orchid fertilizer every few weeks. It's very early days yet but I should be able to tell how this is working by Christmas.
Like Martin I had problems bringing gypsicola through dormancy. I believe this was from lack of feeding because they'd go dormant, I'd stop watering them, and they'd just get smaller and smaller until they disappeared before waking up. Although I did have some that stayed dormant and visible for almost 2 years without waking up!
I guess the moral of the story is, if it ain't broke don't fix it. Joseph makes a good point in the thread linked above that sometimes atypical methods yield great results for some people. It's very difficult to duplicate natural conditions but often you can get a plant to respond well to a particular set of artificial conditions.
I'm looking forward to this new adventure in Pings and will report back as things develop.
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Post by danyoh on Sept 28, 2015 21:46:58 GMT -5
Getting a ping from Willy and I'm starting to get scared that mine will die from reading these ping horror stories. lol
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Post by hal on Sept 28, 2015 22:03:16 GMT -5
Dany, if it has a good number of leaves take off 3 or 4 and start them as leaf pullings for back-up. I do this whenever I get a new ping. What species is it?
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Post by danyoh on Sept 28, 2015 22:39:06 GMT -5
Will do! Already started looking up how to do it. It's a P. ehlersiae
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Post by H2O on Sept 29, 2015 0:45:54 GMT -5
Hal, I'm very glad you're getting back into Pings.
This is my first full year really getting into Pings, I went into this after doing loads of reading (and drooling over Dougs photos) and thought I had everything down. The more I've been reading the more I want to try to perfect everything.
We should start an OCPS Ping sharing thread to share any success, failures and ideas.
My starting post was my 1:1:1:1 mix of Turface, lava rock, perlite and vermiculite. I've been using clay pots to to help keep the moisture level even in the pot and to help with cooling in the setup, it also helps keep the area nice and humid without adding actually water to the air. They're in the tray method, I've only been adding 1-3 cm of water to the tray and letting it dry for 1-2 days between watering. I'm thinking I need to add a higher water table to the larger leaf Pings. All the trays are under about 8-14 inches below 3 4' T5's. There is also small fans in each setup. Photoperiod changes once a month by about an hour and 15 minutes each month, longest days 16 hours and shortest days 10 hours.
I hope people can use this thread to learn. I'm really hoping to learn more about group/species specific culture and move away from blanket culture for all Pings.
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Post by shoggoths on Sept 29, 2015 7:48:45 GMT -5
Great thread. One thing to emphasize is that Joseph keep the water level very high but he gives is pings a really high amount of light. Fluorescents are near to burning the leave. I'm trying a new method too. After exchanging with Cthulhu on terra forum, I've put a lot of pings plantlets in a 2 X 2 plastic bin full of rince turface (4 inches deep). This media is really quick to use . When the top of the media become dry, I fill the bin with tap water until it reach the top of the media and then I siphons the water to 1 cm of the bottom. That way, I hope to bring air to the roots and give humidity to the crown. Also, I'll feed the pings dry bloodworms to compensate for the lack of nutrient in the media. We'll see the results in Spring.
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Post by hal on Sept 29, 2015 8:21:42 GMT -5
And Joseph keeps the lights on 24/7!
Interesting technique, Martin. Sounds like it is trying to mimic the conditions in the gypsum rock seeps where Mexi-pings are often found.
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Post by WillyCKH on Sept 29, 2015 9:39:39 GMT -5
This is a great thread! I learned so much. I didn't know that Pings are capable to take 20-20-20!! I'm gonna try fertilizing mine when I have more specimen. danyoh, if yours doesn't make it, I will send you another one for free
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Post by H2O on Sept 29, 2015 11:34:57 GMT -5
Another good note is light levels directly correlate to the plants ability to uptake nutrients. Ultra bright light and 20-20-20 could work, if you had low light and 20-20-20 it would be certain death.
One common theme with people's success is regular fertilization/feeding. I was doing once a month and I'm going to move once a week now.
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Post by seasmoke on Sept 29, 2015 18:42:03 GMT -5
Great info, I'm thinking that a good drench and water discard would be helpful every now and again esp. with the 20-20-20 application, I'm going to try it. Thoughts?
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Post by hal on Sept 29, 2015 20:36:14 GMT -5
Just a word of caution on fertilizers. Mix at 1/4 strength or less and apply sparingly.
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Post by kiwipete on Sept 30, 2015 4:28:21 GMT -5
This is a great thread. I had a false start when I first got into Pings. But you do learn what works in you conditions over time. I grow all of my Pings is trays in front of windows. They are in natural light all day, but direct sun only in the morning. They are mostly dry all winter except P. gypsicola which is bone dry, my P.moctezumae is wet all year round in direct sun for half the day. My mix is different grades of lava rock, vermiculite, cat litter (zeolite ?), pumice and ceramic balls. Turface is not available here in NZ. I only water once I see signs of new leaves a the start of spring. During the growing season I water then let the plants dry then re-water. After reading the comments above I will aim to feed my plants more often over the coming summer. KP.
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Post by dvg on Oct 13, 2015 15:59:01 GMT -5
Although I grow most of my Mexi-pings in an all mineral media mix, some mexi-pings actually will do better with a more acidic media component added to the mix, something as simple as peat moss. Here is a mother P. moranensis growing in an all mineral mix. It seems happy enough in its four inch pot, but compare it with some of its leaf pulled clones growing in a peatier media mix... ...these are bursting at the seams to be repotted. It's easy enough to fall into the trap of the blanket all-in-one media mix for all mexi-pings... ...but once you get past that, you'll find that it's both fun and educational to keep experimenting. dvg
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