Worsleya pumice

Colin Davis codavis@ucdavis.edu
Wed, 09 Oct 2013 09:28:25 PDT
Aad,

While pumice has been the traditionally used medium, it is really not ideal
for Worsleya in the earlier stages, especially the medium grade your
seedling is in. I have found far better results using pure milled peat,
even though that goes against what many have said in the past about the
needs of Worselya. In pumice there are far too few fine particles for the
small roots of a seedlings to come into contact with, which really slows it
down (in my experience).

There is a yahoo group dedicated specifically to Worsleya cultivation, I
would highly recommend becomming a member there and posting your question
to that community, as there are many highly skilled growers there that do
not subscribe to the PBS list. By searching through old forum posts you
should find answers to many of your questions, including those about
fertilization. Heres the link to the group -
http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/…. Offers of much
more reasonably priced Worselya seed appear on that list from time to time
as well, a far better alternative than the very high ebay prices.

Colin


On Wed, Oct 9, 2013 at 5:06 AM, Nicholas plummer <nickplummer@gmail.com>wrote:

> Hello Aad,
>
> I have not yet been fortunate enough to find Worsleya at a price I can
> afford, but I do grow a lot of epiphytic and lithophytic orchids in
> inorganic media like pumice and scoria.  I would assume their requirements
> are not entirely unlike those of Worsleya.  The general rule of thumb for
> fertilizing plants in inert media is "weakly, weekly."  That is, you should
> use a dilute solution of fertilizer on a regular schedule when the plant is
> in active growth.    If you use a concentrated mix, you will have problems
> with salt buildup in the pumice as the fertilizer solution evaporates.  If
> you don't fertilize regularly, you'll have nutritional deficiencies.  Try
> to find a fertilizer that contains micronutrients, not just N-P-K.
>
> For epiphytes and lithophytes in inorganic mix, I dilute my fertilizer to
> 1/4 the recommended concentration (or less) and try to remember to
> fertilize at every second watering.  On those days that the plants are
> watered without fertilizer, flush the pot thoroughly with lots of water.
> Ideally, use water with low mineral content.
>
> Hope this helps.
>
> Nick
>
> --
> Nicholas Plummer
> nickplummer@gmail.com
> Durham, North Carolina, Zone 7
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