Consider keeping them WET - year-round

[vic brown]

'Liped' leaves??? I think you mean lipped. :) (why not try a spell checker - I use Firefox as my browser and it is a standard feature).

Lots of light - but bright shade in summer during the middle of the day on the rare occasions that the sun comes out - otherwise full sun most of the year.

Note - I'm away until Thursday and won't be able to answer any more questions until then.

Vic

[Bruce]

Dear All,

My method of growing Mexican Pings, which does not differ greatly from the "European method" in this message thread, is as follows. in a frost free (about 8C min in winter!) greenhouse with natural light. The plants are in gravel trays (about 2 ft square) that contain a bed of Hydrolica. From lateish spring onwards each tray is given half a gallon of water, this only just reaches above the surface of the hydrolica ans soon lowers anyway and the plants are given a spray (at least once a day!) of water overhead. In autumn winter as growth slows they are dried out completely, though they may get an overhead spray occaisonally (when I remember/can be bothered). Then when growth resumes the summer treatment restarts.

I used to keep them wettish all year and found that flowering only took place early in the season. However, with the current regime flowering continues through out the summer.

Bruce

[gardenofeden]

Some interesting results there Vic, and some hope for those worried about not getting dormancy watering correct. I think I will continue to keep mine dry in winter though, as in my cold damp environment, any winter wet encourages all sorts of rot problems... :)

[wadave]

Hi All,

I've got some of my collection in a terrarium and the others are in the GH. The terrarium gets watered when the glass in the bottom of the tank becomes dry. The medium which is composed of 100 live sphagnum moss is still moist. I use the same medium for my pings in the GH which receives 1 minute of overheat misting two to three times a day in winter increasing up to 1 minute every hour during the day in summer for a max of 12 waterings. During winter the pings sit in a dryer part of the greenhouse but they always receive a little overhead water and the GH is full of mist the rest of the time.

So I guess my conditions are a variation to the wet winter theme with an entirely different media. Remembering the spagnum is live and not compacted, I place my pings directly on top of the moss and allow the roots to grow into it, plus our winters rarely experience a real frost at night, day temps range above 10 deg C to 15 deg C. Perhaps this is why my setup works???

I did have one loss in my terrarium with a hybrid of agnata x hemiepiphytica, this one slowly went down hill till it finally lost the battle with rot sadly.

Dave.

[wadave]

My superba and mesophytica both flower prolifically and the laueana CP2 x SP1 is a little more reluctant to flower but is now sending up its third flower in about as many months. The others are only tiny and are not mature enough to flower yet.

Dave.

[jm82792]

Finally I must be doing something right nice leafs,just like nursery pictures.

I lowered the light and it started making the leafs so maybe too much light.

I am getting surplus pings from pullings so I will try the "wet" methode.

[venusflytrapman]

But they must be under strong artificial light to keep them wet? I asked this on another topic also but nobody answered. Do you water mexican pings from the top? I'll have to get a mini incubator for my indoor plants. I love the results the ones that were wet gave. Thanks.

[Guest Aidan]

I asked this on another topic also but nobody answered. Do you water mexican pings from the top?

Go read the thread again. Sheila answered the question before you asked it.