This month saw a well attended meeting with more of our regular members returning after Covid worries and lockdowns. This month saw one of the best table shows we have seen in a long time, lets hope it continues. Format of the meeting was an inhouse discussion and plant clinic. There were not many sick plants needing a check over which I take as a good sign regarding our members growing abilities.
I explained two methods that I use to duplicate plants. One is putting back bulbs that I have removed when splitting a plant up into a plastic bag with some most sphagnum moss and hanging it up in the greenhouse until a new shoot appears. The other one is to cut through the rhizome that joins the pseudobulbs leaving about three pseudobulbs at the growing end and three to four back bulbs which will produce a new shoot provided there is a ‘live’ eye that hasn’t yet grown. Always dust the cut with cinnamon powder to prevent rot setting in.
David Kohn explained to us how he had to change his growing method because of a persistent slug problem. More details of this in the article entitled David Kohn – how to beat the slugs.
Andy Gissing brought in a peloric cymbidium that had been attacked by thrips when in bud, and the damage was evident on the sepals. He went on to explain how you need to water the pot with the insecticide as well as spraying all the growth because trips hide down in the compost during the day (as well as in any nooks and crannies out of sight)
Winner of the novice table was David Kohn’s Paphiopedilum insigne, and the previous winners table was Bill Gardiner’s Cattleya Lotus Poyning.
Next months meeting is Michael Radley talking about his trip to Costa Rica.
