Paph rothschildianum

[JB_Orchidguy]

Hello everyone. Uncast I know your a Paph man, but anyone can answer. I have a Roth that I bought about a month ago. I repotted it but used the same bark just adding to it to make up the differance because the bark looked good I just wanted to check the roots. It has a leaf span of about 9 to 10 give or take. Its small, but heck it was still 30 bucks. I just had to have a roth thoguh. My question is what is the proper light and how damp should I keep it? Its doing good like I have it now, but I duno if its optimal. It has a new leaf coming, but one of its lower leaves has died off. it has 4 leaves in the begining. 3 now with a 4th starting to grow. I know its going to be a while before bloom, but I want to make sure it makes to the bloom time. So how much light should I be giving her. I'm down in GA and its ourside in my depalidated GH. LOL basicly the only thing covering is some old plastic during the morning hours and there is 50% shade cloth over the entire GH frame. During I would say about 11 till 1 the only thing between it and the sun is the 50% shade cloth. No burning is going on, but I just need to know if I should be giving more light. The GH area gets into the high 90's during the heat of the day even with a fan going to circulate hair. I have the exhost fan unplugged because its doing nothing since the GH plastic has LOTS of gaping holes because I used the cheap plastic and its desintigrated due to sun exposure. Going to have to recover it before winter Yeah!! Thanks everyone, and sorry for being so long winded.

[uncasteeb]

The way i determine the light levels for my Roths is to look @ leaf colour.
I grow mine with quite high light(Catt level) & the leaves have a yellowish cast to them , as far as my research has gone this seems to be about optimum for growth.Good air movement is essential & will help keep the leaves cool so you can give it more light .I have actually measured how much light they get & it,s about 2500/3000fc in my growroom & upto 4000fc in my g/h.In the growroom they get this light for 12 hours a day every day , in the g/h they get 4000fc occasionally but have light for a lot longer.
For potting medium i have gone for the fast drying(med bark/leca or med bark/perlite) & water every 2 to 3 days depending on the temp.
Roths in active growth need regular feeding , they don,t seem as susceptable to leaf tip burn compared to some other paphs.I add a lime substitute as a top dressing(calcified seaweed) , this is a natural product that should help supplement calcium & magnesium.My fert does have these but since i fert @ lowish levels they might not get the required levels.
If you have other paphs feed/water them like the others.
My large Roth(just putting out second growth) cost me £120 last year
($220 ) & the other 2(a little bigger than yours) cost £30 each(about $55).
I,m waffling.
Basically upto Catt light , good air movement , free draining medium , water so that it never dries out , fert @ the same level as your other orchids ,flush the pot to remove any salt buildup , consider supplementing calcium/magnesium.Plenty of articles on this you make your own mind up about supplemental calcium/magnesium.
I do as this also helps to buffer ph of the medium.
I,m still learning about these guys even after 18 months of research & growing them.

[Diane]

I thought I wanted a Roth till I read about the prices!! Yikes!

[paphman910]

If you grow it right, it should flower in 4 to 5 years.

Paphman

[JB_Orchidguy]

Cool. They had a Roth there in bloom that was one of the siblings because it was a single growth plant and had 4 nice blooms on it. Was about 3 times the size of the plants I have. Maybe more. I need to take a pic of my plant and post it. Heck there is so many things I need to do it isn't funny. Thanks for the advise everyone.