Phal. LD's Bear Queen seedlings update

LDBQ seedlings were deflasked in June, so they are just over 3 months old and they are growing really nicely. I think it is so far the most vigorous seedlings from all my deflaskings. It seems like very soon they will catch up with HDG that I deflasked in summer 2012.

Here is the picture:



I moved the larger ones from net pots to clay pots because roots started to come out from the net and weave around it. I already had this happening with HDG seedlings so badly that I had to cut the pot to free the roots. Now I decided to not wait that long.
Seedlings didn't mind moving and took off right away filling the wide clay pots with new roots.

What is different fromprevious phalaenopsis deflaskings? These guys went straight to orchid tank with t5 ho lights and constant temps and humidity (no trays with domes, no heating mats, no fuss) and, I guess, it is working.

Repotting paphs, again.

It became a real necessity because I noticed that I am rotting the roots in the Shultz bark mix they were currently growing. Of course most of them still have bunch of roots but comparing to the repotting pictures of plants when they got here - the root systems decreased quite significantly. It is all barks fault because I can never tell if it is dry or wet.
I would like to grow them in pure moss, but apparently paphs don't do good in sphagnum for the long run.
So, with help of knowledgeable folks on th Slipper Talk forum I created my own mix that has no bark whatsoever and contains the following ingredients: leca(clay pellets), chopped sphagnum moss, chc, perlite, chrcoal and coarse sand.
Here is how it looks like:



I really hope this will work.

Repotted paphs in the new media:

Paph. stonei: one week after deflasking

What's left of the paph. stonei seedlings - 16 plantlets in three compots.

Paph. stonei x sib ('Red Pouch' x 'The Best'):



Compot 1:



Compot 2:



Compot 3:



They don't look all that good, but I figure if they were to die - it would already happen after a week...

Paph. sanderianum: one week after deflasking

It is probably too soon for any updates, but I just wanted to record that all of them are still alive and make a separate picture of each compot closeup so it will be more convenient to watch them grow (or die).

Paph.sanderianum x sib ('Mini' AQ/AOS x 'Dr. John' AM/AQ/AOS)



Compot 1:



Compot 2:



Compot 3:



Compot 4:



Compot 5:

New seedlings losses

It is a sad day: I threw away quite a few small seedlings of paph. stonei that I just deflasked last Friday.
Of course it was all my fault. I didn't realize how thin and fragile the plants are when I was taking them out of the flask.
Some of the plantlets got bent through the stem. I didn't even know how many of them were damaged like that until I saw this:



Notice the brown "belt" around the plant, I think it started to rot through. After checking each pot I found more. As it always happens, affected ones were the largest and those with most roots. They all went to garbage.
Oh well, it was my first paphiopedilum flask and apparently they are not as easy and sturdy as phalaenopsis.
There are still about 15 plants left, I rearranged them into two large pots and one small.
Now I am not so confident that all of them will survive.

Sanderianum seedlings were shorter and fatter, they didn't get much damage except some broken leaves. No losses there yet...