order from ecuagenera, any help would be appreciated

Hello
I just ordered 12 plants (10 anthuriums and 2 philos) from ecuagenera and im so excited bc this is my first time growing aroids out side of a terrarium. I've heard the plants ship in their pots and if so I want to see if I can meet the care requirements necessary
I live in southern California, and im utilizing a greenhouse in my yard that has a full layer of 75% shade cloth draped over it, it gets morning and midday sun, but afternoon sun is mostly blocked due to the greenhouse being next to west facing and north facing walls. The humidity stays at around 80% through out the day and bc of the swamp cooler I use, temps can range between 85F on a hot day and 65F on a cool day. I also plan to put cooler growing species like A. rugulosum near the swamp cooler vent where the temps never exceeds 65F
The way I plan to water the plants is through a fine mist system that goes off every 6 hours for 4 minutes, is this too much?
In case they dont come in substrate I have enough net pots as well as substrate on hand, the substrate is 2/5 long fiber sphagnum, 2/5 large chunk orchid bark, and 1/5 horticultural charcoal. Should I be adding anything to this mix, I have peat moss and lyca on hand if that will benefit the mixture.
The plants in question are
anthurium rugulosum
anthurium corrugatum
anthurium metallicum
anthurium flavolineatum
anthurium queremalense
anthurium falcatum
anthueium watermaliense
anthurium forgetii
anthurium polyneuron
anthurium brownii
philodendron verrucosum
philodendron grandipes
Any help would be appreciated, especially on the lesser describes species. Thank you all so much

 

You may want to check out Exotic Rainforest if you have not visited before. Some of the material there may be useful to you. For instance, there is a recommended 'jungle mix' for growing anthuriums and philodendrons.

 

Hi Arman, did your order come in yet? :)

 

not yet unfortunately, the receipt said they would ship the order at the end of may. Ill post some pics when they come

 

Since they're not in yet, I'll throw in my 2 cents about your soil question. Have you grown before in that kind of a mix? I'm curious where you got it, if you know someone who is having success with it. I wonder if using the really large dry chunks of bark, filled in with wet sphagnum is your best mix for such fine-rooted plants. You'll be basically growing hydroponically, which has been done and is definitely reasonable, but I would have a few concerns: First, it's higher risk because a mix that requires such multiple cycle times per day on watering REQUIRES that cycle time, so you have a much tinier window of safety if something goes wrong like equipment failure or if your are unable to give the collection your full attention for some unknown reason like a family or work emergency. Second, it's more difficult growing that way when you are relying almost 100% on dosed nutrients instead of getting some from the mix. It takes more time, effort, expense, and skill. Third, I don't think it's the best way to maximize growth. Sure, epiphytes love some air space at their roots, but they love it in the sense that that they stay healthy and free from root rots, they don't love it in the sense that it makes them grow faster. For instance, it's very hard to maintain beneficial mycorrhizal root associations (which naturallly help you reach max growth potential) when using large bark chunks and anti-fungal sphagnum. To max out the plant's growth, I would search for a mix with the minimum air space that can still have enough air to ensure a healthy plant free from overwatering root rots in your conditions.
Jungle Keeper mentioned Steve's Exotic Rainforest site up above. Perhaps take a peek at the soil recipe he uses for Anthurium and Philodendron, and also the results he was getting as well. :)

 

Thanks for the tips, after reviewing some literature from Exotic Rainforest, I have decided to modicy the mix by decreasing the amount of sphagnum by adding more bark, aswell as adding small amounts of peat moss and perlite to try to more closely replicate the mixture reccomended on the website. The substrate in question is one that I formulted after a bit of research on aroids, I purchased all the components i didn't have seperately to minimize cost since orchid bark, charcoal and long fiber sphagnum are usually things ill have lying around for other horticultural perposes. As my irrigation sytem is connected to my hose, I don't think ill face too much of a problem with forgetting to fill resavoirs. For my swamp cooler and homemade humidifier however, this will not be the case, and I will have to change the water somewhat regularly. Even with that in mind, the misting system does a good job of keeping temps low and humidity high on its own, and the cooler/humidifier are only present to try to perfect my growing conditions. Would ypu have any other suggestions for thing to add to the substrate? Most of my growing is done in vivariums where fertalizer comes naturaly, even when it doesn't like may of my mounted orchids, I only fertalize sparingly or not at all since I feel I get adequite growth/flowering without the use of fertalizer, do I have to change this practice for aroids? How much fertalizer do they need? Again thankyou for the reply.

 

Yes, if you want those big, bold, beautiful leaves that aroids are famous for, I would say you'll need to adjust your fertilizer practices; especially if you grow with all inorganic ingredients like you've mentioned so far. The kind of fertilizer regime you mentioned I think might result in plants half the size as regularly fertilized plants (or ones grown in organic media, or both).
When I am mixing plant soils, I like to understand the definite purpose to every ingredient, otherwise I leave it out. An example might be using both long sphagnum and peat moss. I would leave out the sphagnum. We know it's a great product and widely used, but that is usually when it is the sole ingredient. The guys who are including it as a minor ingredient perhaps don't know the "why" of it. It's not just a great water-holding ingredient. One of it's main benefits is its ability to move or transfer water throughout the pot (even up) until it is evenly distributed. This let's you know like a giant red flag exactly when it needs to be watered, since the top gets hard and color changes very close to the same time the bottom of the pot does (unlike average packaged potting soil). However, when you include it as a minor ingredient, this effect goes away and you just have some various wet noodles in the bottom of the pot which can have a vastly different moisture content than the isolated dry noodles on the surface. They're not linked, so it doesn't work the same. So I would pick just one type of texture to my water holding ingredients so they have the best chance of linking up and working together. That could be peat or coco fibre or both mixed (since they have a similar texture). Or changing the whole mix to 100% sphagnum (but that really works better for low-nutrient plants like orchids or carnivores, plus it gives you a much longer watering cycle time than you wanted). My personal preference when using peat is to get the higher-grade blonde peat, like Pro-Moss TBK. It holds as much water as regular peat, but with a better air-to-water ratio. It has an even spongier, more airy texture than regular peat.
So for greenhouse culture of these plants, and if you want mostly non-organic ingredients, I might consider a mix of medium & fine fir bark, blonde TBK peat moss, perlite (I cut it in half with pumice so it doesn't float to the top), and horticultural charcoal; and I would plan on measuring my watering cycle times in days instead of hours. I also think you would have great success with the mixes mentioned above at Exotic Rainforest. But of course there are thousands of ways to have a successful soil mix

 

I switched my mix to resemble yours by adding more of everything except the sphagnum and adding pete instead. Since I cant remove the sphagnum, the mix is going to end up being most orchid bark, equal parts perlite, charcoal, pete/sphagnum. Do you have any tips on how I should encorperate fertalizers into my routine? thx so much

 

I personally use Dyna-Gro's Foilage Pro 9-3-6 liquid fertilizer for my aroids. For me, I need the combination of high-quality, wide-spectrum fertilizer that is quickly available to the plants, but also balance that with very quick and easy to use for a non-automated system. Many different brands are similar and would work as well. I use it at almost every watering.

If you're growing in a greenhouse, and you seem willing to set up automated systems, you might start researching automatic fertilizer dosing systems as a part of your watering system. Most professional growers and public greenhouses like universities, conservatories, etc. have them. Even most medium-size hobby greenhouse growers use them. If you are also not afraid of a little more complicated and expensive to get the very best results, start to research the 2-part fertilizer systems you can find locally at any hydroponics store. The two parts are separated to give you a better balance of some fertilizer ingredients that don't like to stay in solution together in a bottle at the preferred concentrations, like calcium.

 

the package just shipped boys!!

 

Thanks for sharing your thoughts on using long fiber sphagnum moss. I had considered incorporating some in my medium but now I see it won't do much good in small quantities.

 

Im happy to say that all the plants came in good condition with one or two exceptions. Unfortunately, when I was removing the verrucosum from the packaging the roots seperated from the stem, I immediatly put it in a sphagnum and am debating whether to cut off one of the leaves on the 3-leafed plant. I need some help with this one guys, any suggestions would be appreciated.

 

If it has no roots, and is basically a cutting, then yes, I would remove at least one leaf, and perhaps cut the other 2 down to 1/3. You'll lose them anyway.