I had a thought about co2 production, I remember in chemistry class that if you had acid and you dropped shells or limestone into it, you would get carbon dioxide and I think water vapor (not sure about the latter). Also think that when I was a kid there was a cereal box (cap'n crunch) once in a while would have little plastic submarines that you could pack baking soda into a little cell on the bottom and drip some vinegar or something like that into the pocket, set it in the water and the reaction would make gas (I believe co2) and the sub would sink, get some gas, rise up, get to the top, release the gas and then go down and up over and over. Point being that I think both could be alternative ways to possible cheaply get co2 for your plants. Other thing you might want to look into is finding out where there are coal and fuel burning plants or such nearby that are starting to collect the co2 peeled out of the energy creation reaction and are looking to inject it underground or under water to get rid of it to possibly offset global warming. I know probably no big corporation will likely want to sell relatively tiny amounts of co2 gas here or there, but it they are alternative thoughts to getting co2, and hey, my job is really boring and I need *something* to think about! There may be other places that have co2 and want to get rid of it.
Also glad to hear that someone has been growing p. micranthum and having good luck at it under lights and with lots of patience. I'll keep mine from drying out and just not expect fast results. One happy note paph-wise is that when the late Jim Rice was closing up his orchid greenhouses I had bought a good handful of paph armeniacum seedlings. One by one over the last few years they would die from various things, but the last one hung on and lately has thickened up considerably, and a runner had gone underground and was looking for a place to get out of the 2 1/4' pot it was in, and has a nice shoot on the end of the stem. Looks like it will survive and prosper. Also noticed a few days ago that I had a bud emerging on a yellow phrag besseae that earlier this year I had almost given up on. There was some discussion earlier about some phrags and keeping them in water, and someone pointed out that either they or someone else had had problems with their yellow besseaes that were sitting in water and they took them out. Also may have been a point of discussion that the plants may have been a little too cool.... I had the plant in large diatomite that the red ones I have love to be in (well, smaller diatomite but they love diatomite in general), and sitting in water in clay pots; the yellow kept dying back, so I took it out of the water and set in it my phal species shelf which is brighter and stays much warmer and it doesn't sit in water anymore. It was still in the clay pot, and it dries out much more than the other plants, but a few months back a previously aborted shoot started growing out of the center again, and looks good and hopefully the bud will stay and open. Can't wait! regards, charles -- charles ufford oriskany, ny usa _______________________________________________ the OrchidGuide Digest (OGD) [email protected] http://orchidguide.com/mailman/listinfo/orchids_orchidguide.com
