Den Cathy Beck control plants update - WOW

[jerrymeola]

I was going to wait longer to post photos of the control plants.

Some results are so clear that I thought a posting now was necessary.

The plants arrived in March and were potted into 2 inch pots and drenched with Worm Tea and SuperThrive. Every plant that was shipped was selected at random from this group eliminating only the smallest.

On April 29th my greenhouse was destroyed in a storm.



The control plants were buried under this mess but the shipment plants had been moved prior to the accident.

The lack of circulation and general bad conditions in this mess caused fungal rot to break out on my Cattleya. As a result I used the occasion to test two new products Companion, a Bracillus bacteria culture that was to inoculate plants against fungal rot, and Essential a rooting hormone used by turf growers in Florida to increase their harvests from 2 to 3 per year. Both are compatible with Worm tea so a bath of the three was made and every plant was drenched in the solution. Dens are pretty much immune from root rot.

I ran out of Essential quickly. A quart makes only 10 1/2 gallons of solution and less than half the plants used it all. Den Cathy Beck was among the ones that got Essentials.

I have 67 plants left and decided not to sell any more except to forum members until they started to flower. Here are some results.

April 25th the first and so far only plant started to spike



On May 1 before using Essentials



Today three weeks later



Here are the three smallest plants. The one on the far right had 3 bulbs 1/2 inch each dried and shriveled - usually a throwaway. The left was an inch and also shriveled. The center was an inch and plump. All had no leaves. All have new growth.



Of the 67 plants left 40 have 1 or more new canes growing. Not a single plant has died.

I decided to select one at random and check the roots. I have never seen so much growth. Because the growth was so strong I removed almost all the original roots today. Most fell off merely by touching them.



The first week, I told my Aq rep the price was too expensive for Essentials for me to use but called him back this week and re-ordered. The price is 1000 yes a thousand times the price of SuperThrive. I guess you really get what you pay for.

I have 2000 Cattleya arriving next month and I will treat 2/3 with Essential, Companion, worm tea mixture, while keeping the rest as a control. If the Plants go from a one inch pot to a pot bound 2 inch pot in 3 months in time for fall shows, it will have proved its value.

I'll post some results for the Encyclia (got Essentials) and Naples Nights (did not get) later.

BTW the Companion worked as claimed. It stopped all fungal rot immediately and I have not had a recurrance. Usually I fight fungal rot from April to June. Companion is supposed to be good for 28 days and then can be reapplied with a light spraying. I like that both are compatible with Worm Tea. I can mix all three in a sprayer and aplly all at once.

[patticake]

Awesome!! What exactly is Essential? I've seen it advertised, but don't really understand what it is. Is it just for commercial growers?
The Den. Cathy Becks sure look good! Mine's coming along.

[articuno75]

It's like a triple packing punch super drink of Red Bull for Plants !!! Awesome !!!

[FLaCo]

My Den. Cathy Becks just sprung up a few days after i received them from Jerry. They have really taken off and today I repotted them.

[FLaCo]

Is essential like a Keyplex solution?

[PalmCityOrchid]

Hi Jerry - Sorry to hear about your greenhouse. The plants look good though!

Do you sell the triple threat miracle? Sounds like something I'd be interested in!!!

[jerrymeola]

Both Companion, which is the one I most like, and Essentials are made by Growth Products.

Essentials has a long list of ingredients, but the basic parts are Humic Acid from Leonardite, which is used to buffer the PH and allow the plant to use the other ingredients. This is also administered separately at a lot of nurseries to improve fertilizer effectiveness. Gibberelic acid (0.001%) which I believe is the growth hormone and Vitamins B2 and B6. Also something described as 'Natural Rooting Substance' 0.01%.

I made an error when I said a quart made 10 1/2 gallons, it makes only 8 gallons. Making it 1200 times as expensive as SuperThrive. SuperThrive is Indole-3-butyric acid and Vitamin B1. DynaGro K-L-N has only Nitrogen and B1 listed on its ingredients, although, I have seen references that it also has Indole-3-butyric acid.

Whether I keep using Essentials is a commercial decision. It is very expensive and I do not believe it has a shelf life after mixing. For me I mix 4 gallons and use it all in a couple of hours. But at $5 a gallon for working solution it is expensive and more so if part gets thrown away. Also a liter is the smallest quantity sold for almost $40.

There are no label restrictions on use so it can be used by anyone, with cost being the only deciding factor.

Now Companion I like even more. It is Rhizosphere bacteria Bracillus subtitus GB03. Used as a drench with follow up spraying every 28 days it claims to stop fungal infections (which worked for me) and inoculate the plant from further attack. It is active through the roots of the plant. It is more reasonable for use needing only a 1/4 tsp per quart

All plants have some roots damaged when they are re-potted. This prevents the fungal spores, which exist everywhere in the world, from being able to infect the plant.

In my case I saw the fungal infection attacking at the point where the leaf met the pseudobulb. Normally it spreads rapidly and cutting the infection out is necessary to prevent infection of the entire plant. I treated with Companion and left the diseased leaf on the plant to see the effect. The rot dried up and stopped spreading. The leaf still died and fell off. That leaf was being infected because of root damage and the damage still prevented the plant from absorbing water to the leaf. The important point was it did not spread on that plant and did not spread to other plants.

Normally infected leaves fall off the plant while green with some black at the base. The treated plants kept the leaves until they were totally dried.

As to Worm Tea I have talked about it a lot. The only thing to add is all three can be mixed. I learned that OurVitalEarth has been supplementing their worm feed with Bracillus bacteria. This is the reason theirs is so dark. Companion just has a lot more (55 billion per gallon guaranteed). Bracillus is the bacteria they are using to eat oil spills.

I mix all three together and love the fact that they are harmless to humans and pets.

I will be re-bottling these in smaller quantities for anyone who wants to try them. I need to research the shelf life of the products after mixing. It is way too expensive to use once and discard.

[evagentry]

It all certainly sounds fascinating, and wonderful for a commercial grower.

[jerrymeola]

I had the feeling that my use of Essentials might have be wrong and contacted the manufacturer

Here is his reply

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Jerry,

Thank you for using our Companion and Essentail Products.

The questions that I have is; before re-potting does the Orchids already have a root system at this point? If so then I would use the 32 ounces per 100 gallons of water to stimulate root growth. The 3 ounce per gallon rate is for root initiation. You should only use a 5 second dip with this rate.

For foliage sprays I would use 32 ounces per 100 gallons of water, which is .32 ounces per gallon of water.

Also I am curious to which IBA product that you are using? In my experience Essentail is 10 times less expensive than IBA when used at comparative rates.

Again, thank you for using my products and if you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

Randy

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At the rate of .32 per gallon (2 tsp per gallon) the product is reasonable. As a foliage spray I only need 8 gallons of solution to spray an entire greenhouse. That is less than 3 ounces for the entire greenhouse not 32 ounces for just 1/2 a row.

The plants are doing well so a 5 minute dunk at the high concentration did not do any damage, although he recommends only 5 seconds at that concentration.

I noticed his comment about IBA which is in Super Thrive and others. I wonder if the concentration recommended on the bottle is too low to do much good. I will keep you informed as I learn more results.

The Companion has been proving its worth. I had a lot of plants and divisions with damaged roots . Normally a percentage would develop root rot. Now I can see the blackening at the base of the leaf, but instead of being highly contagious and spreading, I can ignore them. The leaves dry out and fall off with no spreading. The roots were bad so nothing could save the leaves, but there is no longer any need to constantly watch them and cut out the rot. With thousands of plants that is a very big plus.

[PalmCityOrchid]

Hi Jerry - Do you have a website or e-Bay store we can go to? If not, do you have a plant list and also a list of other things you offer for sale? I'm really interested in buying a few things from you. This mix for sure, as well as some plants. You can also PM me if you'd like.

Thanks so much!