Okay, Show Your Strep Ignorance

17 years ago

Hi, Folks:

I have been gifted with four beautiful Streps.

I have columnea and chiritas and trailing AVs. All are in plastic pots and wicked.

So how do I treat the Streps? I've gone back over previous posts by doing a "Strep" search and here's what I've sort of figured out:

1. My clay orchid pots and regular clay pots will work; so will this self-watering pot like Oyama spel).

2. They need less water that my other gesnariads and the AVs so I should not keep them as moist.

3. They will tolerate my regular 1-1-1 ProMix-perlite-vermiculite mix to which I've added extra perlite (because I also use it for my Rhizo begonias).

Is there something in the above I *shouldn't* be doing? Is there something else I *should* be doing?

These Streps are beautiful: 'Jason,' 'Cassandra,' 'Echo' and one that has '192 White' on the tag.

Thanks for the help. Want to give them the best chance as survival as I can.

Linda

Comment (1)

irina_co
17 years ago
Hi Linda,

4 is a gift, 65 is a curse - believe me. They do OK for me if I cut the 1:1:1 mix in half with a medium perlite. You can even wick them - and i found out that even better to have the pots with extra slits - like orchid plastic pots.

They are more maintenance than AVs or columneas or aeschynanthus or the easiest of them all - nematanthus. They are prone to crown rot if the stay too long in a same pot - because some varieties develop a huge root system in a hurry, fill the pot and perish. They need to have a breathing space for the roots. They need to sit on the top of the hill - you can never put them deep. ANd just keep an eye on them. If they start looking limp- and the soil is wet - you have time to reroot them - they do not perish as fast as AVs. Just cut the rotten roots off, trim the long leaves and pin them to the soil.

Good luck

Irina
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