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RYERSON EXPANSIBLE ORCHID FOLDER Page Del 
ssanuenunanin 
PLANTING “BARE ROOT" SEEDLINGS IN COMMUNITY POTS 
, js. 
If you've ordered your Out-of-Flask seedlings shipped to you "BARE, ROOT", please 
study the following suggestions: pare. 
will use a separate bowl of water for each cross ordered. Prop. each cellulo 
teg in the bowl with the seedlings which it names. When a pot is plented, the 
tag is tucked in at the back. 
) 2. Prepare your community pot (or pots) as per instructions in the first para= 
graph of Page D, being sure to use plenty of fine crock or the coarse grade of 
granite chips you can buy in a Chicken Feed Store. Check drainage and make sure 
the Ryerson Potting Mixture is thoroughly wet before planting. Some like a layer 
of soft brown osmunda, sliced so fibers are vertical, between the crock and 
Potting Mixture. 
When you buy just enough seedlings for ONE community pot of a cross, you will 
find the sizes vary considerably. (It wouldn't be fair to send all the largest 
seedlings to one customer and all the smallest to another, would it?) 
3. The community pot will look better, and the seedlings grow better, if the 
larger ones are planted toward the center and the smaller ones nearer the rim of 
the pot. Pick out the biggest of all and plant it right in the center of the pot. 
Then fan out from it in both directions with the next in size. This makes four 
wedge shaped fields in which to dot the smaller seedlings. Every one of your 20 
Bare Root Seedlings will have good leaf and root growth and will grow if given a 
chance. 
4. Keep your planting surface as level as possible. This LEVEL is the MOST 
IMPORTANT factor in giving your community pot seedlings the right start in life 
out of their sterile flasks. Any seedling planted too low, so that not only the 
roots but a bit of the leaf growth is under the surface (or will be the first 
time the pot is fogged) is almost certain to damp off. Seedlings that are planted 
too high == so that a good share of the roots are not tamped down into the mix- 
ture -= will either wash out with the first watering, or will gradually climb out 
so that they will be difficult to handle and to water. If a root or two is too 
long to plant with the tweezers, prune it with razor blade or sharp knife. Avoid 
bruising or bending the roots. 
5. If the Potting Mixture was thoroughly wet, and your greenhouse or Orchidarium 
humid, refrain from watering newly planted community pots for about one week. 
Thereafter, they will need to be fogged several times a day with the finest avail- 
able spray of tepid water. Feed your community pots once a week, after new 
growth has started, but be careful not to wash them out of their mixture. 
Some of my customers have reported success in growing a single community pot, by 
keeping it under a large glass bowl or plastic cake cover for the first couple 
of weeks. But don't make the enclosure so close and tight that no air reaches 
the seedlings. They need fresh air, minus drying drafts. Setting the pot on a 
pan or tray of moist gravel helps humidity, but never, never let water come up to 
the bottom of the pot, or prevent drainage in any way. If the surface of the 
potting mixture looks dry and powdery, and the seedlings also look dry, you prob- 
ably have gone to the other extreme of not providing enough water. In this case, 
return moisture to the mixture by setting the pot in a pan, pouring tepid water 
into the pan until it comes up to the level of the mixture, but does not overflow 
into the pot. Leave it there several minutes, or until the mixture again looks 
moist. Then drain and return the pot to its Orchidarium. 
