OK,

Today I put my Zga, my Phrag and two catts into semihydro. I bought
the catts at the COOS show Sunday, and they were bare root, so I could
see they had plenty of roots. One was in bloom and the other had buds
in a sheath. And both had new pseudobulbs just beginning. I expect
these will do well once they get over the shock of being carried for
who knows how long bare root (but no visible sign if damage) while
blooming.

I am not holding my breath for my Zga, but it seemed to have plenty of
roots and it has four respectable pseudobulbs. I have placed the
rhyzome just millimetres above the medium, not touching it. Hopefully
that will prevent problems with rot. Although I wonder if the rest of
the plant was infected after, or while, I removed the rotted leaves

The phrag was a pleasant surprise. There was close to twice as much
healthy root as there were leaves (when the leaves were healthy), and
now there are more roots than the leaves could begin to support, unless
phrags are super-efficient. I cut off the dead leaves before potting
it. I epect it will do well as the new growths appear healthy; there
are two new growths.

The only challenge I encountered, apart from trying to jiggle the clay
pellets to the bottom of the pop bottle when the bottle was chock full
of roots, was that they seem to be quite top heavy. I used 0.6 L
plastic bottles, from which I cut the top off at its widest point. The
remainder of the bottle is about 15 cm tall (or about 6 inches) and 7.5
cm in diameter (or about 3 inches). I put two holes in the sides of
these bottles less than 1 cm from the bottom. I used the bottoms of 2
L bottles to catch any nutrient solution that drained out of the
smaller bottles.

Next in line for semihydro will be my paph and a Pot. Burana Beauty
which hasn't looked so happy since it finished blooming a couple weeks
ago. I'll then leave it at that for a while to see what happens.

Cheers,

Ted

PS: I had some computer troubles this week, so I have spent quite some
time repairing Windows on my system. But the significant thing is I
have lost the email addresses of those who have contacted my by email.

Ted wrote:
> I put two holes in the sides of
> these bottles less than 1 cm from the bottom.

Ted, my homemade containers are modeled after those I purchased from
Ray, who uses a spacing of 2 cm from bottom of hole circumference to
bottom of container. Even with that spacing, some of my high
transpiration orchids (e.g. Oncidium alliance) consume most of the
reservoir in 1 sunny day and all of it in 2 days. I think over time
you'll be happier with a little more reservoir depth. You have a high
height-to-width ratio with the bottles you are using, so don't worry
about allocating an extra cm for the reservoir.

I believe you'll discover that phrags in particular thrive in S/H. Mine
completely fill their containers, even the reservoir section, with
healthy roots.

John

On Thu, 29 Sep 2005 08:06:06 -0400 in <U5qdnfsqvs82RabeRVn-uQ [at] comcast.com> John DeGood <nu3e [at] arrl.net> wrote:
> Ted wrote:
>> I put two holes in the sides of
>> these bottles less than 1 cm from the bottom.
>
> Ted, my homemade containers are modeled after those I purchased from
> Ray, who uses a spacing of 2 cm from bottom of hole circumference to
> bottom of container. Even with that spacing, some of my high
> transpiration orchids (e.g. Oncidium alliance) consume most of the
> reservoir in 1 sunny day and all of it in 2 days. I think over time
> you'll be happier with a little more reservoir depth. You have a high
> height-to-width ratio with the bottles you are using, so don't worry
> about allocating an extra cm for the reservoir.

Don't remind me. My sharry baby, which is busily trying to create
the biggest pseudobulb I've ever seen with two more trying to catch up
frequently drinks the resevoir nearly dry in one day. This is
indoors under lights :-).

Ray, considered doing a batch of "adjustopots" with extra holes and
plugs so the resevoir can be manipulated for the thirstier plants?

--
Chris Dukes
Suspicion breeds confidence -- Brazil

Hi Guys,

Speaking of sharry baby, I saw one vendour at the COOS show Sunday with
about a dozen of them. They're the biggest plants I have seen at any
of the shows or orchid society meetings I have seen. The pseudobulbs
are huge, and a few had only one inflorescence while most had two. In
both cases, the inflorescence grew straight up, with some branching,
and the inflorescences averaged about 70 cm (or over two feet) above
the pots. What astonished me was that the vendour said they were all
first bloom seedlings. These "seedlings" were all in 20 cm (8 inch)
pots, and they seemed to be to big for their pots. I had seen other
sharry babies and the others were in 10 cm or 15 cm pots, and while
they'd had four or five pseudobulbs, and were in bloom, the weight of
the entire plant in these other cases would have been less than the
smallest of the pseudobulbs on these "seedlings that I saw Sunday.

If they bring them to the next SOOS meeting, I think I'll pick one up
with two inflorescences. After all, I'd expect that if two plants are
the same size and age, and both look very happy, and one has two
inflorescences while the other has one, the one with two is the better
plant. Right?

The only disappointment was that the plants I saw Sunday had a very
weak, delicate scent of chocolate. I am hoping that that is just
because of mediocre lighting at the show and the stress of having had
to be moved from home to the show (about a 2.5 hour drive - the vendour
has his greenhouse just to the southeast of where I am).

Have you seen, or heard of, first bloom sharry babies being that big?
Where would you find transparent plastic pots large enough to
accomodate such a big plant? Don't worry, I won't put the one I get
into semihydro at least until it finishes blooming, and I have had one
of my other plants presently, or shortly, in semihydro bloom.

Cheers,

Ted

Adding to John's good advice, the point to focus on is top of the reservoir
to top of the medium, not the depth of the reservoir.

If you have two 6" diameter pots, one 8" tall with a 2" reservoir and
another 12" tall with a 6" reservoir, you basically have identical growing
conditions in both, but the tall one will need less-frequent watering.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"John DeGood" <nu3e [at] arrl.net> wrote in message
news:U5qdnfsqvs82RabeRVn-uQ [at] comcast.com...
> Ted wrote:
>> I put two holes in the sides of
>> these bottles less than 1 cm from the bottom.
>
> Ted, my homemade containers are modeled after those I purchased from Ray,
> who uses a spacing of 2 cm from bottom of hole circumference to bottom of
> container. Even with that spacing, some of my high transpiration orchids
> (e.g. Oncidium alliance) consume most of the reservoir in 1 sunny day and
> all of it in 2 days. I think over time you'll be happier with a little
> more reservoir depth. You have a high height-to-width ratio with the
> bottles you are using, so don't worry about allocating an extra cm for the
> reservoir.
>
> I believe you'll discover that phrags in particular thrive in S/H. Mine
> completely fill their containers, even the reservoir section, with healthy
> roots.
>
> John

No Chris. If plants need watering that frequently, I just water them all
more often. No worry about overwatering...

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"?" <pakrat [at] localhost.private.neotoma.org> wrote in message
news:slrndjntif.35a.pakrat [at] mouse.private.neotoma.org...
> On Thu, 29 Sep 2005 08:06:06 -0400 in <U5qdnfsqvs82RabeRVn-uQ [at] comcast.com>
> John DeGood <nu3e [at] arrl.net> wrote:
>> Ted wrote:
>>> I put two holes in the sides of
>>> these bottles less than 1 cm from the bottom.
>>
>> Ted, my homemade containers are modeled after those I purchased from
>> Ray, who uses a spacing of 2 cm from bottom of hole circumference to
>> bottom of container. Even with that spacing, some of my high
>> transpiration orchids (e.g. Oncidium alliance) consume most of the
>> reservoir in 1 sunny day and all of it in 2 days. I think over time
>> you'll be happier with a little more reservoir depth. You have a high
>> height-to-width ratio with the bottles you are using, so don't worry
>> about allocating an extra cm for the reservoir.
>
> Don't remind me. My sharry baby, which is busily trying to create
> the biggest pseudobulb I've ever seen with two more trying to catch up
> frequently drinks the resevoir nearly dry in one day. This is
> indoors under lights :-).
>
> Ray, considered doing a batch of "adjustopots" with extra holes and
> plugs so the resevoir can be manipulated for the thirstier plants?
>
> --
> Chris Dukes
> Suspicion breeds confidence -- Brazil

Ted,

If the plant is Sharry Baby 'Sweet Fragrance' AM/AOS, I'd attribute the
slight scent to lack of light. Otherwise, it might be another cultivar of
Sharry Baby. I have three: 'Sweet Fragrance' which has the strongest
chocolate scent, 'Tricolor' which has a splash of yellow in addition to the
red and white, with a vanilla scent, and 'Everlasting" which has more maroon
flowers and less of a chocolate scent.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"Ted" <r.ted.byers [at] rogers.com> wrote in message
news:1128005093.868706.251040 [at] g43g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Hi Guys,
>
> Speaking of sharry baby, I saw one vendour at the COOS show Sunday with
> about a dozen of them. They're the biggest plants I have seen at any
> of the shows or orchid society meetings I have seen. The pseudobulbs
> are huge, and a few had only one inflorescence while most had two. In
> both cases, the inflorescence grew straight up, with some branching,
> and the inflorescences averaged about 70 cm (or over two feet) above
> the pots. What astonished me was that the vendour said they were all
> first bloom seedlings. These "seedlings" were all in 20 cm (8 inch)
> pots, and they seemed to be to big for their pots. I had seen other
> sharry babies and the others were in 10 cm or 15 cm pots, and while
> they'd had four or five pseudobulbs, and were in bloom, the weight of
> the entire plant in these other cases would have been less than the
> smallest of the pseudobulbs on these "seedlings that I saw Sunday.
>
> If they bring them to the next SOOS meeting, I think I'll pick one up
> with two inflorescences. After all, I'd expect that if two plants are
> the same size and age, and both look very happy, and one has two
> inflorescences while the other has one, the one with two is the better
> plant. Right?
>
> The only disappointment was that the plants I saw Sunday had a very
> weak, delicate scent of chocolate. I am hoping that that is just
> because of mediocre lighting at the show and the stress of having had
> to be moved from home to the show (about a 2.5 hour drive - the vendour
> has his greenhouse just to the southeast of where I am).
>
> Have you seen, or heard of, first bloom sharry babies being that big?
> Where would you find transparent plastic pots large enough to
> accomodate such a big plant? Don't worry, I won't put the one I get
> into semihydro at least until it finishes blooming, and I have had one
> of my other plants presently, or shortly, in semihydro bloom.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Ted
>

Ray wrote:
> Ted,
>
> If the plant is Sharry Baby 'Sweet Fragrance' AM/AOS, I'd attribute the
> slight scent to lack of light. Otherwise, it might be another cultivar of
> Sharry Baby. I have three: 'Sweet Fragrance' which has the strongest
> chocolate scent, 'Tricolor' which has a splash of yellow in addition to the
> red and white, with a vanilla scent, and 'Everlasting" which has more maroon
> flowers and less of a chocolate scent.
>
I think I have an alba form, that I can't remember the name of, so those
are out there too.

And furthermore, if Ted's plants were really 'first bloom seedlings',
then something isn't right. Chances are excellent that they are
mericloned material (and "Sweet Fragrance" is the most popular). These
really shouldn't be marketed as 'first bloom seedlings'. A mericlone
isn't a seedling. They are indeed raised from very small plants, but
these are technically divisions, not seedlings. Just wee little
divisions. Calling them seedlings is uneducated at best, and deceptive,
at worst. A good vendor would know better...</soapbox>.

If your plants are indeed seedlings (raised from seed generated from a
cross of the two parents of Sharry Baby, which I can't be bothered to
look up... *grin), then you may indeed have poorly scented clones. Not
all of the progeny will be as intensely fragrant as "Sweet Fragrance".
Some might have no scent whatsoever. Which would be good for me, I
can't stand the smell of the things (I call them 'stinky baby').

Rob

--
Rob's Rules: http://littlefrogfarm.com
New besseaes are here!!
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a) See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to obtain more
orchids, obtain more credit

I wouldn't be as hard on the vendor as Rob is, below, but I too thought
something was "not quite right" with the 1st-bloom seedling description.
When you do lots of shows, and esp. shows where there aren't a lot of real
orchid people, you learn to simplify your answers, because otherwise the
customer's eyes glaze over and they start wandering off ... So, for example,
when someone points at an Slc. Jewel Box 'Scheherezade' and asks what it is,
I no longer give them the whole name. I just say it's a Cattleya -- and
quite often I soon find out I should have just said "It's an Orchid." :<(

But with pbs as big as what were described, I would suspect that these were
divisions (perhaps of seed-grown plants, more likely of 'clones), rather
than plants grown _initially_ from seed. And probably started as single-pb
divisions, which would help to explain how they grew to fill 8" pots before
blooming again ... although it also seems likely that they were grown very
shady, probably to avoid the characteristic black leaf spots which tend to
"decorate" Sharry Baby grown warm and bright ...

I can confirm the differences in fragrance among various Sharry Baby clones.
My favorite was one called tri-color [we only had a small batch, so I never
got a definitive clonal name, but they definitely were clones] -- to me, the
fragrance was a nice mild mocha.
--
Kenni Judd
Juno Beach Orchids
http://www.jborchids.com


> And furthermore, if Ted's plants were really 'first bloom seedlings', then
> something isn't right. Chances are excellent that they are mericloned
> material (and "Sweet Fragrance" is the most popular). These really
> shouldn't be marketed as 'first bloom seedlings'. A mericlone isn't a
> seedling. They are indeed raised from very small plants, but these are
> technically divisions, not seedlings. Just wee little divisions. Calling
> them seedlings is uneducated at best, and deceptive, at worst. A good
> vendor would know better...</soapbox>.
>
> If your plants are indeed seedlings (raised from seed generated from a
> cross of the two parents of Sharry Baby, which I can't be bothered to look
> up... *grin), then you may indeed have poorly scented clones. Not all of
> the progeny will be as intensely fragrant as "Sweet Fragrance". Some might
> have no scent whatsoever. Which would be good for me, I can't stand the
> smell of the things (I call them 'stinky baby').
>
> Rob
>
> --
> Rob's Rules: http://littlefrogfarm.com
> New besseaes are here!!
> 1) There is always room for one more orchid
> 2) There is always room for two more orchids
> 2a) See rule 1
> 3) When one has insufficient credit to obtain more
> orchids, obtain more credit
>

Ted,

I think you may find in a year or so that leaving so many roots on was
a bad idea. Those roots will die and fill in air spaces needed by the
new roots. The new roots are the ones that will be able to take in
water and nutrients effeciently. The old ones are damaged from
unpotting, and have no intimate contact with the new media.


In the wet environment of SH very few roots are needed to maintain the
water needs of the plant, and the plants can lose a great deal of
stored water without causing problems.


In general, if you have trouble shaking the pellets down then you have
left too many roots.



In regards to Sharry Baby water needs and reservoir depth. Any Oncid
that is established well enough to take in that much water can pull in
water from the pellets (only about 1/6 of the available water is held
in the pot as free water in the reservoir, the rest is held by the
pellets). The plant also holds enough water in its pbulbs for its
needs for a coupld of weeks (Pull one and put it on the table and see
how fast it shrivels). My point is that you don't have to stand right
there and top off the pots the second the water drops to the bottom.

PrimAgra will wick the pot dry without a plant in it in two or three
hot days with high air movement.


If you are going to make a deeper reservoir make sure that the water
level goes down quickly because oxygen levels go down in any standing
water left in the reservoir. the deeper the water the worse the
problems. Root tip death can happen in those situations.

Another way to get more water in the reservoir is to put loose packing
material in the bottom so that there is more water space. Large
diatomite, and possibly red lava rock will leave more spaces between
the peices for water.




Ted wrote:
> OK,
>
> Today I put my Zga, my Phrag and two catts into semihydro. I bought
> the catts at the COOS show Sunday, and they were bare root, so I could
> see they had plenty of roots. One was in bloom and the other had buds
> in a sheath. And both had new pseudobulbs just beginning. I expect
> these will do well once they get over the shock of being carried for
> who knows how long bare root (but no visible sign if damage) while
> blooming.
>
> I am not holding my breath for my Zga, but it seemed to have plenty of
> roots and it has four respectable pseudobulbs. I have placed the
> rhyzome just millimetres above the medium, not touching it. Hopefully
> that will prevent problems with rot. Although I wonder if the rest of
> the plant was infected after, or while, I removed the rotted leaves
>
> The phrag was a pleasant surprise. There was close to twice as much
> healthy root as there were leaves (when the leaves were healthy), and
> now there are more roots than the leaves could begin to support, unless
> phrags are super-efficient. I cut off the dead leaves before potting
> it. I epect it will do well as the new growths appear healthy; there
> are two new growths.
>
> The only challenge I encountered, apart from trying to jiggle the clay
> pellets to the bottom of the pop bottle when the bottle was chock full
> of roots, was that they seem to be quite top heavy. I used 0.6 L
> plastic bottles, from which I cut the top off at its widest point. The
> remainder of the bottle is about 15 cm tall (or about 6 inches) and 7.5
> cm in diameter (or about 3 inches). I put two holes in the sides of
> these bottles less than 1 cm from the bottom. I used the bottoms of 2
> L bottles to catch any nutrient solution that drained out of the
> smaller bottles.
>
> Next in line for semihydro will be my paph and a Pot. Burana Beauty
> which hasn't looked so happy since it finished blooming a couple weeks
> ago. I'll then leave it at that for a while to see what happens.
>
> Cheers,
>
> Ted
>
> PS: I had some computer troubles this week, so I have spent quite some
> time repairing Windows on my system. But the significant thing is I
> have lost the email addresses of those who have contacted my by email.

I see several potential pieces of misinformation in that advice.

1) I typically see far more roots in S/H plants than those growing in
ordinary culture. OK, maybe there is some logic to the fact that they can
do without as much, but it just isn't healthy.
2) It is not a good idea to ever let plants lose a lot of water.
3) In any minor difference in reservoir depths in S/H pots, the dissolved
oxygen argument is irrelevant. Unless you're talking tens or even hundreds
of feet difference in depth the chemistry will be so close that the
differences will be not discernable. Now then, it is a fact that gas
exchange will effect the pH of the solution in the reservoir, so if the
reservoir lasts longer between needed waterings, that might cause an issue,
but to-day (10+ years of S/H experimentation), I've never seen root-tip
death from that.
4) Using an irregularly-shaped "fill" particle in the reservoir will
actually decrease the open volume that can be filled with liquid, when
compared to something spherical.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


<la_jaiba [at] hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:1128086461.624373.115590 [at] o13g2000cwo.googlegroups.com...
> Ted,
>
> I think you may find in a year or so that leaving so many roots on was
> a bad idea. Those roots will die and fill in air spaces needed by the
> new roots. The new roots are the ones that will be able to take in
> water and nutrients effeciently. The old ones are damaged from
> unpotting, and have no intimate contact with the new media.
>
>
> In the wet environment of SH very few roots are needed to maintain the
> water needs of the plant, and the plants can lose a great deal of
> stored water without causing problems.
>
>
> In general, if you have trouble shaking the pellets down then you have
> left too many roots.
>
>
>
> In regards to Sharry Baby water needs and reservoir depth. Any Oncid
> that is established well enough to take in that much water can pull in
> water from the pellets (only about 1/6 of the available water is held
> in the pot as free water in the reservoir, the rest is held by the
> pellets). The plant also holds enough water in its pbulbs for its
> needs for a coupld of weeks (Pull one and put it on the table and see
> how fast it shrivels). My point is that you don't have to stand right
> there and top off the pots the second the water drops to the bottom.
>
> PrimAgra will wick the pot dry without a plant in it in two or three
> hot days with high air movement.
>
>
> If you are going to make a deeper reservoir make sure that the water
> level goes down quickly because oxygen levels go down in any standing
> water left in the reservoir. the deeper the water the worse the
> problems. Root tip death can happen in those situations.
>
> Another way to get more water in the reservoir is to put loose packing
> material in the bottom so that there is more water space. Large
> diatomite, and possibly red lava rock will leave more spaces between
> the peices for water.
>
>
>
>
> Ted wrote:
>> OK,
>>
>> Today I put my Zga, my Phrag and two catts into semihydro. I bought
>> the catts at the COOS show Sunday, and they were bare root, so I could
>> see they had plenty of roots. One was in bloom and the other had buds
>> in a sheath. And both had new pseudobulbs just beginning. I expect
>> these will do well once they get over the shock of being carried for
>> who knows how long bare root (but no visible sign if damage) while
>> blooming.
>>
>> I am not holding my breath for my Zga, but it seemed to have plenty of
>> roots and it has four respectable pseudobulbs. I have placed the
>> rhyzome just millimetres above the medium, not touching it. Hopefully
>> that will prevent problems with rot. Although I wonder if the rest of
>> the plant was infected after, or while, I removed the rotted leaves
>>
>> The phrag was a pleasant surprise. There was close to twice as much
>> healthy root as there were leaves (when the leaves were healthy), and
>> now there are more roots than the leaves could begin to support, unless
>> phrags are super-efficient. I cut off the dead leaves before potting
>> it. I epect it will do well as the new growths appear healthy; there
>> are two new growths.
>>
>> The only challenge I encountered, apart from trying to jiggle the clay
>> pellets to the bottom of the pop bottle when the bottle was chock full
>> of roots, was that they seem to be quite top heavy. I used 0.6 L
>> plastic bottles, from which I cut the top off at its widest point. The
>> remainder of the bottle is about 15 cm tall (or about 6 inches) and 7.5
>> cm in diameter (or about 3 inches). I put two holes in the sides of
>> these bottles less than 1 cm from the bottom. I used the bottoms of 2
>> L bottles to catch any nutrient solution that drained out of the
>> smaller bottles.
>>
>> Next in line for semihydro will be my paph and a Pot. Burana Beauty
>> which hasn't looked so happy since it finished blooming a couple weeks
>> ago. I'll then leave it at that for a while to see what happens.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Ted
>>
>> PS: I had some computer troubles this week, so I have spent quite some
>> time repairing Windows on my system. But the significant thing is I
>> have lost the email addresses of those who have contacted my by email.
>

Hi All,

I ought to speak in defence of the vendor.

I have known him for years, and he is normally reliable. I have not
known him to deceive anyone. His plants are generally of outstanding
quality.

I spoke to him today, at the orchid society meeting, and he tells me he
bought them about a year and a half ago, in 7.5 cm (3 inch) pots as
small seedlings. He didn't explain how or why they grew so much in so
short of a time. It seems all orchid growers in Ontario had troubles
this year with higher than normal temperatures and lower than normal
humidity. AT least this seems to be the general pattern. Only one
vendor, another chap I spoke to today, seemed to have his usual variety
of offerings, and I know he keeps the humidity in his greenhouse rather
high. He had two outstanding catts today that I wish I could have
purchased, but alas, I don't have enough room for them as well as the
Sharry Baby I bought today. I have more reorganizing to do. He told
me most of his other orchids did not fair well this year (and that may
well be why I saw his with so many Sharry babies. He didn't have an
explanation as to why his sharry babies did so well while many of his
other orchids seemed to suffer. I am not sure he understands this. He
seemed to just be happy that something he was growing did so well. I
did get the impression that they did most of their rapid growing this
summer.

I wonder if there is something in the ecology of the genus that might
explain why they'd do so well in hot dry weather. He did say he
watered at least once a week. And since he normally grows excellent
plants, he almost certainly has a good regimen for fertilizing the
plants. He also said it was a challenge to keep up as he has obviously
had to pot on several times in order to have the plants in pots
appropriate for their size. He even pulled it out of the pots,
obviously without disturbing the roots, which were plentiful. I have
never seen so many roots, and so healthy. It will likely have to be
potted on some time this winter since there are new growths all over
the pot (I haven't counted them, but there are lots; so many the pots
is looking crowded).

If I recall my basic plant physiology correctly, there is a general
correlation between transpiration rates and growth, so an ample supply
of water to the roots combined with dry air and high temperatures ought
to increase transpiration rates, possibly also some withering of older
leaves as they struggle to keep up with the evaporative demand. Some
of the old leaves are a little wrinkled, although still healthy, and
the pseudobulbs and new leaves seem perfect. Having examined the plant
as carefully as I could, there is no sign it has flowered before, and
there is no indication it is a division of a larger, older plant. I
would think that if it was a division, there'd be evidence of it on the
plant, and this plant has no scars or evidence of having been divided.
Therefore, even though I don't understand how or why these plants grew
as rapidly as they apparently did, there is no evidence on the plant
that it has a history different from what the vendor gave for it.
Apart from the unusual size and apparent growth rate, the plant is
consistent with what the vendor said about it.

Does anyone have any evidence of what the fastest growth rate is for
Sharry Baby?

BTW: It's variety of Sharry Baby is "Sweet Frangrance"

Cheers,

Ted