Miltassia Dark Star seedling question

[farley101]

I acquired a small community pot of Dark Star seedlings this summer, thinking it would be a fun project to transplant and get some nice plants. It seems I have bit off more than I can chew with this, as the plants are doing very badly and I'm not sure any will survive. They came in sphagnum, so I transferred them to small 3" pots in sphag. Plants are about 2-3" tall. Initially they seemed to do alright, but lately there has been some serious issues. Most are showing signs of severe dehydration with wrinkled pseudobulbs and leaves dying. I dug into one of the pots that looked the worst and the roots seem pretty good, but I believe the plants may have gotten swamped at some point and are struggling to bounce back. I have them in a humidity tray that I overfilled and they were waterlogged for about a week while I was gone on a work trip. I know they need damp/moist and cool, which is easy with the sphag, but that was too much.
Not sure what to do to fix this, they are in the living room with temps between 58-64 and humidity around 35-40%. I could put them in my mini "greenhouse" that is heated to 70-72 and has 50-70% humidity but not sure if they'd like that either.
I'd love to save these little guys but it'll be another learning experience!

[aliceinwl]

Not sure how much this will help. I bought one as very small plant (~3 inches in a 2 inch pot) a couple years back. I’m growing it in small grade bark. It’s been pretty temperature tolerant. I haven’t started bringing it in at night yet, so it’s seeing lows in the upper 30s. When it was really small, I was watering it daily but I up potted it this spring and have backed off to weekly watering: I try to let it approach dryness between waterings.

I have a few similar hybrid types. Some I acquired in moss and I’ve been able to keep them alive in it. But, under my growing conditions most seem to do better on bark long-term. 3 inch pots may be on the big side, maybe consider moving them into a more porous substrate like bark that would be less prone to water logging especially if they’re over potted.

I acquired mine at a show from a grower based in Hawaii so I’d think they can take high temperatures too. I’d think they’d do fine in your greenhouse while you’re trying to get them established.

[Ray]

Definitely put them in your mini-greenhouse.

Pull one or two and check the roots.

[farley101]

Thanks for the replies! As I'm not feeling like going out to shovel after last night's storm I checked out these guys. 2 of them are doing pretty well in the sphag, looks like new growths so I will move them to the greenhouse and hopefully that will get them on the right track. The other 2 that looked the worst I pulled out and checked the roots and cleaned off anything rotten/dead. Roots looked pretty good I thought, though they really don't seem like they've grown much since I repotted them if I remember right. I decided to change up the medium and use bark as suggested by Alice. I have some nice small stuff that should be good for them. Currently soaking in a KelpMax bath, crossing fingers for these 2.

[farley101]

Quick update on these little ones from January. The bark ones are still kicking! Both are putting out new growth, but it's a long road ahead for them. Hopefully they can push some nice growths this summer! Best sign that I can see out of all are left is that the pseudobulbs have stopped shriveling so they must be settling in. I had given up hope on most of them but now I'm excited to watch them grow up!

2 new growths, look at those sad pseudobulbs! They're about the size of an almond at this point, so a really long way to go!

[Ray]

No image...

As the weather should be improving with springtime, you might consider some KelpMax to kick-start them into growth.

[farley101]

Here's a direct link to the image, hopefully that works!

https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/FW...A=w711-h947-no

I gave them a soak in January in KM, think about 8 hours or so. Couldn't hurt to do it again, seems that got them going initially!

[fishmom]

The humidity in your mini-greenhouse will help the new growths develop until they can send out their own new roots, which will be able to take up water and nutrients. Keep the medium moist but not soggy to give them the best chance. New growth is a hopeful sign!

[farley101]

That's exactly what I've been doing and seems to be working well, it's been an interesting ride with these little ones! The new growth is great to see and it seems they finally have gotten over whatever replant stress I put on them and start getting big!