
11-03-2010, 08:30 PM
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Jr. Member
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Join Date: Oct 2010
Age: 39
Posts: 2
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Help my Oli is Blooming Sick! :-(!
hi there hope you are well , this is my first post on Ochid Board.
Im Alex and im in (not)sunny glasgow in scotland uk and i have a phal who i call oliver.
grab a seat as this may take sometime also bear in mind i was a plant virgin untill oliver came along.
i Knew nothing about how to care for and orchid and didnt know they where such beautifull and intresting plants.
now i cant stop reading posts on the forum pmsl.
My partner bought me oliver about a year ago, a month down the line oliver came into bloom beautifull soft white petals with az pinkish colour in the centre anyhow time came and went and i noticed where the blooms wher going brown i decided to cut the dead bits off, then a few months later oli produced a large leaf i was amazed he hadn't died.
so all chuffed with myself he was still alive i decided to ask friends if they knew about orchids one of them told me to put the plant in my bathroom for a while as her plants seam to love the humid air as my bathroom has no windows i was a bit concerned, since she knew more than me i followed her instructions and put him in there.
after a week i thought i could see a spike starting to appear so that was me even more of an enthusist.
i decided to google orchid care this is when i learnt about root's can rot if over watered.
i decided to check Oli's roots and omg his roots where a black mushy mess i couldnt believe it because he looked so healthy on the outside but so bad underneath
so i decided its time to repot him he was in bark and a sponge like matierial like chunks of sponge (again not having a skoobie)
i read that sphagnum moss is great for phals and they grow well in it , thats what i decided to use.



took him out the pot and i noticed little white things about 1mm wide and 3mm long also there was also white dashes and the potting mix like stitching

wierd i thought so i removed all the black bits and i was left with 5 leaves 2 stalks 1 whick had a tiny spike and well no air roots as the black was in the middle of the root so i thought i better cut it off.
i made sure everthing was sterile blade,scissors,new pot and i had even boiled the sphagnum with some cinnimon sticks to make sure nothing was living in it, alowing it to cool first i packed the sphag round oli making sure he was secure before hand i sprinkled ground cinnimon on his open wounds to make sure no infection could get in.


a week later all was looking good untill......
i knocked the wee man over and he fell out his pot and that little spike i could see poking out, came off!
PANIC ! so i got him back into his pot the moss was really dry so i gave him a watering i have always put orchid food in his water 5 drops to 1litre of water so very dilluted.
I only water him when the moss is dry, so we are now 4 weeks down the line and i cant believe it he's grew like mad in the spike department he has grown two in such a short space of time one is about 3" and one about 1" there looking very healthy to me.
i have pictured them a few times over the last 4 weeks and you can see how much they have grew








also if u notice the spike thats coming out was perfectly sraight and now its drooping i recently moved him do you think thats why he drooped or is this just a coincedence?
The thing that worries me is he's looking very poor in the leaf deparment, i mean he's all droopy and his leafs look like they have got celulite ! and he's gone and split his leavs in 2


He really is a worry to me with his leaves.
They where alot perkier when he had rotty roots what am i doing wrong(everything i hear you say)
i think i am in need of guidance and i believ OB have the right team for it so please help and guide little oliver back to having nice firm green leave's.
thank you for your time if you are reading this you have made it to the end of my saga and await your reply
Orchid4Luck
Alex x
i have attached pics
Last edited by orchids4luck; 11-04-2010 at 06:39 AM..
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