New plant enthusiast

[BassandBonsai]

Hello, everyone. My name is Hannah, and on a recent trip to Epcot with my family I fell in love with a little black pine named Phil, took him home, and immediately began leading the invasion of plants to just about every window in our house. I developed a love of the Lowe's discount shelf, since I love both a challenge and a good deal, and I've found lots of other plants that are just as interesting as (and faster growing than) my bonsai. Since most of my favorites are outside, and therefore dormant for the season, I've been cultivating a healthy (read: obsessive) indoor collection. I keep finding that out-of-bloom orchids can be found for dirt-cheap prices, and I'm more than willing (and young and bullheaded enough) to take on the unique challenge that a neglected orchid brings. Also, I keep finding that almost all of my plant's problems stem from something wrong with the root system. Texas Ebony- fungus gnat infestation in the roots. Ponytail Palm- my cousin "accidentally" pulled the roots off. Pineapple- rocks glued to the top of the soil. Orchid- I don't even know, but there's a bunch of black squishy stuff hanging off of a hard stringy thing so I'm guessing root rot.
But even though almost all of my plants have some sort of terrible tragedy they're recovering from, there is nothing more gratifying than that first tiny leaf spike after months of careful watering and prayers that they'll pull through. And even though at this point, due to my inexperience, for every 1 plant I save there's usually another I don't, I still go straight back to the clearance rack to try again, since one day I hope to be good enough to bring that mortality rate down to zero.

[Merlyn]

You'll have a much better ratio by hanging out here and asking q's while posting pix of problems. Good luck !

[BassandBonsai]

Thanks! Google has been my go-to friend for all of my problems, and so far there hasn't been anything a repot in some new bark and some TLC couldn't fix, but if I've learned anything these past few months, its that you can never take your plant's health for granted. You always have to be vigilant and attentive to their needs.

Also, that orchid with the root rot? It's a miniature Phalaenopsis that I got out-of-bloom for a quarter. After a couple of months with no growth, I finally dug under the sphagnum moss and found out what was wrong- its bark chips had rotted. Once I had washed off the decomposing sludge and snipped off the dead roots, I repotted it in some new bark chips with some sphagnum moss topping to help it hold water, and voila! 7 weeks later I got a leaf spike!

Unfortunately, it's not an isolated incident. Just today I cracked open a Dendrobium with the very same problem, but it still has plenty of roots to support it, unlike my poor Phalaenopsis. Thank goodness I still had that bag of bark chips lying around! I'm also looking forward to recycling the sludge- it makes a great potting mix when you add in some perlite and diatomaceous earth. Not for orchids, of course, but some of my plants appreciate a richer soil.

Anyway, here are some pics!
...
Or, here would be pics, if the upload hadn't failed. Does anyone have suggestions about how to upload pictures from an SD card?

[bballr4567]

You have to make sure the pictures are small so you can upload to the site directly or use a website like photobucket like I do.

[BassandBonsai]

Thanks!
Here's the Dendrobium's roots during repotting:

And here are the Phalaenopsis' new leaves!

[bballr4567]

Thats a keiki! Its going to be an exact replica genetics wise of the mother plant. I've currently got one growing that has been there for about 3 months and no roots yet but its almost 4" across.

[BassandBonsai]

Cool! My mom has one on her orchid- we always joke that it's trying to get to the pot next to it, since it keeps growing on top and is becoming top-heavy enough to flop over if it weren't for the stake it's tied to. How many roots do you think it should have before severing? My mom's has three leaves and two roots- do you think it's ready?

[bballr4567]

Boy, that one on the left looks really bad.

The rule here about removing them is 3" in total roots. One root 3" long or 3 roots 1" long as long as its 3" total.

[BassandBonsai]

Thanks for the info- I don't think it's quite there yet, but it should be soon.

The one on the... wait, what? The leftmost one is the one with the keiki.

[Merlyn]

In the last pix you have a keiki and under it looks like a side branch of the spike ! Will either bloom or put out another keiki, or both !