My Orchids, so far so good? - Orchid Board

NWBOCHs09 · #1 07-23-2009, 07:51 PM

Hey, I am new to this board and new to keeping orchids really. My passion "bloomed" durring early this year when I found beauty in an unlikely place... (long story)

So, Since then I have been able to get just 4 Orchids, 2 Phalaenopsis, a Vanda, and a Cattleya... Im not sure of the species, maybe someone else could help me on that..

I got all these from LOWES (which Im sure most of you might frown upon, but here we have Lowes, Walmart, Home Depot and thats IT!) Lowes has always had the best Looking Orchids, so this is why I purchased from them... plus im new so comon' guys gimme a break

haha

These are all in the same area, they recieve Morning sun from say 7am untill around 11:00- 11:30am. then they are shaded throughout the day until approximately 3 or 4ish, where they then get dappled evening sunlight.
I am concerned about my Vanda which has developed a weird discoloration on one leaf (so I posted that in the Vanda Forum) and I am aware that one of my Phallies has a little bit of sunburn on the edges, It was a rescue orchid from the back of the 50% off wrack at LOWES (yea... nuff said)...

I water with Distilled water and they recieve rainwater when it rains, They are all potted in course mixed grade firbark (ORCHID BARK) and I have not had any problems with it yet.. hopefully I wont...
I add Better Grow Orchid Fertilizers to my distilled water and usually water with 1 tablespoon of Orchid Growth Fertilizer to 1 galllon of distilled water. I water them very other to every third day depending on how dry they get, I tend to let them get a little dry before I water lightly. Once a Month I water them with Bloom Booster (phosphorus fertilizer) one watering at the rate of 1 TBS per gallon.

I havent noticed any problems yet. But please feel free to help me out if you see any problems with my husbandry.

Heres some pictures:

My first Phallie

My Second (rescue phallie)

Leaf Burn on edges

Cattleya

My Vanda and its weird Discoloration that im not sure about yet

And one of my favorite plants I have just for looks

(which is not an Orchid)
Croton

zxyqu · #2 07-23-2009, 08:41 PM

Well as a newbie too... Welcome! My only brief concern, as I have heard over and over again, is to watch getting water into the crown of the plant, as this might cause crown rot, and likely kills the plant. So, if their getting rain water directly on the plant, I'd just take a small paper towel, and try and dry out any water that spills down the leaves into the crown. Other than that, Good Luck! and welcome to OB

orchidbingo · #3 07-23-2009, 09:04 PM

Hi and welcome to OB.

Burnedl eaf tips and leaf edges could be a sign of overfertilizing. If you just rescued these, that could be the problem. Many mass producers who supply Lowes and other Big box stores tend to pump the chids full of fertilizers to stimulate rapid growth and later to stimulate flowering.

bingo

Narnia · #4 07-23-2009, 09:16 PM

I am a complete newbie, so take any advice from me with a grain of salt, but my first thought was that you're caring for three different kinds of orchids in the same way. From what I've gathered is that this may cause issues since some want more/less water and more/less light than others. I don't grow vandas, but from what I've read on the OB, they like a lot of it, whereas, one of my phals got a sunburn just from being a little too close to my south facing window (no direct light - what a baby). Anyways, that's just something that I would keep a look out for

Shirley · #5 07-23-2009, 09:36 PM

All quite nice looking plants and sounds like they're getting lots of TLC! I'm not familiar with Better Grow fertilizer but 1 tbsp per gallon sounds too strong to me. The ones I use are more like a 1/2 tsp. per gallon. Best of luck!

Zoi2 · #6 07-23-2009, 11:30 PM

Do you have the name of your cattleya?
Joann

Amanda L · #7 07-23-2009, 11:45 PM

I agree that 1Tbs sounds like too much fertilizer. Mine says to dilute 1/4 tsp per gallon of water.

Vina · #8 07-24-2009, 02:53 PM

Your plants seem pretty happy, the only concern I would have is your Vanda... in pot. As far as I know, Vandas do better hanging bare rooted or in vanda baskets (those from teakwood). If potted - than in VERY coarse, I would say large peaces of bark or charcoal.

NWBOCHs09 · #9 07-24-2009, 09:49 PM

Hey all! Thanks for the replys.
After reading this last night I got up today and needed to look for a fir bark hanging basket for the vanda. I went to lowes, walmart, and homedepot to try and find one and I couldnt find them anywhere... SOOO.. When I was at lowes I say they had some more Vandas (from Better~gro orchids) packaged up and they had one called a "ASCDA SUNSAMRAN SUNLIGHT JAN" ... and one called "V. MOTES IMPERIAL X V KATMEA PINK" ... the Pink one was in a hanging basket!!! SOOO, I hope this is ok but... I bought the Yellow and Pink one with the hanging basket and decided to make a "Multi Vanda" basket... So I took the basket with the original Pink Vanda in it, took the pink vanda out, carefully clipped off all the dead dried crispy brown roots and then repositioned it in the basket, then took the Yellow Vanda out of the Bag, carefully trimmed off its dead roots, and Possitioned it on the outside corner of the basket, and looped some roots through one of the sides and through the bottom to dangle, then secured it with greencolored twisty tie, and then took my original Red Vanda (one in the pot, now NOT in a pot) and possitioned it on the outside of the other side of the basket, much like the yellow vanda... and tada, I have a multi vanda hanging small basket...

This is all I could come up with, so, if its a bad idea to do this, or I did a no no, I'll have to fix it and hope I didnt hur the plants

I think the Cattleya is actually a Dendrobium (well I take that Back I know it is because the bloom was Dark Purple and looks like a Dendrobium Orchid Bloom)...
I duno what the Species name is , or the "color morph"...

I also moved the Phallies to the other side of the table and protected them a bit more from the sun via some other plants on the sunny side, so maybe that will help if its a "too much light" Issue with that one...

The Dendrobium is in full morning sun still, from 7 - 11:30ish... then shaded the rest of the day.

and now the Vandas are all hanging in a fir bark basket

Ill post pictures of the three together tomorrow...
Can you disturb the orchids roots too much??? EHHHH!!!

zxyqu · #10 07-24-2009, 11:30 PM

Well I'm not a Vanda person, so you'll have to wait on getting some info on combining them in a basket. In the future though, I'd be careful combining new orchids with your older orchids, as you never know if the new ones have "passengers." Don't want bugs/etc, getting on your other beauties.