EDIT: Below is my Original post. Since then I’ve figured out a lot and my Brassavola little stars is doing great! I will post a separate update under the title Perseverance and the tale of a Brassavola little stars. Please don’t ever get discouraged and give up...even if you think you don’t understand anything! Happy orchid keeping!!!
I newbie here. Hope this post has accurate enough title and is correct thread; if not, moderator feel free to edit 👍🏻
Since Nov 2016, I've been trying my hand at caring for orchids; unfortunately I kinda went mainly with YouTube info before I found Cullina's book and, esp, you guys. Perhaps if I'd found you Before I got started I might not have killed (and possibly be killing more) orchids. Mind you, I Did know the orchids I bought were already stressed but thought perhaps it would be better to try and rescue orchids before taking on really expensive and or more complicated ones. I think I got that thought process backwards!!! I've done nothing but waste money, Orchid lives, and time and energy...for Nothing really. Although I Hope I've at least learned something from it.
Indeed I Have learned about many diff types of culture, but what I can't seem to figure out is how it plays out in my particular environment. It seems no matter what Type of culture I try, my orchids die. (Although I think it's at least Partly down to the fact the orchids were already on their way out, despite appearances. My inexperience just added to how quickly things went downhill).
I thought my Current set of orchids would fare better...but I think I screwed up that chance by getting convinced that if I wanted to do full water culture (looked like a viable option and someone near me has pretty good success) all I needed to really make sure of was that the orchid had good roots. Well I thought they were at least "better" than my last set of plants. Better being the operative word; Fail!
Better just doesn't cut it. Nor does getting so anxious to save an orchid that I, again, repeated the fast paced change up medium thing 🙄
Now I'm pretty certain these new orchids will not survive; already lost a miltoniopsis (though, again, I bought a marginal one but which I thought would be good enough to try). I dunno. How do you guys Assure roots are good when the orchid can't be fully examined?; my plants had good leaves and the roots that were visible.
Not sure where to start, so will give my Current growing conditions first:
Temp 72-73 day and night; have seedling heat mat for mini phals, which increases temp to 79. A/C and central fan on 24/7; heat on deep mid winter. Air blows in Front of shelf, just lightly moving Orchid leaves. High/low temp and humidity gauge shows no variation from shelf itself where orchids sit vs front or sides of area.
Humidity now at around 65%; 55-62% over heat mat; in Winter it was closer to 35-40%, so I had original orchids on humidity trays; they only made it til Feb. This batch has always had the higher humidity.
I have the orchids on the top two shelves of a plastic shelf unit with a nearby (prob about 3-4 ft)chandelier that houses 5 Full spectrum CFL bulbs (grow lights)...as well as two more that are quite further away (more like 10ft). The whole corner area where shelf is is Very bright overall with well defined shadows; need to get light meter. All of orchids, including my b.nodosum have gotten lighter leaves than when I got them. Also walls of apt are light colored and seem fairly light reflective.
I started out this second time with two mini NOID phals; debated about them as they were Literally swimming in water. Also I had pretty quickly questioned whether phals are Actually a "beginner orchid"; seems like on YouTube folks are having More issues with Phals than with Other orchids! But I thought, let me try again. My bad!
Then from same box hardware store I noticed some Seedlings: catt and brass types; got two catts and one brass.
Later I also added, from known natural food store place, a onc and a milt.
ALL the orchids, except the seedlings, were as usual Crammed with overly wet and decaying moss, which took Forever to gently peel out. The seedlings were packed in course bark, which smelled moldy (only after unpotting).
The phal roots and leaves and stem seemed pretty good and I actually only had to cut off one or two roots.
The onc and milt roots looked so so but I kept Most on unless velamen completely pulling off.
The seedlings had brown roots but looked like they were damaged by the big bark chips.
After cleaning dead roots, spraying with peroxide (now know that was bad...but have been doing til just saw that Today!😱
, I put them into FWC with room temp distilled water, mixed with orchid probiotics. (I got the orchids at slightly diff times but within a few days and most were next to each other in the store)
The catts and brass got put in SWC in same type water.
At first I thought all was going great with my new batch of plants...but then one catt seedling started turning really yellow with some purple edges. As it went downhill quickly, I decided to snip part of an old Pbulb. Questioned fusarium. Threw out immediately.
Other orchids cont to look ok for awhile, but then maybe Too water logged.
Decided to try semi hydro (but with hydroton vs unknown leca I'd tried with first batch of orchids). I think hydroton is Too round, like the Japanese stuff Ray describes on his site; it seemed to end up compacting too much and the top got too dry. So then I thought maybe sphagnum in a mesh pot and water when dry? Only that was too far in the Itger direction! So now I have the orchids in plastic semi hydro pots I made with roots/stems just sitting above the moss.
The pellets and moss were soaked first in distilled water with tiny drop of fert, probiotics at full strength, and superthrive.
By now I have lost the catts, the milt, and the roots on the rest. On top of that the phals have lost leaves, the stems act like stem rot and are getting molded easily. This is all almost a Repeat of what happened to my first batch and by now I'm thinking I'm so clueless and/or inept that I shouldn't even be allowed to try anymore!
But the semi hydro (with the leca that looked more irregular like aliflor, from the first batch, did the best. I actually had some new roots and growth on a completely dessicated onc; they stalled though and I accidentally broke the new growth so that was the end of that!)
I dunno. Can you guys tell me what I'm missing? Other than don't buy even partially iffy plants? Don't muck with medium changes as much, even if looks like orchid is dying? Not use peroxide and cinnamon so much and maybe use physan and inococur?
I was thinking, as you may have noticed in another thread, of buying from The Orchid House. They grow their orchids from seedling in semi hydro...which I think seemed the Best in my grow space.
Ironically, the only thing I didn't try was traditional bark mix. Mainly afraid of bugs truthfully.
Anyhoo. Any Constructive advice please. Appreciate it! Would like to not give up, but if it doesn't sound like my space is conducive then I won't keep killing orchids off!
BTW, also any specific genre you think would thrive would be helpful too.
Thanks!
What part of orchid culture am I not understanding?
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