orchidcareexpert.com - Orchid Board

Lars Kurth · #1 10-10-2010, 09:39 AM

I tend to spend quite a bit of time researching cultural information on orchids. I have not had time for a while, but was trying to find some stuff today.

As you may notice, I was quite surprised when for many items searched, the following site comes up: orchidcareexpert.com

Either as a review, or an article about diseases linking to the site. Normally this makes me very sceptical and I think scam! There seem to be many reviews of the site out there too, which all look similar and are more than advertisments than review. Looking into this into more detail, it is the same press release about the site over and over again.

Has anybody bought access to the site? And who is Nigel Howell (the creator of the site)? When you search for the name on google, you just end up finding one of the reviews or the site.

Are there any subscribers to orchidcareexpert.com on this forum? Is it worth spending the 28$ ? Or is it a scam?

Ray · #2 10-10-2010, 01:11 PM

My guess is that it is nothing more than the same old information - correct or not - regurgitated in a new form, apparently done-up as a nice video.

Personally, I would not bother.

dounoharm · #3 10-10-2010, 02:17 PM

with all the free information in books, from the aos, and on this board, i wonder why anyone would bother to toss 28 bucks to someone who claims to be an expert....

Lars Kurth · #4 10-10-2010, 02:37 PM

I agree: what really annoys me is that practically every search brings up a link to their site. It makes it harder to find what you are looking for

bodaciousbonsai · #5 11-08-2010, 12:03 AM

its easy do your own research.thats what a computer is for a research tool

WhiteRabbit · #6 11-08-2010, 12:18 AM

I have seen a few of these things - I suppose if one wasn't able to find OrchidBoard, it may be of some use. Tho, as others have pointed out, could probably get similar, or the same info in books, for less money, as well as searching the net for free.

Orchid Board has been the best resource I have seen - get tips and info from real people. And advice will take into consideration your growing conditions and such. As well as different, but equally sound, advice and info from different people

Yay Orchid Board!

orchids3 · #7 11-08-2010, 11:51 AM

Who do you rely on for growing information anyway?
For me its books, the internet and local growers in my area. The growers who exhibit well grown plants at society meetings and shows - and dont I pay much attention to growers who parot growing information and never show up with a nice plant. It all must be taken with a lot of common sense and "feel" for what the plants like. Those who "sell" information are like the old ad for a "Sure fire bug Killer". After you paid a dollar you got a piece of paper which said get two pieces of wood and mark A and B. Place bug on block A and hit it with block B. Understand the guy had a pretty good income.

tucker85 · #8 11-08-2010, 01:22 PM

With all the free information out there I wouldn't be paying for a web-site like that. Another one I see frequently is "10 secrets for growing orchids". I don't trust any of them. For me the best information comes from the AOS culture sheets, the culture information at vendors web-sites, and Orchid board. I also have a couple of good books I rely on.

RosieC · #9 11-08-2010, 06:27 PM

We've had links to ones like this posted on Orchid Board (possibly even this one it's self) and we've deated the links as Spam. These sorts seem to me like they are at best charging for information they claim is 'amazing garanteed success' when it's really just regurgitated info you can find elsehwere, or at worst they are fishing for email address.

As for the fact you find them in a lot of searches... this again points to them using spam to spread links to their site (and I don't trust those who use spam to 'adverstise'). Search engines like google rank the results based (at least partly) on the number of links they find from other sites to the page. This is one of the big reasons for spammers to post links, not so that people see the link (we had one here recently where the links was invisible using the same colour font as the background), rather spammers post links in as many places as possible because it lifts their page up the ranking in seach engines.

Anyway, I would ignore it and save your money... that's just my opinion.

orchidsamore · #10 11-09-2010, 01:41 AM

I have seen the actual book and it is reasonably good. It is general basic information for beginners and certainly better than 'Orchids For Dummies' which the dummies series has made a fortune for its publishers. I found it to be one of the better general informational books for beginners.

$28 is a normal price for a book and I can guarantee you no one gets rich at that price. I believe access to the site is just the E version of the book.

If you want real cultural information you will have to pay a lot. One husband and wife team that has excellent information specific to each plant charges in the range of $35 per plant. Then it is almost impossible to apply that information to growing the orchid in your home.

If you get into the old scientific journals they are hard to find, hard to understand and often not accurate as knowledge of orchids was rather poor for the first 100 years.

For free general cultural information on species I would recommend Jay Pfahl's site Internet Orchid Species Photo Encyclopedia

With cultural needs it varies so much with your personal growing area that no advice will ever be always correct.