Please help with sunburned orchids

[Ross]

I water with R.O. water (reverse osmosis) with MSU mix intended for "pure" water (ie. water that is either distilled, RO or rain water). Category Listing - Chemicals I mix for 125 ppm nitrogen which equates to 1 tbls per gallon RO water.

[Gladys47]

I have found that I have to be very careful with what others do and what I can do. An example, my across the street neighbor has been growing orcids for 30 years. Her phals are in a south and east window on a glassed in porch that DH and I built for her orchids. Thet are beautiful. Mine are in an east window with only morning till 11 or so sun. Same porch type except my house is on pilings. That is the ONLY difference! Mine were burning! I had to put a piece of solar screen on the top shelf for the phals. I thought it would be to much shade but they are thriving and I usually kill phals. Makes no sense to me ! Sometimes just the slightest difference makes a big difference to a plant. Oh, plants recovered. I left the burn on and let the plant dispose of it as it saw fit. only have a couple of spots left. Gladys

[Erin Raven Skye]

Thanks so much As I'm now learning (the hard way) you're so right. I guess I should actually say as my orchids are learning. Poor things.

[Lin]

They will be fine.

Any light change needs to be gradual, but it's a mistake most of us have made when left to ourselves.

[Erin Raven Skye]

I'm not sure, the leaves are starting to fall off. I posted some pics in my gallery.

[Randy]

Howdy Erin,

I put almost all my 'chids out in the summer. At least that's what I'm doing now. The only ones that don't go outside right now are the ones getting buds. The bugs around here are eating them off the plants! So, they go inside the greenhouse until they are in flower and then inside the house so I can enjoy the flowers.

All the 'chids are on the East side of the house but it's still a lot of light for them. I've had to do a lot of work arranging them so that they plants that could take the sun are in front and any needing shade are in the back or underneath.

First out were my Cymbidiums. All of them were in the highest sun areas of the greenhouse and they could take the full amount of sun where I was putting them. Since they are tall they acted as guards for the other plants as I brought them outside and slowly moved them into higher light. Now the Catts are also pretty much in the highest amount of sun they can get as are most of the dens. Bulbos, cirrhos, phals, paphs, gongoras are underneath or behind other stuff. Oncydiums are somewhere in the middle. No sunburn so far and they've been out for well over a month so far. If they were going to get burnt they'd be burnt by now.

It's a real dance. It's been especially hard at this house because the house next to me gives me limited shade and I have no trees. At my new house which I will be in come the end of September I will have all kinds of trees so I can find whatever shade I want for my 'chids.

As it has been said before, if I had a dollar for every orchid I've killed I'd be rich! But once the orchid bug bites you, well, you've got the orchid addiction. Not bad as far as addictions go.

I recently had a friend visit me from Arizona. I took her to the local grower so she could really be surrounded by orchids. Somthing that would never happen to her in AZ. She said that when I get there I turn into a zombie like creature..... MUST...HAVE...ORCHID..... LOL!

Namaste,
Randy

[Erin Raven Skye]

Thanks Randy I noticed what you said about the post with the dead roots, and I thought it was great advice. I accidentally just found out that in addition to being sunburned, my cats roots aren't doing so hot either. I was going to pack it in sphagnum, but I can't find my bag anywhere Now I'm not sure if I should try to re-pot it, or go on the hunt for more sphagnum.

If it's not one thing, it's another

[Randy]

Erin,

Smallest pot possible, preferably clear. Personally, I never had any luck with the sphag and bag technique. Maybe it's because I've got my hands in there too much. That's one reason I started mounting plants. Which is another reason I have a greenhouse.

Blessings,
Randy

[Lin]

I've never had any luck with the spag 'n bag technique either. But if you have a place with lower light and higher humidity, spag and a clear pot are the best. I put anything that I'm trying to nurse along in the bottom of the Orchidarium, under the upper shelves and the combo of lower light, higher humidity, and air movement, really make a difference.

[Ross]

May I remind folks that the location of the advisor is at issue? This has come up several times recently and I subscribe to this. Those that live in inherently humid locations (like NJ or MA) might have good luck without the bag. Others might want to bag to hold the humidity in.