Florida Native Orchids: another species to search for in the Evergaldes?

[mremensnyder]

Thank you for the kind words incurableplanthead. I am sure in many cases it is actually sudden rot rather than pests as you say.

In this case, I just got the orchid in the mail, mounted it on the live oak bark slab, healthy green root tip and all, no signs of anything but health from my close examination. Checked on it before work yesterday morning and it still had the nice healthy root tip, came home 8 hours later and the root tip was almost completely gone, and a fly was hunched over right on top of the root tip. Thus, I am pretty sure I found the culprit. More to come later.
-Michael

[mremensnyder]

Okay, here are two photos of my new ghost. This is how my new $200 plus $36.00 for overnight shipping looked right out of the box. It was literally unpacked less than 24 hours after being shipped overnight. I have to say that I was pleased with the appearance of the new root with the healthy tip, but honestly not terribly pleased with the appearance of the orchid overall. The other 3 roots looked a bit questionable with some shriveled and dark spots here and there. I thought about calling Orchids Limited, but then it had the healthy root, so I figured okay, it will be fine.

In the last four days it has been kept warm and very humid and watered once per day with distilled water, making sure that it had completely dried (very humid environment at all times though) before watering again. The day after I received it, the fly ate the root tip as previously mentioned. I wrapped the mount in plastic screen carefully tied at the ends to keep out everything. The new root has since shriveled and clearly is a loss. At the same time, two of the long roots shriveled and died in the middle, but one still looked healthy. Now today, the final long healthy root appears to be going in the same direction and I am just at a loss for words as to what could be the problem, and if it is completely my fault (other than allowing the fly to eat the new root tip before putting screen over it).

Now I guess I will stay hopeful that the more mature caudex (more mature than a ghost seedling) of the orchid can start producing a new healthy root "from scratch" even though the other roots appear all appear to be dying.

[IncurablePlantHead]

Wow,
Such a fragile orchid. Hope recovery is its destiny!

[mremensnyder]

My ghost orchid is basically dead. I have the center part suspended above some water in a cut in half water bottle. All roots are shriveled and dying so I cut them off. Though the fly clearly ate the root tip in a matter of hours, I suspect it arrived with a fungal infection already setting in (see photos which were taken the instant after it was unpacked after being in a box for less than 24 hours. I think you were right incurableplanthead. I have ordered many leafless orchids in the past, and have never had such a thing happen.

[IncurablePlantHead]

Maybe you should make that case to the vendor from whom you purchased that very expensive plant. I hope you can somehow recoup at least some of your loses. I think it is not unreasonable to conclude that your plant came to you infected.

[Alexk82]

I have a good amount of encyclia tampensis as well as epi magnoliae. Let me know if ur interested. They grow near me

[mremensnyder]

Incurableplanthead, my thoughts exactly. I did contact the vendor (with photos), and they have been kind enough to agree to send a replacement plant and I just pay the shipping costs. I did mention that I was looking for a comparable sized replacement plant, so I will see tomorrow when it arrives if has a bit of size to it like the original that died. I have changed my approach, in that the substrate (the large slab of oak bark) has been thoroughly sterilized at 350F in the oven for a couple hours, I will carefully glue the orchid in place with a cyanoacrylate glue as recommended by a number of online sources and the fully enclosing plastic screen will be put in place and sealed before the orchid ever goes outside. It will be in a very humid environment, but only watered every other day or so with pure water as to not exacerbate any fungus that may be present on the plant. I will also post more pictures of the process and the greenhouse growing environment this time. The plant will be placed outside as soon as our full summer humidity and monsoon season kicks in for real.


Alex, Encyclia tampensis and Epidendrum magnoliae are the best species for the beginner who wants to try the FL native epiphytic species. Not the easiest orchids out there, but very robust if you can somewhat match their growing conditions in the wild. I actually had difficulty and failure with getting bareroot Epi. magnoliae to attach to mounts. I then ordered one already firmly attached from Andy's about 4-5 years ago, and it has done great ever since.

[Alexk82]

I lucked out living here they grow everywhere.

[IncurablePlantHead]

Sounds like a great plan. Hope to hear good reports about your replacement ghost!

[mremensnyder]

Orchids Limited was kind enough to send me two replacements. I applaud their customer service. Here are some photos of the new ghosts on their new mount, then after being safely enclosed in screen so they can actually, you know, grow. So far, I have kept them in a humid environment and they are now in the greenhouse. Haven't watered them yet, just to be safe. I will water them every 3 days or so, which should be fine, as long as it is humid, like the Everglades.