Help with a tiny Cattleya

[JScott]

There's no harm in experimenting and seeing if you can revive sick plants, but that is one of the sickest plants I've ever seen. I just want to say don't get your hopes up to high. If it survives, hey that's a great surprise! But I think you should prepare yourself for the likely event that it is it death's door.

[stdabbsga]

I know, I'm trying not to get my hopes up. Just to make me feel better, I went back yesterday and bought the rest of the ones they marked down and left for dead. Two of them have green leaves and should do well, but there is a Brassavola that looks almost as bad as the Catt. I've created little greenhouses for them and put them in sphagnum moss. I'll let everyone know if I succeed with either.

[SouthPark]

This is certaintly one way to become a very good orchid grower. It gets you into an area of starting somewhere ------- and this particular starting point can definitely provide a great foundation in orchid growing, because you learn methods of caring for weak or delicate orchids.

Regardless of whether the first orchid (with roots only and pretty much no more bulb) makes it or not ------ I really respect those that really care about orchids and nice innocent living things ------ and do what they can for them. And a lot of us members here respect that a lot.

[Orchidtinkerer]

I tend to disagree about starting with stragglers knowing how much harder it is to get a nearly dead orchid revived compared to looking after a healthy orchid.

I have had rootless blooming sized orchids take just as long to bloom as medium sized healthy ones and I'd take the immature healthy ones over blooming sized weak ones any day.

To me losing an orchid is not a nice thing. So when I started guess what I was at 50% loss in my first year already. I started with stragglers and set myself up for failure. If I had carried on like that it probably would have stayed like that. I would like to think I am at under 5% loss these days which is far more rewarding to me.

I understand the principle of marking things down ie a wardrobe that has a dent but when it comes to orchids if they become unhealthy it's not just a dent - it then becomes a big gamble whether it will even survive.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Orchidtinkerer

If I had carried on like that it probably would have stayed like that.

Maybe! But times have definitely changed ...... as we now have the full power of internet and information sharing, and nice forums like this one - where people can pick up some nice information from others.