Assorted young orchids rescued.

[TheDirties]

I bought this assortment of young orchids cheap. They were in poor shape when I got them as they were in sphag moss in a sealed container, some wet some dry.

I've repotted them all in a mix of sphag, orchid bark, charcoal, and perlite as I had all these media lying around and placed them in a small greenhouse where they get lots of light for the first half of the day. Semi shaded for the second half.

That was about a week ago, since then one has died from crown rot, even though the potting medium was just a little moist, not wet. And another is looking quite burnt. Ive moved them to a lower rung in the greenhouse to avoid direct light.

Can anyone suggest anything to increase their chances of survival? Im in Sydney, Australia, its about 10-20 degrees Celsius.

There is a dendrobium, vanda, cattleya, bulbophyllum and cymbidium.

[Shadeflower]

Hey Dirties, I've recently branched out to seedlings a bit too and it can be a bit hit and miss. The one top left doesn't look too good anymore, almost looks like it might have gotten too dry.

I recently asked myself how to best keep a tiny seedling alive that has lost all its roots. If it is kept too wet it will get soggy, too dry and it shrivels.

The aim from what I have gathered is to keep it in a really high humidity environment so it can't lose too much moisture.

Seedlings seem to be able to go a long time like this and even grow just from a bit of condensation forming once in a while, rootless seedlings will take forever to grow so the aim mainly should just be to keep them in a really humid environment (but not completely sealed that the air gets too stagnant).

Seedlings should receive less light than a mature plant, not experience sunlight too much (artificial light is reliably even) and not experience the same temperature extremes.

Apart from that it's still a learning curve for me too.

[ArronOB]

The one in the upper left looks a bit dodgy, but the others look fine and I think they will do well as is. Not much will happen for about another month and temps warm.

If the vanda is a hybrid and not dominated by V. coerulea then it is going too find Sydney too cold for its liking. Even the hybrids which are largely coerulea survive but grow too slowly. Likewise, if the Dendrobium is a softcane then it will do well but if a hardcane (ie D. biggibum derived) then it will not prosper in Sydney climate.

The cattleya and Bulbophyllum should do well in your greenhouse. The cymbidium should do well, perfectly suited to Sydney in greenhouse or outside.

Unfortunately, just because a plant is for sale in Sydney it doesn’t mean it will survive in Sydney. Stupid but true.

Also, let me guess - Bunnings polypacks?

[TheDirties]

Haha yes, the packets from bunnings. For example, that top left one doing horribly came just like that.

Thankyou for all the info, didnt know about the soft/hardcane dendrobium classification.

[Diane56Victor]

Good luck with your Bunnings bag babies. Those plants are always very small, however I did buy a tiny one in July of 2019, Aerides leeana which has grown extremely well.
Have to say 2 others I purchased from an online nursery in July 2021, (houlletiana and oderata) were a little bigger, but they were also more expensive.