Large group of new to me orchids; need advice.

[Shadeflower]

Here is my new haul



I of course didn't heed my own advice to leave them alone but I am glad I did investigate a bit more.

Most of them were potted in a bunch of spagnum which once removed was like 4 time the volume of the pot - rammed in there.

This also revealed some pots had 2 plants in the pot.

This one is pretty badly damaged:



It's not the only one that had the pseudobulb snapped off unfortunately but I think they will be ok.

There is one I am not too happy with but trying to resolve that one with the seller atm.

Overall a good addition I think. I've added lueddemanniana and Trianae to my collection now.

Still have to find the place for them but they are not as big as I was expecting. The one in the right corner was one I was expecting to be small and it is huge but it's a cool grower so it had to join.

[desirue]

Wow, that's definitely a haul! A bunch of mine are potted in sphagnum moss too; I'm resisting the urge to repot them until their blooms fall off. I'm really curious to see what kind of health mine are in once I repot them. May I ask where you bought yours from? How uncommon is it for there to be two plants in one pot?

[Shadeflower]

Desirue, I am in the Uk.

Highly unlikely you will ever shop where I shop

Tbh, the plants I see sold in the US are generally bigger plants. You will notice lots of yours are flowering whereas none of mine will flower for the next year minimum.

A lot of times freshly imported plants can have 2 plants in the pot. I have had it happen a fair bit. Sometimes it's a good thing and you end up with 2 decent plants. Sometimes its really bad in that you get sold a flowering sized plant and you discover it's actually 2 seedlings together to make the plant bigger which means both seedlings are usually years away from flowering.

I really don't know how common it is in the US. In europe it is fairly common especially when buying seedlings that haven't been repotted yet because it makes sense to pot two seedlings together initially. I think the logic is that one should turn out strong.

So with seedlings not all that sprout will eventually turn into nice orchids, genetics will play a big part in it and some just never thrive and die.

Potting 2 together makes sense to make sure one gets strong and if the other one doesn't that ok. Or maybe it just happens by accident sometimes as it is a repetitive task picking out individual seedlings to pot up. I would iangine it would be similar to picking up beads out of a jar one by one and if you accidentally pick up 2...

So if you are really lucky you get two strong ones but that is very rare because two strong ones get noticed.

Whereas two weak ones get sold as 1 flowering sized plant and then you are just stuck with two weak orchids.

Probably more than you wanted to hear. But worth noting, most people assume seedlings are all generally the same. Breeders do try to breed to get good uniformity but there will always be some variance that's why some people like to buy more than one plant to be able to compare which one is the better one to keep.

[Roberta]

Sometimes you'll get two plants quite accidentally... when the baby plants are removed from flask, every effort is made to separate them... the vendor is trying to sell one plant at a time. But sometimes, those little seedlings are so entangled that it's not clear that there actually ARE two plant there. Then, as they grow, both may mature at the same time... and you end up with a bonus. I have had the surprise (one of my Sobralias) where the pot turned out to contain two plants - that, when they bloomed, were REALLY different. This was a cross of two species, a pink one and a yellow one. One group of flowers was pale pink to white (the "expected" outcome) and the other, a beautiful butter-yellow, looking like one of the parents. Surprise! Clearly two plants, but they are totally entangled so they'll always be together in their one pot.

[Shadeflower]

actually looking at my picture I am thinking the plant bottom right could be two plants.

what do you think Roberta. It's the C trianae. Clearly the most bulbs in any of the pots. I thought it was one great flowering sized plant, now I am suspicious and think I shoul check lol

[Roberta]

I think it looks like one husky plant in the photo. I wouldn't take it out just to check, but certainly when you repot it is worth investigating.

[Shadeflower]

after a bit of root wrestling my suspicion is confirmed. At least both look in good shape so this is a good surprise.


It was hard enough untangling them, if I had left it any more it would have become impossible

[Roberta]

Most of it is the big, blooming-size (or close to it) plant, the little one is just a bonus. Nice! Some lovely roots on the little one. Would even be a candidate for mounting if you were so inclined

(If they had gotten to where they couldn't be separated, not a big worry... Judges don't like more than one plant in a pot, but if they are totally entangled, who can know? And for any other purpose, 2 of the same plant in the pot is fine, IMHO. )

[Shadeflower]

the littel one is pushing out a new root.

I think it will surprise the bigger one by catching up.

My money is on the little one being the stronger one There's really not that much difference between them

[desirue]

Originally Posted by Roberta

The tie on the spike of the Golden Star has the spike sort of wonky. I'd loosen the top tie - either re-tie it farther down or leave it alone (maybe just looser so that the spike can extend without further bending) depending on the strength of the spike. (Be very gentle, you don't want to break it) Clearly the spike grew faster than the seller anticipated and they wanted to support it for shipping. If given just a bit more freedom (while supporting if it's floppy) it will pretty much straighten out (maybe gently arch) by the time the flowers open.

Roberta, I wanted to show an update on this orchid after I removed the tie like you suggested. It's grown double the length in one week