What did I change to have success? post for any ideas to help new growers.

[nemesis]

November 5, marked my 1 year growing anniversary. I feel very blessed to have come across this place where people are knowledgeable, patient and kind. Never have I wanted for advice and encouragement. I will go on the record saying the most important bit of information y’all have passed on is: No matter how much you feel like pulling out that Super Man cape and growing something that is completely outside your conditions....if you can’t tweak it, Don’t Do It! I have had my peanuts pulled out of the fire, twice by you sweet people. You know who you are lol.

[Dalachin]

Hi all,

I'm pretty new in my growing journey but the biggest change that lead to some success was warming up my growing locations. I live central NY and both my home and my office end to be cool and drafty, especially at night when most places turn the heat down a notch. The general information out there about Phals suggests they do fine between 60-80 degrees, "household" temperatures... but the truth for me is that they decline and suffer if kept at the low end of that range. Especially smaller phals. I've had much better growth since I created warm, sheltered spaces in my home and office for my warm-loving phals to live. I also now have some cooler-loving species that really do thrive at the temperature of my living spaces-- oncidiums and cool-intermediate paphiopediums.

My second early grower revelation is was to disregard all of the widely available misleading information about the watering of orchids. Watering is quite dependent on temperature, media and species, but dehydrated orchids are not happy orchids.

I have lots more to learn... I just bought a PH meter, can't way to play around with it.

[c123anderson]

Originally Posted by Leisesturm

i've read some sad things in my life but this,I think, takes the biscuit ...

Ditto!

---------- Post added at 06:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:32 AM ----------

Okay, lights are a great way to adjust temp, too.

I was gift an Dendrobium before I left for college. I got a grow bulb and put it in a lamp and made a makeshift humidity tray. Our winters we have roughly 7 hours of daylight, but careful watering, fertilizer, and light, and it bloomed!

So, to your original question: another thing I have learned is observation/notes/study is key. With one Dendrobium, it was easy to keep track of info and plant health, watering, etc., but I have more orchids and a variety of species and hybrids. Knowing your plants and watching them routinely or daily inspecting can help you understand what makes your plants happy. True, many times nature works well on its own, but you’re taking a living thing that normally grows in a very specific environment and forcing it to grow in a non-native environment. That takes some patience and skill.

I can’t say I believe in green thumbs; I believe that care and careful thought and planning can lead to success.

[dbarron]

To truly realize that orchids aren't cacti and I should water them much much more, that along with giving absolutely all the light they can take without burning.
(I've said this part several times), it was growing very small orchids (ie seedlings) that helped me correct my growing, because they react fast to changes. Adult orchids have a lot of resiliency which kinda confuses the issue, and it takes much longer for bad treatment to show it's effect.

[c123anderson]

Originally Posted by dbarron

(I've said this part several times), it was growing very small orchids (ie seedlings) that helped me correct my growing, because they react fast to changes. Adult orchids have a lot of resiliency which kinda confuses the issue, and it takes much longer for bad treatment to show it's effect.

I second this completely. I have some seedlings that seem fine yesterday and today I think they’re dead.

[tmoney]

personally i have tried to be more open about plant culture and try new things other than the typical indoor plant routine / regime. trying s/h has opened a whole new path in our collection and breeding ideas. also, our most recent foray into pure moss culture for phals and some dendrobiums has been super fun. so, getting over the fear of trying something new and sticking with it has been good for me and the plants.

for my partner, i thing her coming to terms with my craziness has helped a lot



and yeah, we also learned the temp thing is important. with the energy costs right now we haven’t been running the heaters, and this year our “cold room” got way too cold (like less than 10 C) for many nights recently. so, thankfully we didn’t lose any seedlings, but we did lose a lot of room in our main living area “warm” grow space cause we had to shift all those little guys outta there

[Relemitty]

For me, two things stand out and they are somewhat related.

One, don't believe most of what you see about orchid care on YouTube. Yes, there are some good people there but also a lot of bad advice.

Two, I am/was an underwater er. I saw and read about root rot and I feared it so did not water my orchids enough.
Now I have a calendar on the wall that each time I water/fertilize I note the orchid so I can see my patterns. This isn't so hard with only 25 orchids.
Since I have increased watering, sometime twice as often, there are new bright shiny roots and new growths.

[PuiPuiMolcar]

With similar sentiment with everyone, I am very blessed to find this place. I dont get to talk to anyone about orchid as much as I get to anywhere else (I am in a lot of social media for that matter.) I didn't think I get to go back using a forum in year 2022 for that matter, such an odd sense of nostalgia.
Since my wealth of wisdom in orchid is merely a fraction of our legacy members here, the best advice I could muster is to make sure to make a folder dedicated to holding hotlink to sites that offer you helpful advice like this thread here.
I like these for example https://staugorchidsociety.org/PDF/Light-KeikiClub.pdf
Light level requirements for Orchids