First seedling advice

[Narnia]

I just received my first seedling of an Epidendrum pseudoepidendrum and I'm not quite sure how to care for it .All of my other orchids have been blooming or budding when I got them. It's very tiny in a 2 inch pot and it's looking a little worse for wear after its trip through the mail. Any suggestions on how I can nurse this little guy back to health?

I have him in a south facing window at the moment. I watered him and spritzed the medium with some very weak fertilizer. I'm not sure where to go from here though.

Thanks for any help

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

The seedling you have shouldn't be overly difficult to grow.

If you are able to downsize the pot to a smaller one it might help as well. Michael's (I'm not sure if they're nationwide) sells little pots in their plastic flower arrangement section. These pots have drainage holes by the way. The pots are terra cotta pots though.

You can put a thin layer of moss on top of the seedling bark mix to provide extra moisture and to retain some humidity.

Your seedling should be grown in bright shade. Don't put this in light the adults can handle, the seedling will burn.

Don't allow the seedling to dry out for long or they will dehydrate. Once a day should be fine.

When they get larger you can decrease the watering.

Do you have a pic?

BTW, the proper way to write the scientific name of a species is capital for the genus name and lower case for the species name. It is sometimes confusing when the genus name and the species name are both capitalized. This is particularly because some breeders name their hybrids now with names that can easily be mistaken for species names.

So your plant would be Epidendrum pseudoepidendrum

[Narnia]

Thanks, I actually do know that (science major), but I get lead fingers when I'm not paying attention. I just start randomly capitalizing stuff when I'm not formally writing. It's a really bad habit.

Here's a photo of the little tyke
(for some reason the manage attachment pop up won't load)

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

What is it potted in?

Can you pull it out and check the roots?

Maybe post a photo of it too.?

Kinda looks sunburnt too.

[Narnia]

The roots look good to me, but I'm no expert. I have some KLN coming that I ordered online, so I'll give it some of that when it comes. I'm not really sure how to use KLN though, is it a weekly thing?

The window it's in now doesn't really get direct sunlight, but I have it kind of hiding behind some other plants just to be safe. I only received it this morning, so I can't really judge whether it's getting too much or not yet.

It's potted in some fine bark and what looks like mica? and maybe a little bit of moss. I don't really know though.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Okay, I think the roots are good to go. They aren't great looking but they are good. Don't worry though, when you grow it nicely, the roots will look much better than that. You don't need to use the KLN. It'll be fine without it.

As for the pot, the plant can be potted in one size smaller. Like I said before Michael's sells small pots.

Just use some small seedling bark and some moss on top.

The only difference from what I advise now rather than previous is to water every other day.

The advice I gave first was for small seedlings. You have a larger one, so you can start cutting back on the water a bit.

I think the problem why you thought the seedling looked dehydrated was not because they were dehydrated. Rather, they were sunburnt.

Grow in bright shade. When they get about an inch or two taller you can start growing them brighter.

Hope this helps out.

Don't worry about the damaged leaves, they'll fall off on their own when the plants get larger and develop more leaves.

[Narnia]

Thanks, that helps immensely. I'll post some progress when there actually is some