why does this eep happening

[butterfly79]

Wow philip, you do sound rude and there is no reason to be. i hae continuosly have seen this behaviour n forums, I never understand why people feel the need to be rude.

My orchids are not in direct air flow of the AC. Are you telling me that everyone in the world who keeps orchids are sweating and dying in over heated homes?

Not in direct sun, i face North in Canada, you'll never get direct sunlight.

If we newbies can't come here and ask questions without getting are heads ripped off then why join a forum? People learn by asking. No question is stupid. Stupidity is not asking.



There are reasons why I can't order on line therefore need to get things locally.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by butterfly79

Wow philip, you do sound rude and there is no reason to be. i hae continuosly have seen this behaviour n forums, I never understand why people feel the need to be rude.

My orchids are not in direct air flow of the AC. Are you telling me that everyone in the world who keeps orchids are sweating and dying in over heated homes?

Not in direct sun, i face North in Canada, you'll never get direct sunlight.

If we newbies can't come here and ask questions without getting are heads ripped off then why join a forum? People learn by asking. No question is stupid. Stupidity is not asking.



There are reasons why I can't order on line therefore need to get things locally.

I knew you'd feel this way.

But it's really not what you think.

I wanted you to see how you already knew the problem. You're just not seeing it.

I wanted you to see that too. I'm willing to take the risk of sounding like a complete asshole to make you see the truth.

The truth can sometimes not sound very nice. But in the end, I'm really doing you a favor if you choose to listen to the underlying message.

I never said you were stupid. I don't ever say that or imply that of anyone. That's also perceived.

[butterfly79]

I guess for me it's bit confusing. Can't be temp in my home because all is ok until I repot the orchids in bark. This is when my issues begin? It always ends up in root rot.

I know the first orchids I tried died from ignorance and pots without holes.

Do you know what my father in law does. Sits the orchid in a sink over night. That`s it. No fertilizers, no humidity trays, no repotting. Hell he has one growing in regular soil. He`s had it for 4 yrs.

Nope you didn`t call me stupid and hey if you like coming off as an asshole that`s fine but people don`t learn from that behaviour nor do they take it well. You get more bees with honey than vinegar.

[RosieC]

Originally Posted by butterfly79

Everytime I repot my orchids in a bark mix I end up with a dead orchid within weeks.

I'm writing this before reading everyone elses responces, but as soon as I read it I remembered saying exactly the same thing to Orchid Board early in 2009... I just could not understand what I was doing wrong.

Well it all turned out to be the quality of the medium I was using. I had bought it from a local garden center. It was bark... it was the correct stuff... it just wasn't very good quality.

My tip now to anyone repotting is make sure you have good quality medium, get it from an orchid specialist. Just because your local store sells orchid bark does NOT mean that the stuff they sell is any good. One of the main problems is that even if it started out good quality their turn-over is so low that it is often already decayed before you get it.

Repotme.com in the USA are meant to be good (I've not tried them as I live in the UK), maybe there is somewhere closer for where you are though.

[Tropicgirl]

Are you sure it's root rot? It sounds more like dehydration to me. I would try watering more often with the plants in bark, maybe once a week wasn't enough. Were the roots mushy on the dead ones? That would be root rot. If they were crispy then it wasn't getting enough water. And being in the A/C can make the bark dry faster since it brings the humidity down. Was the bark bone dry from one week to the next? Or was it still wet by the next watering?

I have to agree with Philip that phals aren't always the best type of orchid to start with. I have killed my fair share of them but have done great with others. I wouldn't let this keep you from trying other kinds of 'chids. And, WOW!, there are sooooo many to choose from! I find it difficult to focus!

I have to ask.....has your father-in-laws orchid bloomed every year? How often does he soak it overnight?

Oh, and if you haven't checked out the section on semi-hydroponics you really should. I've started converting mine over, I have a hard time balancing my watering. Too much and I have root rot problems. So I back off the watering and they get dehydrated! I just couldn't get it right. So now, I don't have to worry. I can water all I want and not worry about root rot. I love it!

[WhiteRabbit]

I know Toronto is pretty humid actually. It's a very big country, so like the US, many different climates.
In my usually very dry climate I was rotting phal roots all the time - I watered them as I do Oncidiums, which seems to be too much for Phals. What I have been doing which has helped a lot is first to use a smaller pot overturned inside the pot I am using for potting and second to wait for the roots to no longer be green before watering again. Checking the skewer in the pot - it seems media is pretty dry before the roots lose the green color.

[Eyebabe]

I find Phals to be the most challenging orchid to grow other than this Cynorkis purpurascen thing I have but that's another post
However, I can't kill the cynorkis and my trash has unfortunately seen many a phal...for me Phal really is /fail.
They do require it to be a bit warmer than my home temp which is about 68 degrees. I have a fan that circulates around my orchids and the catts love the "wind" but I have to protect the Phals and huddle them together a bit. Orchidwiz will list most with temps around 75-80 and humidity with 70-80% to thrive.
I usually don't fertilize my orchids but once every 3 months or so...I am a non-believer in this. I have used some clay pots in the past and could see the salts building up on the outside of the pots back when I did fertilize often (and my hard water didn't help either). Too many salts make the roots rot.
And I am potting smaller and smaller with better luck.
Your potting media should not be rotting so quickly or get blue crap on it...find another source of potting mix.
So maybe try potting with different mix, smaller pot, warmer spot in the house and don't fertilize(I also water with distilled water for now RO will be later).
Can't get any worse than what you have already right?
One final thought, if your plants are going from sphag to bark with your repot, you could be stressing the roots out with the change and then they die...try adding sphag to a good bark mix 50/50 and water slightly less than you would sphag. After some time like this, convert to all bark mix if you prefer that.
It's my opinion that culture really matches the caretaker more than the orchid. If you overfuss, you need stuff that dries fast; if you nevermuss, you need sphag etc
Good luck, I feel your stress more often than I care to admit. I'd recommend culturing yourself with a martini after repotting as I often do, but only if you are old enough to embibe

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by butterfly79

I guess for me it's bit confusing. Can't be temp in my home because all is ok until I repot the orchids in bark. This is when my issues begin? It always ends up in root rot.

I know the first orchids I tried died from ignorance and pots without holes.

Do you know what my father in law does. Sits the orchid in a sink over night. That`s it. No fertilizers, no humidity trays, no repotting. Hell he has one growing in regular soil. He`s had it for 4 yrs.

Nope you didn`t call me stupid and hey if you like coming off as an asshole that`s fine but people don`t learn from that behaviour nor do they take it well. You get more bees with honey than vinegar.

Listen...

I understand your frustration. If you believe just for a moment that I'm really, actually, trying to genuinely help you out, you'll understand what I'm telling you regardless of "honey or vinegar".

This particular instance deserves vinegar. Why?

If you wanted to be a successful orchid grower, why in the world would you tell yourself (of all people) and demonstrate it to others that you don't know what is going on when you've clearly repeated over and over again, what you think might've been the problem(s).

No. I'm not the person who'll reward another person for a self-defeating attitude. I wouldn't be really helping you.

I'll give you honey when you deserve the honey. You gotta earn the honey from me miss.

Why am I saying this?

Because even if all the people in the world tell you the solution to the problem, if you keep telling yourself you don't know what's going on when you've demonstrated that you've been listening and actually do know what's happening. It's going to be a vicious cycle of failure.

You want failure? Or do you want to succeed?

What are you going to tell yourself?

This at first seems like it has nothing to do with orchid growing. But I propose that it has everything to do with it.

[Call_Me_Bob]

i think the problem might be one or some of the following...

- to big of a pot
-maybe they are stressed from the transfer of spagh to bark, 50/50 spagh and bark like eyebaby said.

[cb977]

Okay, listen up, folks...

once again, we DO NOT treat our members rudely...

if you can't get your point across without being rude, don't answer!

Now, can we please get back to the original question?