How many to kill before YOU say UNCLE?

[DirtyCoconuts]

Love Yul Brynner !!!nice

[Fredmax]

Originally Posted by SouthPark

hahaha ..... 10 years late on this one, but I will admit that I was responsible for four orchids not making it from my care. So I've got a total count of four losses ---- C. skinneri, C. bowringiana, Blc. Mem. Crispin Rosales, L. anceps.

month).

That you can so easily recall how few plants you've lost is amazing (and economical), although L anceps being on that list is puzzling.

If only I had the common sense to stick to Cym's like everyone else in my neck of the woods....or pack up a truck and drive north til the humidity picks up I might've been able to compare to your record, I'm well into triple figure losses at this stage sadly.

[Bulbopedilum]

I'll be honest, I'm somewhat of a madman. I've killed a bunch of orchids in the past (probably influenced by the fact that orchids are cheaper here, so I make more ambitious new species attempts more frequently)... some died more mysteriously than others. I've had orchids that suddenly rotted, suddenly stopped growing and died, etc.

I do know some probable causes though; some probably died because it just got too hot, some probably caught rot because of the rain we get in the rain season. Also I do not have any "medicine" for my orchids...

I'm slowly piecing together the way to cultivate some native orchids, which is surprisingly tricky. A big tip I got is that you do not want a completely dry rest for tubers, unlike what I thought at first (im guessing they can survive in nature because their tubers are so deep in the ground, and perhaps the occasional off-season drizzle as well).

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Fredmax

That you can so easily recall how few plants you've lost is amazing (and economical), although L anceps being on that list is puzzling.

Fred ------ with catts - and lots of other classic type of orchids that people grew in general, one way for orchids to go downhill is to have an orchid potted in media where the water doesn't move much ----- within the media itself and around the roots themselves. If they can't get enough oxygen, then parts of roots can start dying, then rotting, and other bad things can follow on from that.

I don't have heaps and heaps of orchids ----- just enough to see some flowers every once in a while, and also to keep my eye on them all.

You mentioned cyms. It sounds like fantastic conditions for cyms where you are. Up here, I'm pretty sure I'm going to have a hard time getting the temperate climate cyms to produce flower spikes! I purchased some temperature cyms not too long ago, and they are growing really well up here ----- growing. But flowering - that's going to be hard or maybe even impossible without some technological help or input.

But even if my cyms here don't flower (or rarely flower), I'm definitely ok with that haha. I like their leaves and their bulbs! The flowers of cyms are so nice. Maybe some cold snaps for some seasons could trigger something - not sure hehehe. I would say you're lucky over there - with cym growing climate. I'd be happy with just growing cyms alone ------ their flowers last for so long.

Although, I must say that ----- I did get two cyms with buds that came in, and I think their long lasting flowers attracted dendrobium beetles, which ate a while leaf of one of my catts, and ate the buds of that came catt too! Interestingly, carbaryl seems quite effective for sorting out that kind of thing.

[SouthPark]

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