Mold n spike?

[drone]

There some kind of brown mold growing. Is it harmful? The plant looks ok, no side effects.



Are these oncidium spikes or somekind of thin wiry leaves? They have been there for months not doing anything. The older ones are dried at the tips, green below.



Third question, how does my camera make my orchids' leaves look so lush. The oncidium is actually quite yellow and sunburned.

[Discus]

I can only really comment on the third question, I'm afraid! Check your camera's white balance settings, and make sure they're right (a test might be to try taking a picture of a piece of white paper in that light and see how it comes out). Also, some modern digital cameras are getting quite good at automagically "guessing" what you're trying to photograph and doing a bit of "photoshopping" in camera (this can also be a function of the colour saturation settings).

[quiltergal]

Oh dear! Number one needs to be repotted ASAP....that's not good.

Can't really tell from the picture what's going on with number two. It is in the Onc. family.

[drone]

Y what kind of mold/algae is that? dangerous?

[BobInBonita]

I'd really be curious to see a picture of the roots when you unpot the orchid in the first picture above. It looks like it has been very wet for quite a while and yet has a surprising number of solid looking roots.

There have been threads on "water culture" in the past. I know nothing about it other than what I've read. Sounds like growing in water with a lot of algae. I always imagined it looking like picture one, but have never actually seen it. Tried searching the forum but kept getting "water" and "culture" separately, not as "water culture"

[drone]

It's potted in charcoal(repotted 1 pb ago). The black roots are I believe staining from the goat dung i added. They're not rotten. The fungus has grown pretty much everywhere though. It was green so i didnt bother with it thinking it's algae but now it's brown. I'll treat it.

[BobInBonita]

I've never used goat dung, but have used both horse and cow for non-orchid fertilizers. They are really "strong" fertilizers (especially horse) that need to compost or they will burn many plants. Making a "tea" by soaking a few shovelfuls in a barrel is a way to control the application and reduce the burning. I think the tea approach might give fewer side effects, and more closely mimic what the orchid might see in the wild (where rain rinses bird and lizard dropping down the tree).

Did you break up a dried pellet or two and add them to the charcoal or did you add it "whole"?

Let us know what happens and how this progresses. The roots look surprisingly healthy and happy and there may be something to your approach. How does the plant above the "dung experiment" look?

[dendrophyle]

so what is going on with the 2nd pic - why are the grassy extrusions there?

3rd Q - my camera has a 'vivid' setting, maybe yours is set on that?

[silken]

My thought too in the second picture is that there are some stray bits of grass growing in the pot. If it is kept outside that would happen easily enough here in my yard.

[Vanda lover]

[QUOTE=BobInBonita;381838]I'd really be curious to see a picture of the roots when you unpot the orchid in the first picture above. It looks like it has been very wet for quite a while and yet has a surprising number of solid looking roots.

There have been threads on "water culture" in the past. I know nothing about it other than what I've read. Sounds like growing in water with a lot of algae. I always imagined it looking like picture one, but have never actually seen it. Tried searching the forum but kept getting "water" and "culture" separately, not as "water culture"[/QUOTE