what am i doing wrong ?

[LouieP]

Hello my name is Luis

i just started collecting orchids and i love it, but one of the issues im having is that i bought 2 orchids from costco and they are blooming but one of them the baby buds are dying ?. im watering every 7 to 8 days, its getting indirect sunlight and its also under a light lamp so im not sure what i'm doing wrong any help would be greatly appreciated. thanks

i can post pictures later on...here is where i have the other orchids now

[Paul Mc]

Did you repot it? Also, are you letting all the water drain out so it's not sitting in water? What are the roots looking like, healthy or dead and dying?

I would suspect that the roots are tightly wrapped up in sphagnum moss so they can't breathe and are dying because the moss is not dying out enough between waterings. Just a guess based on the picture and experience from buying at centers like Costco.

If you have not reported t, you might want to after doing some searching to see what others use as a medium. Try looking at online orchid stores potting mediums and YouTube videos. Also check out the thread here about "phal abuse ends here". It will have a lot of information for you as well.

[Paul Mc]

If it is in a bark mix already, there may be an issue of it breaking down due to age, thus holding too much water. Also, some growers put bark chips in to hide a mass of sphagnum miss underneath or in the center.

[LouieP]

i have not repotted it, the plant has bark and some moss i did look into the other threads but didn't think i need to repot it since its still blooming i didn"t know that i could do that. i don't want to stress the plant also.

---------- Post added at 08:54 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:52 AM ----------

also the plant on the picture is not the one I'm talking about its a full blooming orchid. i am letting it drain when i got the orchid last week it was really dry so that was my first watering.thank you for your help

[tucker85]

Bud drop can be caused by a lot of different environmental conditions, most of which are not harmful to the orchid itself. Changes in temperature is one of the most common. Some orchids are more prone to bud drop than others. If this is an orchid that you bought with buds already on it, the change of environment when you took it home could have been enough of a shock to cause the buds to fail. If this plant spiked and formed buds in your home, then possibly something was changed in it's care while it was in bud. I try not to change the location of a plant or anything about it's care while it's in bud. But once the blooms are open nothing seems to bother them. Bud drop usually doesn't mean there's anything wrong with the orchid.

[Brenda Aarts]

Louie, often plants sulk a bit after relocating them. They take a while to adjust to their new surroundings. Bud blast occurs sometimes or wilting dying flowers shortly after you bring home. It may not be within your control at this point, just make sure at youth are letting it dry out between waterings.

---------- Post added at 09:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:58 AM ----------

Guess you and I were typing at the same time Tucker, I think we pretty much said the same thing.

---------- Post added at 09:05 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:01 AM ----------

Also Louie, a lot of times when the plastic pot is put into a decorative pot it looks nice but doesn't let the air get at the roots and really keeps the moisture in, so just keep an eye on how much you are watering.

[quiltergal]

I agree with Tucker and Brenda. What your plant is experiencing is called "bud blast". Once the plant acclimates itself to your home you should not have any future issues with bud blast.

[KristenJ]

I am a newbie to orchids myself, so I don't know if this will help any but I purchased a small Phalaenopsis from Lowe's & it lost all of its buds once I got it home. I decided to try to repot it & it turned out it had one good root. I would recommend checking the roots.

[Connie Star]

Welcome to OB!
I'll just echo what others have said. I buy a lot of mini phal NoIDs like yours and the first thing I do is take the inner plastic pot out of the cache pot. They always seem to be tightly jammed into it, and then there are all sorts of surprises. I haven't resorted to breaking a ceramic outer pot yet but it has crossed my mind.
Phals can take repotting when in bud/bloom better than a lot of orchids. I carefully pick away the medium, be it sphag or bark. I usually find it is really tightly packed. You can also loosen the media around the roots and plop it into a somewhat larger slotted pot if the medium still looks good, then wait till the blooms are done before a full repotting.
Personally I have a bad case of YAP syndrome - "yet another phal."

[billc]

Originally Posted by Connie Star

Personally I have a bad case of YAP syndrome - "yet another phal."

Someone finally put a name to the affliction.
I have something similar- YAP, yet another paph.

Bill