orchids

[Bud]

your kitchen window, which direction is it facing? east or west?
what is the average temperature and humidity in your kitchen? I guess when the oven is on its too hot and humid then gets too dry and cold in the night? then when you make tea in the morning thets when it gets warm again and humid?

I started with a couple of hybrid Phalaenopsis, then added a Dendrobium then a Cattleya; the rest is history...so far in my 9 years...I havent killed a plant from neglect, blight or insect infestation...
do you have air circulation?

[catweazle1962]

hi thankyou for your reply the kitchen windows are facing east . not sure of temp in kitchen only when cooking it does get hot we did try a Phalaenopsis at first but for some reason it died , we did buy a book called orchids for dummies lol , when feeding the orchids is there a name for the food instead of a N-P-K ratio, as for air circulation there is none only extractor fans when cooking for having a bath or shower. my Prom. Limelight x Prom. xanthina seems to be having problems we have attached a picture of both plants as the other one seems to have spots on the leaves thanks

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I recommend pulling the Promenaea out of its pot completely and carefully removing as much of the potting media as possible to inspect the roots.

Do not make any attempt whatsoever to remove any potting material that the roots are firmly attached to. Make every effort to not damage any roots in any capacity at all. It should make your task easier if you wet the roots thoroughly until they turn green. Wet roots tend to be more pliable and less brittle than when they are completely dry.

Please take a pic of the plant's root system before making the next move.

Even though what you're seeing is called bud blast or bud drop, the root of the problem may be much more severe than the symptom that you can readily see...

It could be that the humidity may not be high enough to support proper blooming.

But...

I suspect there was root damage due to over watering because of how large the pot is compared to the size of the root system. A series of pics will help verify whether this is the case or not.

[RosieC]

I can't add much to Philip's wealth of info, but just to say that you can get guidence from this link for how much fertiliser to use.

Fertilizer Mixing Calculators

You type in the N number from your fertiliser (5.3 in your case) and how many times you water/flush and it tells you the recommended mixing rate.

This is based on Ray's experience of 125ppm of Nitrogen being a good general concentration for most orchids.

Weaker fertiliser like yours can still be used, but generally you need to mix it stronger than you would a fertiliser with a higher Nitrogen number... that in turn makes it more expensive. It's generally more economic to use something like a 20-20-20 which might be more expensive in the first instance, but you use less each time making it work out cheaper overall.

[catweazle1962]

thankyou for your replys i have taken a picture of the plants rots for you to advise on , we did buy both plants from ebay in the uk and they came potted thanks

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Do not remove any roots regardless of whether or not they're dead.

Reduce the pot size to fit the roots much more snug than the previous pot.

The roots on your Promenaea are decent. Some are alive and healthy, some are dead. This is probably the reason your Promenaea is suffering.

[catweazle1962]

thankyou for your advice what size pot do you think it should be re potted into, can i use the same potting bark that is in there or should i use fresh thanks

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I don't know how large the current pot your Promenaea is in is.

I would try either a 5.08 cm pot or a 6.35 cm pot.

Same potting media is fine.