has my orchid died?? :-(

[beckie_boo22]

Originally Posted by Silje

Lol...Don't mind me.

I only saw the first page of comments and thought I'd chip in, and realized too late that I was just repeating some of what Rosie said, and when I wanted to delete the comment I wasn't able to.

Pretend I wasn't even here.

Huh?
You replied before Rosie and I thanked you for your help. I'm confused lol

[Silje]

Originally Posted by beckie_boo22

Huh?
You replied before Rosie and I thanked you for your help. I'm confused lol

I actually did manage to delete the comment after all then. Lol...I'm hopeless!

[james mickelso]

This isn't in too bad a shape. A little tender loving care and it wil be good as new in no time. Medium pine bark, sponge rock or lava cinder (medium), charcol (medium), as potting mix which is what it probably came in. Wash off all the old bits and pieces of old potting mix. Cut off obviously old dead or rotted roots and dab the ends with powdered cinnamon. Put back in pot and add potting mix. You can buy commercial potting mix too. Put it in the same pot it is in now. Wash the pot off really well and I'd wash it in some dilute bleach solution and then rinse the pot until there is no bleach smell left. Good luck. Keep it moist but not wet. If it is very wet all the time it will rot the roots.

[Wynn Dee13]

Your Phalaenopsis hybrid needs to be repotted. Like the others said the spike is dying because it is at the end of its bloom cycle. Many things can cause orchids to prematurely drop their buds or flowers. When all the flowers drop off cut the spike all the way off close to the base of the plant. After blooming your plant should now grow some new leaves and roots. Then when it is ready it will grow a new spike. Blooming takes a lot of energy so the orchid needs to grow some leaves and build up energy for the next blooming.

Buy some orchid bark mix and soak it at least over night. Unpot the plant and cut off all hollow, squishy, dead roots. You want to repot it in a pot that just fits the healthy roots. You might be able to use the same pot if you don't have to cut too many dead roots off. You do not want to over pot your orchid. Orchids like to be snug in their pots. Repot with the new medium. You might need to water more often after repotting because new bark doesn't hold water like old bark does.

Do you fertilize your orchid at all? If you don't you should buy some.

Here is a thread called The Phal Abuse Ends Here. It has a lot of great information. It is long but worth reading. Good luck and welcome! http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ends-here.html

[Wynn Dee13]

I guess we were all posting at the same time! Lol!

[beckie_boo22]

Originally Posted by Wynn Dee13

Your Phalaenopsis hybrid needs to be repotted. Like the others said the spike is dying because it is at the end of its bloom cycle. Many things can cause orchids to prematurely drop their buds or flowers. When all the flowers drop off cut the spike all the way off close to the base of the plant. After blooming your plant should now grow some new leaves and roots. Then when it is ready it will grow a new spike. Blooming takes a lot of energy so the orchid needs to grow some leaves and build up energy for the next blooming.

Buy some orchid bark mix and soak it at least over night. Unpot the plant and cut off all hollow, squishy, dead roots. You want to repot it in a pot that just fits the healthy roots. You might be able to use the same pot if you don't have to cut too many dead roots off. You do not want to over pot your orchid. Orchids like to be snug in their pots. Repot with the new meadium. You might need to water more often after repotting because new bark doesn't hold water like old bark does.

Do you fertilize your orchid at all? If you don't you should buy some.

Here is a thread called The Phal Abuse Ends Here. It has a lot of great information. It is long but worth reading. Good luck and welcome! http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ends-here.html

Is this fertiliser?

Baby Bio Orchid Food, 0000050371341

[Wynn Dee13]

What is the N-P-K on the bottle? There will be 3 numbers on the bottle separated by a dash. These numbers are the strength of the main nutrients in the fertilizer. I have never seen this brand of fertilizer here so I don't know if it is any good. I have seen other people ask about it but I don't remember what answers they got. Hopfully someone who has used it will chime in. Let me know what the N-P-K is though.

[beckie_boo22]

Originally Posted by Wynn Dee13

What is the N-P-K on the bottle? There will be 3 numbers on the bottle separated by a dash. These numbers are the strength of the main nutrients in the fertilizer. I have never seen this brand of fertilizer here so I don't know if it is any good. I have seen other people ask about it but I don't remember what answers they got. Hopfully someone who has used it will chime in. Let me know what the N-P-K is though.

5.3-0.95-0.7
says it's a low nutrient fertiliser

[RosieC]

Originally Posted by beckie_boo22

anyone use this?
is it any good. i have some but havent used it as i didn't feel it needed it as i was growing so well.

Baby Bio Orchid Food, 0000050371341

I've not used it, although I use the standard Baby Bio for my non orchids.

It's 5.3:2.2:0.8 which is quite low on Potasium but that's probably not the most important part anyway. If using it I would ignore the mixing instructions and instead use this site to calculate. Fertilizer Mixing Calculators

Taking a quick look that says that if you water 4 times a month on average, with one of those being a flush and three being fertiliser water, then you should use 3.27 millilitres per litre, which translates as roughly one 5ml teaspoon per 1.5 litres. (Note that the teaspoons per gallon on the site is american teaspoons and american gallons. In the UK a standard teaspoon is considered to be 5ml.)

[RosieC]

I tend to prefer to buy a more concentrated fertiliser which I then use less per litre. It's more expensive initially but you use less and generally buying more concentrated is cheaper in the long run.

However with only one orchid there is no point you buying masses of fertiliser so you are probably best off with something like the baby bio.

However just for info, this is the one I use, although I usually get the bigger 3lb tub. Orchid Food and Fertilizers great products for your orchids - - Grow-More Orchid Feed 20-10-20 1.25lb