My Mistakes....and Yours!

[DweamGoiL]

I am still so green at the orchid hobby, but my worst offenses so far have been:

1) using the bark mix straight out of the bag, which did not help the hydration of the plant

2) watering overhead and getting droplets trapped in the crown, which seeped down into the lower leaves. Luckily, I only lost 1 leaf from this rookie mistake.

I am sure there is more to come, but that's it so far

Well, unless you count my very first orchid ever (that was 20 years ago). Oh boy, I rotted those roots REAL good!

[Silje]

Over-watering and...over-watering. It seems to be impossible for me to control my watering urge. I've got big, red stickers on several plants saying 'Do not water' and still it's just physically impossible for me not to, thinking it's a 'nice thing to do'.

I've gotten so much better over the years and I'm not losing a lot of plants nowadays, but that's by far my weak point and worst mistake. And the worst of the worst is that I kept (keep?) repeating it.

I opt for gravel and LECA and very free draining media for most of the plants to reduce the damage.

(But I've got one paph in sphagnum that I'm a bit stressed about. Might have to repot that one....)

[jeremyinsf]

Originally Posted by Silje

I've got big, red stickers on several plants saying 'Do not water' and still it's just physically impossible for me not to, thinking it's a 'nice thing to do'.

It's funny how many of us seem to think alike.

[cbuchman]

Amazing! Silje, I have to resist the urge to be nice too. My mounted guys (relatively new additions) helps because I can mist them frequently, especially as it is summer here and getting warm, and satisfy my watering urge safely.

[jeremyinsf]

I have found that having WAY too many plants, and thus, hard to keep up with - along with potting in slotted containers that dry out fast, seems to have helped me the most!

[Silje]

Originally Posted by cbuchman

Amazing! Silje, I have to resist the urge to be nice too. My mounted guys (relatively new additions) helps because I can mist them frequently, especially as it is summer here and getting warm, and satisfy my watering urge safely.

I know! A few mounts in the collection definitely help. And I can just go CRAZY on the vandas without worrying about drowning them (they're rather slightly dehydrated despite being soaked regularly). To have some plants that can take all the splashing definitely benefit the rest of the greenhouse, but I've got no idea how I'm ever going to make plants that needs dry winter rest happy (the poor things...talk about the road to hell being paved with good intentions, and equipped with a garden hose).

[tucker85]

I'll tell you one a friend of mine at the orchid society meeting told me. His daughter gave him a potted lily that wasn't in bloom. Lilies grow well in full sun here in South Florida. He planted the lily in the ground out in his front yard. For two years the lily grew nicely but never flowered. He eventually decided to dig up the lily and plant something else. He put the lily in a plastic pot on his porch trying to decide what to do with it. A couple of months after being on the porch it bloomed, but the flowers were not lilies, they were paphiopedilums.