Quote:
Originally Posted by RandomGemini
My husband is chuckling at me behind my back, I know it. He knew this was going to lead to my wanting a terrarium. Thank goodness I married a guy that gets me.  |
That's hilarious!
Good thread. I can relate to a lot of these mistakes. Now about 15 years into growing, I rarely make repeat mistakes but can make all kinds of new ones. I like the adage of long time growers, that you don't really know orchid growing until you've killed your weight in them.
My three biggest early mistakes:
- I did not sterilize cutting tools the first year my hobby went from a few backyard bloomers to 50+ orchids. This caused the loss of some special plants, a C. dowiana aurea and C. Maroni, the one orchid that permanently influenced my preference for labiate Cattleyas and now I can't find it anywhere.
- Mixes that contained bark and rotted half my plants after a succession of rainy days, back in 2005. I used progressively more inorganic media and now almost all of my plants are either suspended with no media or in pots with lava rock, clay pellets, and a little shredded tree fern.
- Getting too many plants too fast. 2005 again, I went to most of the shows an became an eBay shopper on crack. The hobby started to feel like an obligation, a job. I turned around one day and it hit me that I wasn't so in love with about a third of my orchids, so I gave them away to grateful friends and now have about 80 plants I have personal relationships with as I know them so well and for so long I think of them as pets and get a thrill every time they bloom. I'm in the process of constructing a new shade house with lots more room, so we'll see how well that holds.
Hmmmn, I wonder what mistakes I'm making now but don't know it yet?
Kevin
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