Hi guys, I decided to post this thread to discuss the
critical importance of
fostering the habit of inspecting any orchid upon purchase. Learning this habit early during the beginning of picking up the hobby will usually lead to:
1. A better understanding of where the plant you decided to put money on is currently at health-wise.
2. Sometimes be able to make visual comparisons of your newly acquired plant's current state of health to those of other plants that other people on the web have been able to successfully grow for years. This will allow you to understand just how bad the situation is.
3. Help you determine the correct course of action to circumvent any problems that may have arisen during the inspection.
4. Should you not know what to do, you can now take prompt action to ask any forum members from any forum out there on the web regarding how to now proceed in taking care of your orchid, and hopefully get a prompt enough response to make proper corrections in orchid culture.
5. Far fewer losses of plants.
6. ENJOYING YOUR HOBBY! 
*** Note: I wanted to make absolutely clear that an orchid's flowers are the plant's genitalia and reproductive organs.
Flowers = Plant Genitalia and Reproductive Organs
This is why, inspecting flowers alone is worthless in determining an orchid's overall heatlh.
Q: What am I looking for when I purchase an orchid? Where should I look?
These are often the questions people might have running in their heads.
Here's where, (and I'm going to
list where to look according to the order of critical importance first):
1. Roots. (This is your top, #1 priority, always)
* You are looking for any rotting material or dead roots. If there are a lot of dead roots, but still some that are alive, it is suggested to remove the roots and clean the orchid up as best as you can.
If the roots are all dead, what can be done is, leave the dead roots on the plant and use it as a way to anchor your plant into the pot or onto a mount, (whichever method you choose to grow the orchid with).
2. Stem. (A plant's true stem, not the plant's inflorescence, this can often be confusing for those looking at a Phalaenopsis for the first time. A plant's true stem will have the leaves attached to it via the plant's petiole.)
* Make sure it is not rotten, (soft, watery, and mushy), or blemished. These are a sign of disease, and could easily mean that the orchid is on its way out.
* There is a visual difference between natural pigmentation and spotting as a result of an immune response from the plant towards a pathogen. Make sure that the spotting is not coming from an immune response.
* Make sure there are no bleached or yellowing areas. There are a number of causes for this.
a) Sunburn. (bleaching or patches of dried scorch marks, sometimes black patches)
b) Natural old age.
c) Over exposure to light. (yellowing)
d) Disease.
It is usually difficult for newbies to visually be able to tell the difference between the causes, but eventually, with time, people can get somewhat decent at being able to discern the subtle differences.
3. Leaves.
* You're looking for the same thing as for the stem.
* Make sure there is as little mechanical damage done as possible.
4. Inflorescence (aka "spike").
* Look for the same thing as for the stem.
5. Buds.
* Make sure they're intact and not about to prematurely yellow or dry out. This is a sign that the plant has been stressed in some way. The kinds of stress are numerous.
6. Flowers. (This is dead last in priority folks, not your first!.)
* Same as buds.
* Also look for any unusual markings on the petals and sepals, as this could tip you off as to whether or not there could be a viral problem with the orchid.
There you guys go. I wanted to let you guys see a stand alone posting that dealt only with this particular piece of advice to let you guys understand that
determining the health of an orchid goes FAR BEYOND just inspecting for flowers.
*** Special note: No matter what your current level of experience is, nobody can circumvent this routine. I just recently had to do this for all my newly acquired purchases.
In fact, the story goes, I just purchased what was sold to me/labeled as a
Warscewiczella discolor x self from an online vendor. When I received it, most of the plant's leaves were mush, but the plant was still alive and recoverable. Initially, I thought that it might have had something to do with being delivered in the heat, because the roots on the top portion of the plant above the potting media looked good. I also had suspicions that there might also be a problem going on with the roots because the potting media was looking really old (the wood chips were black).
Here's the kicker, though…
I also purchased other closely related orchids at the same time, and had received them at roughly the same time, during our short heat wave, and they came in without brown mushy leaves or brown mushy spotting.
But when the
Warscewiczella discolor x self was kept in intermediate temperatures for nearly a week, and things continued to slowly get worse, I had to look at the roots.
When I knocked the entire orchid out of the pot, sure enough, the potting media had broken down so badly, that it was starting to become dirt. Although the roots didn't look all that bad at first, this would've caused a huge problem because of sanitation.
Luckily I caught the problem in just a nick of time before the point of no return, and corrected the issue ASAP. Hopefully it will recover nicely.
Like this story is indirectly saying, always make visual inspections of the ENTIRE plant. Not just flowers.
Here's the photo of the
Warscewiczella discolor x self all cleaned up. You can still see the damage though. In hindsight, I should've sucked it up and took photos of the entire process from beginning to end, (I was exhausted yesterday).
Next best thing…
Got a photo of the trash with the amount of damaged leaves I removed from the plant. This'll give you an idea of just how bad it was.
Btw,
Warscewiczella discolor =
Cochleanthes discolor.
An Orchid Buyer's Guide for Beginners
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