How do you know when you are not a "newbie" anymore?

[katrina]

Originally Posted by tropterrarium

Re O. oligotricha, I assume you got it from Andy in hanging basket. It is not oligotricha, but I don't know what it is. One of those in the pile of "deal with later". That species is one of my nemeses. I've tried it several times and over shorter or longer killed them all: intermediate warm with drying sopping wet deep shade bright light, nothing works for me. How do you keep it alive?

Yes, I got it from Andy's a few years back and when it came it was in a net basket w/sphag. It went into decline shortly after it arrived. About 6 months later I removed it from the net basket/sphag combo to find ZERO live roots. NO ROOTS! I had managed to kill them all!

Not a lot of info on it out there and what I did manage to find about the native habitat pointed me in the direction of trying out potting it shredded redwood in a plastic aircone. So, I did and then I wished it well. [If it's not oligotricha then it seems whatever it is probably grows in a similar habitat. I guess.]

Shortly after putting it in the new set up it started popping new growths but I couldn't see any roots in the pot. It's only been in the past year that I've seen visible roots but there still aren't too many. I suspect it's one of those types of orchids that doesn't make a lot of roots. Maybe? (a guess, of course) The roots it does have are thin and kind of long.

It's growing well now but the older growths don't look great...I suspect it needs more humidity than I can give it. ?? Another guess on my part. So, the redwood, plastic pot, I keep it slightly moist all the time and medium bright light.

I'll post some pics up before the end of the month...in my own thread.

Sorry for the highjack.