I'm not doing everything right...

[ScottMcC]

Ugh. So my poor Vandofinetia Blaupunkt is having some issues. First off, the flowers didn't last very long, and started fading earlier this week, and I ended up cutting the spike 2 days ago. No big deal I thought, since it looked kinda bloomed out when I got it.

Well I was watering it this morning, which I do by taking it to the sink, plugging the hole in the bottom of the pot with my finger, and pouring fertilizer (125 ppm N) in to fill the entire pot, then letting it drain, and I noticed that it seemed kinda loose in the pot. So I gave it a little tug, and realized that it wasn't attached to the pot at all. Before I knew it, my plant was sitting on the counter and I had a completely empty pot. I should add that this orchid is in a 3.5 in clay pot with coco fiber medium.

So I pulled off the coco fiber to take a look at my roots, because I didn't see any around the outside of the ball, and they were all totally soggy and black. Ugh! I trimmed them all pretty aggressively, dunked the poor baby in Physan, and threw it in ziplock with a small piece of sphagnum. I sealed the whole thing and put it in a warm, darkish corner of the room.

Anyway...I don't think it will need to be in the sphag n bag for too long, because it still has 5 pretty nice looking roots with nice green tips (they were aerial roots before this disaster). But I'm still mad at the whole situation because it's mostly my fault. I think the problem was that the coco fiber was packed very loosely on top, but very densely in the middle, around the root ball. Also, since it was a clay pot, the periphery was dried by the pot, but the center still stayed wet. As a result, I misinterpreted the plant as being dry (even in spite of my use of the skewer technique--I just wasn't going deep enough), and so I overwatered. I had been watering almost every day because the leaves seemed dry, the pot was very light, the skewer was dry, and the pot rang when I tapped it (instead of going thunk when wet). All my indicators pointed to it being dry, which it was in some areas, but it was also overwet in other areas.

So here's my thinking. Assuming the sphag n bag helps rescuscitate it, I need to pot this baby in a manner that makes it dry rapidly, yet evenly. I'm thinking stick with the clay pot, but do primeagra, but not s/h, and just be aware that I will prob have to water every other day or so.

What does everyone think? Any other suggestions?

Oh yeah...pictures...

[cb977]

Seems to me like the solution you've come up with would work. I might change it to a clear pot but only because they are my new kick.
Please keep us posted on it's progress. I know you'll get that baby healthy again

[justatypn]

You seem to have it all under control, but like Susanne said a clear pot would avoid your over-watering. If you do go with the clay pots I would cut back on the watering, its better to have a plant beg for a drink verses over-watering. It looks very healthy otherwise, keep us posted.

[ScottMcC]

I considered a clear pot but I thought a clay pot might be better to promote faster drying (since water can wick right through the unglazed clay).

I just discovered that I may have a similar problem with a phal... This one was potted in what I thought was just bark mix and a green plastic pot, and again I was using all my tricks to see if it needed watering. The only thing that was off was it always felt kinda heavy to me, but I thought it was just that it was a big plant with a lot of roots. Well, similar story, it was wobbly in the pot, and so I poked around a little, and found that under about 2 inches of bark mix was very densely packed, old nasty sphag. I think it's still got enough viable roots that I can salvage it with just repotting, but man...twice in two days I've been foiled into overwatering! Luckily it's at a proper stage for repotting anyway, so I should be ok on that one...



The big lesson from this one...if a plant feels heavier than you would expect, poke around till you find out why! Other lesson...if a plant feels wobbly in the pot, it probably indicates poor root health--investigate immediately!

[ScottMcC]

whew! turns out everything was not as bad as I thought...but I think I caught things just in the nick of time.

I unpotted my wobbly phal, and much to my surprise there was quite a ball of healthy roots amidst every type of potting media known to man. There was a very dense 4 inch square pot worth of sphag (even still conforming to that shape), followed by some packing peanuts, followed by some bark that looked pretty good, and about an inch of decomposed bark on the very bottom of the pot. Once I fluffed everything up, it was enough to fill the pot twice--even without the plant. It looked like every time this plant had been repotted they just left whatever old media it was in, and just filled in around the edges with new stuff.

So I trimmed the few dead roots, and left it unpotted for now. It's going into S/H once the supplies get here, which should be tomorrow...

And yes, the people I bought it from will be getting an email of complaint.

[littlefrog]

I think your problem is that you have a heavy hand with the watering can... Need to resist the urge to water. It is hard to do.

If you don't want to (or can't) change, then you should consider putting the Blaupunkt into a clay pot with large (or medium) charcoal. Just charcoal. Or lava rock. Then you can water it every day if you want.

Not sure what to say about the phal. I'd not order a plant from those people again... Fortunately you still have a lot of roots left.

[justintimedc]

That phal looks really healthy to me! But you did catch it at a good time...could have been ugly in not too long. I think the problem with potting media and watering is complicated by the fact that what works in the greenhouse is very different than what works well in a windowsill. I get catt alliance plants in sphagnum moss from vendors, with big robust healthy plants and root system, but that combo is deadly for me at home!!

[justatypn]

Scott: Today I experienced the same problem you did, a blessing in disguise for us both. After the plant feel on the counter, I as well took the same steps you did omitting the zip bag and now they have a new home "clear plastic pot". I opted for this pot as I wanted to do it a while back but the plant itself was stressing, shriveled leaves along with a fungus and wanted to keep an eye on the watering issue. I put these plants in time out and after 2 weeks they seems to be perking up and thereafter new growth was appearing. Today, they have a new home, clear pots, clean medium, and placed back with the other orchid. I have changed my watering regimen and like Marco stated "1 full day dry time and 1 overnight dry time a week", also if the pot feels and looks dry wait a day.

[Oscarman]

It must be a week for sad potting mixes....I just unpotted Bc. Mount Anderson 'Genevieve'. It is about 2' tall and has about 9 pseudobulbs - with about 3 live roots! I was not very diligent with this one and missed the signals - ongoing leaf shriveling. The media was very broken down, a bit of mold present and the roots rotten.

Scott, thats a pretty good example that when you buy a plant you never really know for sure what is in that pot. I try to be diligent and repot new plants as soon a new growth starts and get it into a medium that works for my conditions. I really missed the boat with my Bc. Mount Anderson.

[Ray]

Scott,

In my expereince, vandofinetias are much more friendly to vanda culture than you might think. I agree with Rob on the straight charcoal or possibly even EpiWeb, if you want to give that a try. (Mine are in slat baskets in the GH.)

In any case, I'd go with a plastic pot, as the very open medium will dry plenty fast by itself.