Curbside orchids (Cattleya and phalaenopsis?)

[Paphluvr]

Originally Posted by PaphLover

Congrats to you! And so glad someone took in the orchids and wants to really know how to look after them.

The story of the greenhouse makes me very sad. I suspect it was an elderly owner/ orchid grower and the house was sold by the kids who didn't want to deal with the orchids and passed them on to the new owner who also didn't want to deal with them.

I'd hate for my collection to be tossed out on the street like that.

Thank you for picking them up and caring for them. I hope they bloom gloriously for you in gratitude.

I have a provision in my will that my collection goes to any local school that wants them. Use them as a teaching experience and perhaps get more young folks interested.

[Dollythehun]

How thoughtful!

[estación seca]

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

What happens in Utah never ceases to amaze me.

[shhcat]

Welp I bit the bullet and just spent $80 at Repotme.com, buying clear slotted pots in a variety of sizes, fertilizer, and two different varieties of potting media (one general purpose orchid, one specifically for catts). I would prefer to buy locally but I don't think any of the stores around here carry exotic planting materials, and Salt Lake City is an hour and a half away.

I'll find other uses for the black plastic pots I originally bought at Lowes, they just don't have enough drainage for orchids. They'll work great for some of my other houseplants (my bromeliad has pups and needs split, anyway).

It's been very wet here, and my orchids are still damp from the last time I watered them, over a week ago. I have skewers in the pots and I even found some fuzzy mold around the skewers, ew. It finally dried out today so I have them in front of an open window, hopefully that will dry them out a little more. I'll repot in the correct pots/media once my order comes in.

I had a couple of friends give me the stinkeye for not posting on facebook about the curbdump of orchids. I didn't even know those friends liked houseplants!

Thanks for the advice and well-wishes, everyone!

[Dollythehun]

Good luck!!!

[Pippa]

Originally Posted by PaphLover

The story of the greenhouse makes me very sad. I suspect it was an elderly owner/ orchid grower and the house was sold by the kids who didn't want to deal with the orchids and passed them on to the new owner who also didn't want to deal with them.

It made me sad too. I am so glad they have found a good home. When an old man in our village died, his children just put all his houseplants outside the front door and then sent a message round the village saying anyone who wanted one could have it. But it was winter, so by the time we went up to the cottage, most of them had died.

[shhcat]

I think at least some of the other people who took plants from this particular greenhouse will take care of them. My tenant took four, including a HUGE vanda (I didn't take any vandas because I didn't know much about orchids and they looked like lilies to me. Lilies are v v poisonous to cats and I have a cat who sometimes chews plants, so I didn't want to risk it). My tenant works with DNR and knew enough to start talking about rhizomes when we were going through the greenhouse. I also grabbed six plants for a friend who works in a nursery has saved $1 supermarket phals in the past.

At least these people waited until a nice April Saturday to put out all the plants. They looked like they'd been a bit neglected in the greenhouse, but they've got a chance.

---------- Post added at 09:24 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:36 PM ----------

Ok, ALL of the plants have now been repotted in appropriate pots and media! The substrate from the previous repottings was still damp, so you guys were right in recommending I repot again. I looked over them as I repotted and took individual pictures so I could share them here. Some plants I have high hopes for, some may be goners, and I make note of any problems I noticed with individual plants. I've got a couple of minor questions, too.

Ok! In order of size, from smallest to largest:


Unknown keiki (3" pot)
Small but roots look pretty good. If I have problems with this guy, it's because it was just too small to be taken from mama plant (or because I have no clue what I'm doing).


Unknown keiki (4" pot)
Roots look pretty good. The oldest leaf is turning brown, should I cut it off? Also, it has 3 flower stems. Should I cut those off so it concentrates on getting established?


Lc Canhamiana coerulea (5" pot)
Ok roots, not great. I've found a very light dusting of scale and have been treating it with isopropal. The leaves look v yellow but maybe that's just what this variety looks like?


Unknown, possibly a phal (6" pot)
The best roots of the bunch by far. They are thick, juicy, long, and green, and they take up that pot. Should I trim off that flower spike completely, or just cut to a node?


Blc Maikai (6" pot)
From the healthiest plant to the sickliest. Even though the leaves look decent at first glance, this poor Maikai has scale bad (I've wiped it down with alcohol and treated it with Sevin twice) and it has almost no good healthy roots left. A leaf fell off while I was repotting. I will honestly be surprised if this one survives.


Lc Memoria Robert Strait 'Blue Hawaii'" (6" pot)
Also had a bad case of scale, but seems to have recovered better than the Maikai after it's Sevin treatment. Roots were not memorable, so they were probably ok, not great.


C. deckeri v. alba (6" pot)
Ohhhh these are bad roots. By the time I cut off the rotten ones, there was barely anything left. At least it doesn't have scale, but I don't have high hopes this one will survive. I was looking forward to the white flowers, too. I left the leafless pseudobulbs because I think I read somewhere that's what you are supposed to do?


C. Irene Holguin 'Grand Lady' (8" pot)
Ok roots. Appears to have some new vegetative growth coming up (it liked the greenhouse, apparently) so hopefully it's doing okay. It's really wobbly, though, even with the ring stand.

[estación seca]

All the plants in your photos look very viable and should survive with proper care. They look much better than I expected from your first post.

All the unknowns are NOID Phalaenopsis.

These plants will not reroot and survive unless you kill the scale. Alcohol will not be enough. It's time for something stronger. Sevin might do the the trick. If it doesn't, switch to a different chemical. Permethrins are considered natural pesticides. They are permitted to be used on organic food crops. People also use malathion and imidacloprid for scale.

The Phals are easily big enough to have been separated from the parents and potted up separately. They're probably big enough to bloom on their own.

The roots in the Cattleya deckeri photo all look good to me. I hope you didn't cut some of them off. Don't cut roots off unless they are black or dark brown, and still slimy when the rest of the roots are dry. This makes me wonder whether you also cut good roots off the Phalaenopsis.

Remember that Cattleyas almost exclusively make new roots from the newest growths. You will need to treat them well to encourage root growth. This means very warm temperatures and very high humidity. Wetting the medium more will not encourage root growth. Let it get dry between waterings, but keep the humidity as high as you can.

I would use a kelp supplement to encourage new root growth. I like KelpMax from First Rays. When the new roots begin forming, make sure they get damp every day so they don't dry out and stop growing. You can do this with a spray bottle just on the new roots; don't wet the whole pot every day. Trying to save a Cattleya with poor new root growth becomes more difficult as time passes.

Do whatever you can to stabilize them more so they are not wobbly at all. The ring stand is not enough.

Look at and memorize the color of the C. canhamiana. That is the proper yellow-green color of a Cattleya grown in sufficient light to flower well.

[shhcat]

Oh, glad to hear they all look good enough they have a chance! And thanks for the feedback and confirmation that the unknowns are phals. I was about 80% sure they were, but didn't have the expertise to be sure.

I'll be more aggressive with the scale. I've kept the phals separate and have never seen any indication of scale on them, but I've found at least a bug or two on all five of the catts. I'll do a little more research the Sevin and spray more aggressively. Part of the issue is I'm running out of places to put orchids where the cats can't get to them (they haven't been chewing the leaves, but as I get into more hardcore pesticides I'd really prefer my cats not be able to touch the plants). Edit: Apparently you can use Sevin powder to treat fleas in cats. I'll still be careful but I'm a little less concerned.

The roots on the C. deckeri were not good; the photo makes them look lighter color than they actually were. The ones in the middle were slimy and dark brown. I cut off the brown ones and left the white ones, which sounds like they were still healthy, so maybe the plant has more of a chance than I thought. I bought some kelp supplement so I just have to wait for it to be delivered. Sounds like it might help an outside rose that transplanted poorly, too.

I've got limited control over humidity, but I'll do what I can.

Most of the plants are actually pretty stable in their pots, with the exception of the big C. Irene Holguin which is just so top heavy. Do you think a rhizome clip would help?

[Optimist]

Originally Posted by shhcat

Welp I bit the bullet and just spent $80 at Repotme.com, buying clear slotted pots in a variety of sizes, fertilizer, and two different varieties of potting media (one general purpose orchid, one specifically for catts). I would prefer to buy locally but I don't think any of the stores around here carry exotic planting materials, and Salt Lake City is an hour and a half away.

I'm sorry I did not latch on to this sooner. Pots are easy to find if you do not want to spend a lot of money. I have often taken a plastic jug containing something like Juice, then cut it in half, pierced it with a lot of holes with a dremmel tool, or a drill. There you go, a nearly free pot. My favorite potting media (still) is lava rock. Most gardening stores have it, especially in the West.

I know how you feel about living in the country. I am 2 hours away from 2 large cities (well, large is relative, population 200K and 250K), and 3 hours away from another (887K). And even then, there is not an orchid greenhouse any where near me. (There is one called New Earth Orchids in Santa Fe).