What part of orchid culture am I not understanding?

[SaraJean]

In my insomnia addled brain- this post above(I am not going to quote it all) is probably the best advice I have seen.. unless of course you enjoy going balls out and waisting a ton of money on orchids like I did. And the encyclia cochleata is awsome, I have one blooming right now and it brings a ton of joy just by looking at its wakadoo little blooms

Adapt the K.I.S.S. method, what ever you choose to do!

[AnonYMouse]

Notice his user name? Phillip is an orchid growing autocrat.

What he says is pretty solid, though.

[murph7]

FWC: full water culture, no medium, keeping 1/3 of the roots in water 24/7.

SWC: semi water culture, no medium, ~2 days 100% of the roots in water and ~5 days only air.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by murph7

FWC: full water culture, no medium, keeping the 1/3 of the roots in water 24/7.

SWC: semi water culture no medium, (~2 days 100% of the roots in water and ~5 days only air.

Thank you!

[NikkiM]

All the information you've gotten seems spot on. The only thing I would ask is what part of the US are you from? I am from the East Coast and I have a lot of trouble with the type of media to grow my phals in. My phals are all currently in FWC and they are thriving. I am NOT saying you should try this though. My point of this post is that you have to find a plant that you are in love with, one that is not too hard to figure out, and one that works in your environment without much help. In my environment it is very dry in the winter and bark doesn't work well for me. However, I have found that I love to grow cattleya orchids (I currently have 5) for me they are fairly easy. I also have some dendrobiums that do not require a winter rest, a brassavola, and about 16 phals. The phals I find are the hardest orchids that I have! They are very picky and you have to be soooo careful that you don't get water in the crown area.

Anyway, I think your issue may just be that you need to find an orchid that is easy for you. What is easy for one may not be easy for another. When I started out I bought my orchids from Lowes. The ones that were in the better gro bags. I have found that by doing this it helped me get a better understanding of how they grow and also it is pretty inexpensive.

GOOD LUCK!

[nogreenthumbs]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

YouTube can be hit or miss, especially when you don't know what's going on. I am aware of a couple people on YouTube who are pretty good. MissOrchidGirl, I think, tends to give fairly solid advice for beginners.

That's the impression that I get as a beginner. It's nice to hear the King validate my opinion.

William Cullina's Understanding Orchids: An Uncomplicated Guide to Growing the World's Most Exotic Plants is a pretty good start as well.

I've seen this one mentioned a few times, I'm going to have to see if I can find it at Half Price Books.

I don't recommend growing Miltoniopsis for you yet. The hybrids that are normally sold in the stores usually have badly damaged root systems.

Miltoniopsis are also cool to intermediate growing orchids. A temperature range of 45 F - 85 F should be the comfortable temperature range for these guys. Some can tolerate warmer temperatures, but to be safe, the temperature range I mentioned works well for these group of orchids.

But like I said earlier, I'm not going to recommend any Miltoniopsis for you yet.

I just watched a video by MissOrchidGirl yesterday where she said that she has a tough time with Miltoniopsis.

Which is part of the reason why I advise to repot after purchase.

I've seen several things on the Internet that recommend repotting after a purchase (usually waiting until after the blooms that are there are finished). I'm far from expert or kind, but it makes sense to me. Producers of Orchids want to spend as little time and money as possible producing the orchids that they sell so they can maximize their profits. Therefore, you will often get an orchid that has been in the media that you buy it in for a couple of years. For instance, lets say that they repot a baby orchid into the pot media that they are planning/hoping to sell it in. It then gets watered and fed for 1-2 years where it grows and then flowers. They then ship it out. The media and conditions that they grow them in are probably not the healthiest for the plant, they are the cheapest and easiest for the nursery to get them up to size and bloom. Then as soon as they are ready to bloom, they ship the plant out. We buy the plant and the media is probably cheap and 2 years old and ready to be changed. So you wait for the flowers to go, then you repot with good media and pot and conditions that are not cheap but are hopefully good for the plant.

Which probably meant you read one of my posts that describes the science behind hydrogen peroxide. That's definitely a good start.

Interesting, I've seen the H2O2 mentioned frequently, I'm going to have to look up one of your posts.

For you, I'm not even going to recommend a genus.

You're gonna be recommended a species:

Encyclia cochleata

Please get yourself a blooming sized adult.

I am going to encourage you to grow this orchid in a clear plastic pot of appropriate size with drainage slots or holes, in boring medium to large grade bark chips - nothing else. You don't need to mix perlite, sponge rock, charcoal, or anything to the bark. It is just plain old unadulterated bark chips.
Encyclia cochleata at Santa Barbara Orchid Estate

Orchids by Marlow - Prosthechea cochleata [Encyclia]

Encyclia Prosthechea cochleata blooming size species

If you don't like Encyclia cochleata, tell me if you like small or big flowers, lots of flowers on a spike or a few flowers on a spike, fragrant or non-fragrant orchids, and what kinds of colors you like.

Very cool orchid. Why that recommendation in particular? I assume it's fairly easy to grow or maybe even more specifically easy to grow indoors?

I'm loving those blooms. I may have to search one of those out the next time I'm ready to purchase.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by nogreenthumbs

That's the impression that I get as a beginner. It's nice to hear the King validate my opinion.

Cool. I've watched MissOrchidGirl's videos and I enjoy them. She gives advice in a simple way that is easy for many beginners to understand.

Originally Posted by nogreenthumbs

I've seen this one mentioned a few times, I'm going to have to see if I can find it at Half Price Books.

The book is not terribly expensive, especially if you download it.

Originally Posted by nogreenthumbs

I just watched a video by MissOrchidGirl yesterday where she said that she has a tough time with Miltoniopsis.

That's interesting, I didn't watch this particular video yet. I'm going to have to see what her opinion or experience on the matter is. I'm pretty sure it is similar to what mine was in the past when I first started growing orchids.

Originally Posted by nogreenthumbs

I've seen several things on the Internet that recommend repotting after a purchase (usually waiting until after the blooms that are there are finished). I'm far from expert or kind, but it makes sense to me. Producers of Orchids want to spend as little time and money as possible producing the orchids that they sell so they can maximize their profits. Therefore, you will often get an orchid that has been in the media that you buy it in for a couple of years. For instance, lets say that they repot a baby orchid into the pot media that they are planning/hoping to sell it in. It then gets watered and fed for 1-2 years where it grows and then flowers. They then ship it out. The media and conditions that they grow them in are probably not the healthiest for the plant, they are the cheapest and easiest for the nursery to get them up to size and bloom. Then as soon as they are ready to bloom, they ship the plant out. We buy the plant and the media is probably cheap and 2 years old and ready to be changed. So you wait for the flowers to go, then you repot with good media and pot and conditions that are not cheap but are hopefully good for the plant.

You hit it on the nose. Having been a former employee of a large scale nursery, this is exactly the mentality.

Originally Posted by nogreenthumbs

Interesting, I've seen the H2O2 mentioned frequently, I'm going to have to look up one of your posts.

I only discuss this in one post. There have been no other prior posts besides the following:

Is this Fusarium?-phal

Originally Posted by nogreenthumbs

Very cool orchid. Why that recommendation in particular? I assume it's fairly easy to grow or maybe even more specifically easy to grow indoors?

In my opinion, it is one of the easier orchids to grow. It was one of the first orchids I was successfully able to grow for a decent amount of time and I was able to make it bloom with very little effort, (when I was a newbie).

This species grows as a sympodial, which means if anything happens to the plant, it is easier to get rid of diseased portions of the plant.

It is temperature tolerant. This species can take heat over 100 F for brief periods of time or take it down to 45 F.

It is forgiving in terms of lighting requirements. It grows in moderately bright light, but lower lighting can be tolerated for a short period of time without adverse effects.

It grows fast. This is advantageous to not only a beginner, but for someone who is used to instant gratification and has to learn how to be patient. (I'm not implying anyone is impatient here, I'm just speaking generally. I was impatient when I was a beginner, and still have bouts of dealing with this. So for anyone who is like me, you're not alone.)

It has interesting flowers.

It is fragrant.

It is easy to bloom. No special tricks required.

They are not stingy with root growth. When the roots grow, they GROW!

It is not a complicated orchid to learn basic orchid growing behaviors from. Notice I don't write paragraphs upon paragraphs about Encyclia cochleata. It is much different for Phalaenopsis.

They can be grown in humidity levels that are moderate. The humidity doesn't have to be high for it to really take off.

It is not a water hog.

There is no dormancy period to worry about nor are there concerns about how to store anything. There is nothing to store. It is evergreen. Does it slow down its growth during the winter? Yes, it does. Does it stop growing? Not really.

There is no stem tuber or root tuber or whatever tuber to worry about. Encyclia cochleata has no tubers to learn about.

It is for the most part, an evergreen orchid. There is no need to worry about it going deciduous during a certain part of the year.

They have smooth pseudobulbs, none of this confusing ridged pseudobulbs being a natural thing for the orchid or having to figure out if the ridges are because of the plant being underwatered. If the orchid is underwatered, the usually smooth pseudobulbs will shrivel. There is no guessing game involved.

The plant or growths will not die if the orchid is done blooming. Some orchids do die after blooming. The genus Disa comes to mind in regards to this subject matter.

It is simply an epiphyte. There are no other modes of growing for the grower to be aware of or accommodate for.

They are tough as nails and very resilient.

They are small to medium sized plants that are easy to accommodate for in a limited amount of indoors space.

They're pretty orderly growing. They don't sprawl all over the place and therefore don't look quite so disorganized.

Originally Posted by nogreenthumbs

I'm loving those blooms. I may have to search one of those out the next time I'm ready to purchase.

I think you will be very happy with this decision.

[nogreenthumbs]

They sound fantastic. I may not wait that long before I find one.

Of course, I'm not following your or my own thinking in that I'm a noob, and my first plant was a Cattleya, then a Paph, then an Oncidium, then the latest is a Grammatocymbidium ( ) and next probably be a "Prosthechea cochleata, formerly known as Encyclia cochleata, Anacheilium cochleatum, and Epidendrum cochleatum and commonly referred to as the clamshell orchid or cockleshell orchid"

I definitely think it seems smartest to start out with not much variety, but hey, I'm a glutton for punishment.

[KokeshiHappyGreen]

Thanks to all. And I see from your post, Steve, that I'm not the only one with similar questions and observations.

Philip thank you for your very Specific post...and addressing each item Separately. I will try and do a similar thing, though I'm gunna apologize up front that it won't be as much as you because I have daily migraines and related cognitive issues, among a whole host of other things...so sometimes it's hard for me to go back and forth without missing something.

Anyhoo, here's a start:

I will try and post my whole huge collection of pics documenting my failed Orchid newbie care 1.0. May take a bit. Will try to do this afternoon. (Removed pics 7/1/17; thinking gives wrong impression. Nothing wrong with the culture Types themselves...only the Manner in which I unwittingly applied them. If anyone has a question about what I Did try, just let me know and I'll post individual pics. Thanks.)

As far as snipping and removing things: Only with sterilized snips (all surfaces scrubbed with 90% alcohol for at least 20 sec and then flamed with lighter for at least 10 sec); resterilized between plants or between cuts if I suspected any contagion/unknown issue. All work space items also cleaned with the alcohol between plants. Also with few exceptions wear gloves as well and sanitize hands between plants.
I Only snipped roots if the velamen pulled off.
When I snipped the stem of the dead cattleya seedling, I re sterilized everything twice, just to be sure. (And to your observations about fusarium, I would agree. And, truthfully, even though I'm so new, I suspect the plant just had a stem tot type thing. At any rate I didn't notice anything similar on anyone else. If you can tell from my eventual pic progression then certainly let me know!)

My shelf unit is 36" wide and 16" between shelves. I could potentially attach a t5 type long tube under one shelf, to shine on shelf below...but then I'd have to stick to tiny/short/compact plants.
Or maybe I could rig up something else...or get an actual grow stand?

The bulbs I have in all (7 total) fixtures are Sun Bladter 6400K full spectrum grow lights. 13W, CF, equivalent to 60W bulb. 900 initial lumens. The closest bulb is around 43" away (yes, I know too far; was hoping Combined overlap of all the lights would be sufficient; still need to order my light meter. But as I mentioned there Is a Very Strong shadow over plants, even past 1foot).

As for A/C and central fan on 24/7...well I get overheated easily and can't Stand stagnant air!!! So even when A/C or heat are off, I need the constant air flow. I also have extra air flow from a nearby groan filter as well. 😜

In regards to humidity and temps...my humidity drops in the Winter, due to central heat, so I placed orchids on humidity tray which returned the local humidity back to the 50-60% range. My temps stay at 72-73 all year round and day/night....which is Anotger reason I'm thinking Phals won't ever be Optimal for me cuz I gave no way to decrease their temps to bloom. No areas of apt to do so. Have small patio but gets constant E/SE sun for over half the day. I also would hate to pick up bugs, though could perhaps cover with mosquito net which would also serve as partial shade? (Of course, if my current sick minis don't make it then it's a moot point, as Won't be getting any more Phals. Period.)

That brings up culture with the encyclia you suggest. I haven't had time to look that one up and I'm not familiar with it. Does It require temp variation to bloom/succeed?

It looks really interesting and if it's good for someone like myself with my growing conditions then all the better!!!

Otherwise, esp if I redo my grow space with a t5 long tube closer to shelf, maybe I should do something else? Or can you recommend a lighting setup that would work without me having to change too much or break the bank?

In relation to YouTube sites. Yes hit or miss. Actually I think I chose ones that are pretty knowledgeable. But as others have mentioned, everyone has diff grow spaces etc. I think the channels would be More helpful if they mentioned what Their parameters were. Then it would be easier to assess/redefine for Our space and conditions.
And Miss Orchid Girl is the Only subscription that I've Kept. Sometimes she seems strong in her opinions, but she obviously has very good success and experience. I Also appreciate how she tries to go through diff ideas and ways of culturing orchids from a Scientific point of view; debunking/redefining/questioning/optimizing. And she's not afraid to say when she's failed or messed things up. To me she's very well rounded and honest and willing to cont to learn. Do that's all a Huge thing for me. That's why I appreciate this Board as well!!!!

Ok got distracted. Guess let's just go from here, Philip and whomever else would like to chime in.

Meanwhile will get to uploading pics and checking out all the cool links you guys sent me.

Thanks!

And just read your last post in reply to Steve. The encyclia sounds really awesome! Can't wait to look it up and get ready to try it!

In the meantime I took some other suggestions and have my Sick plants still on Top of tiny amount of damp moss...but now in very shallow open saucers; propped up with soft vinyl covered wire concoction I came up with; you'll have to wait for my pics. Heh. And they are on the seedling heat mat. I will let moss mostly dry out before redampening.
Hey, I'm not gunna give up on them yet, esp as it appears that the oncidium newest bulb has plumped back up some from when I first put in on top of the moss 👍🏻
But don't worry, I'm not gunna get anything except the encyclia (or if you think something else is better)...After I find out from you if I need to redo my grow space first.

[NikkiM]

Originally Posted by nogreenthumbs

I definitely think it seems smartest to start out with not much variety, but hey, I'm a glutton for punishment.

I feel the same way! I have a good variety as well. I have a gramma as well. It's a fairly new one for me as well.Mine is lovely melody lip stick. I have 2 new growths and it seems to be doing good...so far!