Inherited many orchids, need advice and identification help!

[malteseproverb]

Last week, my boyfriend's grandmother passed. Among other things, she's the reason I started growing orchids several years ago. I was told by her family that I should take any and all of her collection of orchids, in addition to her grow lights, media, etc. I was incredibly honored and happy to keep her legacy going in this way. So the reason I'm writing is that I'm a bit overwhelmed and could take some direction as I just took on almost 20 new plants (only a portion of what she had), many of which have maybe seen better days, and many that are very new to me. Maybe you'll chide me as foolish for taking these on, but now that I've driven these from upstate NY to my house I would appreciate any advice on how not to kill them!

Her grow space (a room built in her basement equipped with a room humidifier, grow lights, etc) was overrun with scale, ants, and mealybugs. Some of the plants I took are more effected by this than others. I've eradicated scale and mealybugs before, so I have some ideas on how to deal with this, but it definitely complicates things.

I've already decided that I'm not introducing these plants to my normal grow space. I'm going to keep them in my basement for at least the next few months. I took a light panel with 6 high output T5 lights from NY which I still have to install. At the moment, I'm using the two fluorescent bulbs hanging above my workbench and some clip-on CFL bulbs. Is this enough light for now or do you think it's an emergency to set up the proper grow light panel? I've never used grow lights before. A photo attached of the current set up.


The list of plants I have taken are as follows:

Angraecum sesquipedale
angraecum eburneum
brassavola digbyana
phrag. Mayling Nielsen (wallisii x conchiferum)
Stelis quadrifida 'Len'
oncidium Moon Shadow 'Tiger Tail'
bulbophyllum sumatranum
Beallara Tropic Tom 'Kinky'
bulbophyllum mastersianum
bulbo cobbii

Then there are a few I can't determine what they are. Maybe I should post them in the ID forums?


estacion_seca recently mentioned to me on this board that one can soak a plant in a bucket of water for a period of time to suffocate any bugs and eggs on a plant, which I have never attempted but plan to now, since it's winter and too cold outside for the biweekly relaxing death-chemical spa treatment that I typically rely on in these cases. If anyone has any better ideas let me know! I also plan repot everything, but some of them make me nervous to repot! For instance, I've never grown phrags before and now I have two. What kind of media do phrags like? I'll try anything but s/h. I've heard the Darwin orchid is finicky about being repotted. So what do I do, hope for the best? Some of these plants have moss growing on them, which I would love to keep. Do you think that I should just dump it in case it's harboring evil bugs??

From the plants I took, I wiped off any visible bugs with rubbing alcohol just so mitigate the damage until I can do the marathon repotting/soaking/spraying required. The angraecum sesquipedale recently bloomed but looks pretty terrible. I peeled off some of the scraps of dead leaves from its long stem and there was the fluff of mealybugs in every crevice. The brassavola digbyana is afflicted with... something. What??? It had unbelievable amounts of scale on it. Pics attached.

Should I prioritize setting up the grow lights or repotting/soaking every plant?

Sorry for the one million questions!

[estación seca]

I'm sorry on the loss of your boyfriend's grandmother.

The Oak Park plant you're holding... is that B. digbyana? The white marks look like mineral deposits. They aren't a problem, except I wouldn't prefer to use water with so many minerals in it. This plant usually has white waxy deposits on the leaves, as well.

I don't see any bugs, but you said you already removed a lot of them.

Those plants won't get any healthier than they are right now, until all the bugs are gone. You probably don't have time to meticulously unpot and scrub each one. I personally would dunk them all, one by one, pot and medium and everything, in a bucket of warm water. Add a small amount of soap so there is just a little bit of foam. You might need to use a brick or rock to hold them under water. A 2-3 hour soak for each should suffice. I would use water that is lukewarm to the touch.

The Angraecum might need a soak in the bathtub. It looks like it won't fit into a bucket.

Then remove them, unpot them, give them a quick go-over with a toothbrush, but you don't have to be obsessive. The bugs will be dead. Repot. Even the Angraecum. It actually looks to be in pretty good shape. I would guess most of the roots in the pot might be dead. The aerial roots look pretty good.

The light you mentioned isn't enough. Some of those are high-light plants. I would set up the T5s, if you can, and even if you have to stand them vertically, leaning against something.

I don't have any Phrags. I don't know how they would handle the soap. I know people here grow them standing in dishes of water, so I would also soak those, in plain water. I think a lot of people here grow them in bark/perlite/sphagnum mixes.

[WaterWitchin]

I agree with estacion seca. Since you already have peg board behind them, it would be quick to temporarily put the T5's up for them. Maybe even some of the really long brackets they make for pegboard, or as estacion says, lean up and brace. When I have to or want to move things around, I've been known to drive a few nails or screws into the rafters as I see in your picture, then hang lights with chain or bungee cords. Quick fix for now.

I have really hard water, and chloramine as the disinfectant. The phrags and paphs didn't do well with regular water, and since I switched over to R/O water they're fine. Tip was given to me by a friend and grower. Can also use spring water if no R/O. It's the chloramine or chlorine they REALLY don't like. I use a small bark, little bits of spagnum, and a little LECA for the potting mix, and put about an inch or so of LECA at the bottom, with water at bottom in tray that won't go past the LECA at bottom.

What an honor and wonderful gesture, to be given charge of a grandma's prized orchids. Yeppers, that's worth a lot of dunking and saving them.

[Dollythehun]

I too am sorry for your lost. I can't help with the care (your'e already in the best hands) however, I noticed the tag says Oak Hill gardens, which say a lot about the age of the plants. Gram must have been a great grower!

[Paul]

A suggestion regarding all the orchids you didn't take: If the family has not yet dumped them, I would try to locate an orchid society that is relatively close to where his grandmother lived. Contact them, tell them the situation and see if they would like to take the remaining orchids as a donation. (You or his family could then keep the donation receipt for a tax deduction while his grandmother's other plants could then be finding another home instead of the trashcan.

[malteseproverb]

Thank you everyone for your help and condolences!! She really was a wonderful woman.

Yes, the Oak Park plant is the digbyana. I would have skipped this plant due to its sad appearance but my mother is from Honduras where this is the national flower. I've been looking for it and it seemed like good fortune that it was in the collection! I too wondered if the whiteness was from mineral build up, but the water that was being used on these plants was extremely pure, moss everywhere thriving, so I'm not sure. Some of the other plants seemed afflicted with this white stuff, but not all of them. I had used alcohol to rub off the TONS of scale from these leaves and that did nothing to remove the whiteness. I guess I won't worry about it at the moment.

I don't know anything about Oak Park, but yes grandma had been growing for several years and had won some ribbons! She was deeply involved with her local orchid society, and I do think some of her friends there may take some. Her daughters also took a bunch. I don't think anyone will dump them. The grow room remains set up in the basement. The grow lights I took were an extra panel in an older grow set up somewhere else. Only when everything is re-homed I'll start taking the other grow lights.

Thanks for the guidance about the lights. I don't have any experience with them. I do plan on attaching the T5's to the rafters. I just have to put together a space, as I don't think they should sit on my workbench permanently. Maybe that's all I can do for now though, since I need to find a shelf on which to sit them, and buy some humidity trays and an outlet timer... I didn't realize how expensive humidity trays are haha. The vertical idea is something I can think about in the meantime, thanks!

[malteseproverb]

I will attempt the marathon soaking and repotting session beginning tonight maybe. I enjoy repotting, but I'm most experienced with repotting cattleyas, phals, den–plants that like to dry out. I have a happy bulbo but it's mounted, so I don't know how to repot them, and I think I have 5 new ones in this bunch. I'll follow WaterWitchin's advice on phrags, thank you!!

Here are some better photos of the Darwin orchid. Hopefully these won't upload sideways again. I had tried to remove as much of the dead leaf tissue on the stem and every tiny bit of leaf was hiding incredible amounts of mealies or juvenile scale or something. It was terrifying. I'm sure there's still some under there. I tried to scrub every plant thoroughly before bringing them to Philadelphia but I know that the media will all be brimming with bugs. For some reason, I haven't found any bugs on any of the oncidium alliance types, nor the bulbos. What's with that?

Anyone know what the last orchid might be?

[Dollythehun]

I always like to guess to myself and then see if I'm right. What alliance do you think it's in?

[malteseproverb]

Dolly, you know I really can't figure it out! I have a few in this bunch that I feel confident about the alliance; for example the plant in the upper right corner of that pic I would guess is oncidium alliance. It too came without a tag but I would be surprised if it were something else.

Is the one I'm unsure about a... lycaste? I've never seen one of these in person.

[estación seca]

The unidentified plant could be a Coelogyne. Don't worry about humidity. It's not as important as the other stuff.