Blc Taiwan Queen Golden Monkey - Orchid Board

isurus79 · #6 04-07-2008, 08:34 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CableGirl

Would water on the leaves in warm temps have the same effect as cold?

So instead of daily misting and weekly drenching you think I should go for more frequent drenching? I'll try to get a better pic of the trouble area. It's not liquidy, it's more of a crust, if that makes sense.

I will peel back the dried sheaths, at your suggestion for sure. Out of curiosity, what does that do?

Would you recommend any specific fertilizer?

If there is consistently water on the leaves at night, it might work to promote rot, though this threat is made worse in colder weather. If there was a wound on the plant (for whatever reason) and water was consistently sitting on the affected region, that might cause rot as well. Hopefully your black spot on the bulb is just sunburn. Ill wait for more

though.
I think more water than once a week would work for you in FLA because of the warmth and because of the fact that you are growing your Catt in an open basket. There's lots of "porosity" in the media and basket to allow quick drying of the roots. Like I said, I give a good water everyday for my guys in Hawaii during warm weather (probably 9 months of the year!!). Of course if its raining then theres no need for my water!!
As for the dried sheaths, I peel them back because they have the annoying habit of retaining moisture around the plants. During dry weather this is not that bad, but during wet weather I worry about rot. The sheaths can also provide a home for bugs, in addition to rot. They also dont look all that nice either

I use a 20-20-20 fertilizer for orchids 2x per month and Ive just started throwing in a dose of fish meal fertilizer once a month. Basically, I fertilize every Monday. First week its fish fert, second week its regular fert, third week no fert, then fourth week regular fert. Ive seen a lot of discussion about "the perfect fertilizer" on this board and other sites, but I dont think you need to worry too much about it. In the wild these guys get almost nothing in the way of nutrients and they seem to survive just fine without!! Anyway, this was a really long winded response

, so I think Ill make my exit now!!