Beginner Topics and Orchid Care Sheets

[Marty]

I think this deserves a new thread. This is a spin off from this

Here's what I came up with. I think that it would be great if we had community supplied articles to which we could always direct beginner members. I made a new category under "Member Articles" called Beginner Topics. When you write something for the beginner be sure to put it there. btw, you can always list your articles in more then one category if you hold the CTRL key

The second thing that was recently talked about are Orchid care sheets. This would work the same like the glossary, so when someone talks about Paphiopedilum lowii it would link to care sheet for that orchid.

I placed a sample info there for you to see...mostly ripped off from the net. This is just rough, we can add any categories and fields. I would also organize it much better and lay it out nicer. This is rough, just to show you what I mean.

let me know what you think, we can really pimp this out nicely and have a great resource for everyone to enjoy. At any time when someone is talking about an orchid which is underlined, you'd be just a click away from knowing how to grow it

[cb977]

Now THAT is fantastic!!!
You are the forum

[justatypn]

Yippee, your the best Marty....knew you would come up with something great, hope you don't mind the applause

[Tindomul]

So are you saying we would end up with our own little collection of species specific care sheets rather than a few general care sheets?

[Marty]

I guess we could do it for specific plants or just general care sheets

[Barbara]

Marty, that is really great idea. It makes things so much easier.

[Alexis in Redland]

I'm still wet behind the ears here on this forum, but I've been growing orchids obsessively for quite a while now. I still would NEVER call myself an expert, but I've learned a thing or two about orchids. I think this forum is outstanding, and there is the realistic expectation that it is only going to get better once more and more people learn about it.

With that said, I've seen some advice given in a handful of the threads that makes me cringe because it is the exact opposite of what I know works for me, and I'm afraid a new orchid grower will take the bad advice as gospel. And there appears to be a lot of newbies here on this site. The beauty of growing orchids - and the experience of a member list that spans the globe - is that what works for me may not work for the next guy.

So while I think member articles about how to grow this or that is a great idea, I wonder if there is a way to submit proposed articles for input before they are posted as an expert opinion?

This is just my two cents, having spent a lot of time in recent days looking around and reading a bunch of the threads. I'll go sit down now. ;-)

[Marty]

Well the Articles are not moderated, anyone that writes one is given the opportunity to post it online. The article is always open for discussion as the whole community is able to comment on it If someone is suggesting wrong information, I'm sure a debate will be sparked quickly in the comments - I would hope. The original author can always edit their own articles too. By no means is this proofreading, but it gives a chance to catch some inconsistencies

The care sheets could be moderated like we're now moderating the glossary terms. Everyone can submit a term, but only once Dave (Oscarman) verifies the definition for accuracy, it is put online. Of course, we would need to find another Dave for care sheets

[terrestrial_man]

I agree with Alexis.
I think that what is needed in order to provide an accurate method in treatment of any particular species or any generalized culture of a genus (is this really possible??) is for the writer of the article to outline their general cultural practice pertaining to every aspect of the cultivation of the species:
Such as watering (including type of water) schedule, light (in foot candles if possible), temperatures (daily ranges during the four seasons of the year), growing media used, types of pots used, fertilization schedule (with dosage or concentration of fertilizer per dosage), aeration (fan or no air movement), how grown (in house in greenhouse) and whatever else I have forgotten at this moment.
I definitely think a STANDARDIZED FORMAT is needed. Perhaps establish a form that each poster can use.
What I think is cool about having it open so that any grower can post how they grow is that with a standardized format that the reader can view them all and compare each to what they may be able to provide. Sort of I can grow it like this one but not like this one: for example I can grow my cymbidiums outside but in Canada they cannot except prob. in summer. So the culture while similar will have different aspects of culture that are not a part of the other type of culture.
This is starting to sound like COOL!!!

[Marty]

This may be a bit of a nightmare to implement. The way I see it from implementation stand, we can have 2 options to describe how to grow the genus.

ie.
1. We write a detailed description that most of us agree on and place it in the modified glossary mod. This would be just static info on which no one can comment on. Just like a term in the glossary. When someone mentions Phalanopsis or Cattleya or Bulbophyllum in the post it will be linked to the general care sheet...sort of like Paphiopedilum lowii links to the mock care sheet right now. I really like this option as the care sheets will be much more frequently visited since they will be linked in posts and extremely easy to find and access. In addition, I can make Care Sheets part of the site menu, like the glossary is right now.

2. Another option is to make multiple care sheets for the same genus, a section in the articles called "Care sheets" that would be organized in such a way

1. Member Care sheets
   1. Cattleya
      • cb977 Care sheet
      • terrestrial_man Care sheet
      • Tindomul1of9 Care sheet
   2. Bulbophylum
   3. Phalanopsis
   4. etc

This way everyone can give their opinions on how they grow it. The downfall I see is that if there's 10 different ways of growing a phal the reader will walk away more confused then before.


let me know what you guys think