Consolation over bad luck leading to rotten Oncidopsis Nelly Isler

[astrid]

Oh guys, I've had extremely bad luck with my new orchids and it has been one disaster after another.

I struck orchid gold at Fred Meyer two weeks ago when they began stocking more and more unusual orchids than the typical phalaenopsis orchids you can find.

I was most thrilled about getting two Nelly Islers, and I did buy both of them as a way of ensuring if something bad happened, I'd still at least have one.

I thought they had scale, so I repotted them.
The potting mix was awful and I had to pick out bark chips from it to make my own mix. I potted 4 orchids this way, and then I watered them. The very next day, I saw white, fluffy mold pop out from the bark medium, which horrified me.

I went to the store and I bought a different brand of potting mix so I could immediately repot.
Well, I got it home and it was infested with flies–*can't use that either.
So I decided to fork out more money for a good potting mix from a nursery, and it was last Tuesday, and they said their shipping day was Wednesday, and I'd probably have it by Friday.
I just now got an email saying they had "just shipped it out today" meaning my 2-3 days in sphagnum has become 7-9 days in sphagnum moss without proper watering.

Then I decided to get my favorite new little orchids out of the moldy mix anyway, and I packed them in sphagnum moss to bridge what was supposed to be a 2-3 day gap until I got a more trustworthy potting mix.

One nelly had two flower spikes growing from one pbulb, so it was really shriveling and I decided to take both plants, place them in shallow cups of water, and let them have a nice soak for an hour.

I repeated this again yesterday because I didn't want them to die of dehydration as the bulbs are looking bad.
Well, apparently some little bit of water got between the bulbs and their leaves. The new growth has turned completely orange and pulled off the plant easily and is just a floppy piece of mush.
The bases of the other bulbs are orange and brown.
I feel like the worst plant mother now, but I also realize I've just had a freak amount of sequential bad luck this week.

I took one healthy pseudobulb and one healthy new growth and cut them off the mother plant and placed them with the non-rotten plant. Hopefully they survive and bloom for me in a few years' time. We'll see.

Good thing I can sweet-talk my family into buying me orchids for holiday occasions. I'll just have them buy me 10 Nelly Islers with 20 liters of potting mix (which I will boil before potting) and never have my heart broken like this again.

Oh if you guys have any consolation for me, I would appreciate it.

Or if you wanted to share your plant mistakes or sadnesses here, that would be nice, too.

One ray of sunshine is that my Odontocidium Wildcat is in spike and 7 of my other orchids are doing very well.

[judith_arquette]

Sorry to hear about your run of bad luck. I feel your pain. My husband bought me 2 new orchids from te grocery store about 3 weeks ago, a noid phal and a noid den-phal. Both were just lovely. I lost the Phal to crown rot (an issue I'm sure was already starting when he bought it) and I had to cut the flowers off the den-phal because it's root system is pretty much non existent. I'm not betting it's going to make it anyway either...

[Tschimm]

Better buy one healthy orchid from a good nursery instead of 5 cheap, sick plants from the big stores.
My sadness is that more and more of the small nurseries will have to close because they can't compete against the prizes of mass produced plants.

Hope your plants will recover soon :-)

[astrid]

Originally Posted by Tschimm

Better buy one healthy orchid from a good nursery instead of 5 cheap, sick plants from the big stores.
My sadness is that more and more of the small nurseries will have to close because they can't compete against the prizes of mass produced plants.

Hope your plants will recover soon :-)

Jo das stimmt allerdings!

[Leafmite]

Sorry to hear about your Nelly Isler. I grow mine like the others in a net/basket pot. Most of the pot is filled with red lava rock and I have a layer of moss on the top. I water it often in this set up as it dries very quickly. If it is any consolation, I broke off most of one spike and the other by reaching over to adjust another orchid behind it. I will have just one, very short spike with two flowers. :|
The phal-den should be fine. Just keep it warm and in good light and it should sprout a new growth. I bought all my first phal-dens rootless and all of them recovered. The one I just brought home from the OS meeting is the first I have ever had that came with roots.