May have accidententally caused rot in Paphiopedilum

[Sheercold27]

I need advice. I am an amateur orchid enthusiast, and I recently purchased two paphiopedilum orchids, (Niveum and Leucochilum), and I may have already damaged them. I was not set up with a tray of pebbles, and I placed them on a sheet of thin plastic after watering and allowing them to drain briefly in the sink. Unbeknownst to me, the thin, flexible plastic had created something of a bowl under both orchids, and 3 and 1/2 hours later I realized the error and watered them again to wash out any potential beginnings of decomposition, then placed them on an absorbent cloth to, perhaps, remove additional moisture. It is now approximately two days later, and I have them set up on a tray of pebbles as is required. My questions are; have I done the proper thing at every turn in attempting to correct the situation, is there potential permenant damage, and what should I do from here? Additional information that may affect the situation is as follows: the orchids were exposed to approximately 40 minutes in total of 1 degree Celsius weather while I was bringing them home, and one of the orchids appears to require a larger pot, so the root system is likely very dense, the potting material is a sphagnum moss, bark, and perlite composite for both plants. If further information is required, I will be happy to provide it.

[Orchid Whisperer]

No need to worry. That was far too brief a time for anything (short of boiling water) to have damaged your plant.

Just continue on with the watering plan that you have decided to follow.

[estación seca]

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

Sitting on plastic while wet for a few hours is not a problem at all. I'm not familiar with cold tolerance of these species but I would try hard not to let that happen to almost any orchid in the future.

The pebbles aren't required. There are a lot of ways to grow orchids successfully in houses. There are plenty of people growing Paphs on windowsills, with saucers under the pots.

Most Paphs like to stay moist to damp during their growing season. More experienced Paph growers here will probably step in to provide better advice. People use, successfully, a lot of different media mixes for growing them.

There is a search function here - in the top maroon menu. If you enter the species names you will find threads devoted to them.

[Optimist]

Many paphs, indeed, many orchids live in monsoon areas where it can rain solid for several hours or even a whole day. There are also those who grow paphs in hydropoic, or semi-hydroponic, or in rockwool, which does not drain well.