New orchid process - what's yours?

[CZF]

I'm new to the orchid game, and was wondering what your process is when you bring a new plant into your home, or growing area?

I am worried about pests and diseases and was wondering how you treat new plants you bring home?

Obviously, a quarantine area is ideal, but do you repot right away to avoid bringing in pests? Do you treat with something like an insecticidal soap regardless of if you can see anything?

In my steep learning curve, one of the first nicer plants I bought home from a show, ended up totally infested with mealybugs and they got on my other plants. It was about 2 months before I could feel confident that I had eradicated them.

Do you risk stressing the plant out more by repotting right away (might be good to also get a look at the condition of the roots?) and treating with some sort of insecticide?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

1. Repot immediately.

2. Inspect for pests.

3. If there are pests isolate and treat.

4. Water same day.

I recommend a jeweler's loupe. They're dirt cheap. Get the highest magnification you can get for a handheld.

[SaraJean]

This is what has been working for me.

Inspect for pests (yes, to the jewelers loupe!). Clean off old dried papery sheaths where bugs like to hide. I wipe the orchid down with rubbing alcohol on a cotton ball or Q-tip to see if I missed anything. Isolate and treat if necessary. I don’t treat unless I see pests

Give it a good long soak

Inspect media. It depends if I repot. If the media is nasty, orchid looks to be in poor health, or it is infested with something, repot. If media is ok, I usually wait. Most of the things I buy only root at certain times of the year or during certain stages of growth like my Cattleya and Den species and my Catasetums. Or my Sarcochilus that stop growing when it heats up so I repot those in October/November when they start growing again to give them enough time to recover before the next summer. I have set quite a few orchids back repotting at the wrong time. If it’s a year round grower/rooter (is rooter a word? Lol), I’ll repot when I get it home

[aliceinwl]

I inspect for pests while I’m considering buying or when I first get it home.

If it was an impulse buy, I google care information

Then, I look at the substrate. If the substrate is not conducive for continued life (example: Cattleya in packed sphagnum or anything potted in promix) I repot immediately. I can’t keep anything alive in promix and the Cattleya I bought in moss already had near complete root death so there was nothing to lose by repotting.

If the media looks old or isn’t my preferred choice and the plant is tolerant of repotting, I’ll also repot (I usually repot Phals in sphagnum and Paphs in old looking media).

If the media looks good, I leave it as is.

If it’s a plant that only tolerates repotting in a certain growth phase, I’ll also hold off even if the media isn’t great.

[camille1585]

Some people prefer to repot everything that comes through the door, other not, and then everything in between.

If the plant is from a trusted vendor with consistent high quality plants, I don't repot unless it's in a medium that doesn't work well for me (sphagnum usually). For everything else I'll either poke around in the medium or unpot to to check the roots if I have doubts. If the medium is visibly old, I'll repot immediately.

Everything gets looked over for pests/disease. If I see anything or am suspicious, I'll keep all the new plants in a separate room for a while. I'm not a fan of prophylactic measures, so treat only if necessary.

[Mountaineer370]

Similar to what some have already described, I take plants on a case-by-case basis. I can't say that I have an exact routine or process that I follow for everything. My collection is small, and I don't buy a lot of plants. My preference is to have an opportunity to inspect a plant first before I buy, like at a show. I don't buy anything that looks iffy. If I buy online, which is rare, it's from well-respected and trusted vendors. Things can get by us, though, so I do another thorough inspection when I get home. I have a magnifying glass I keep near my plants for things like this.

If a new plant looks healthy and is in a media I like, I may leave it for a little while, figuring just the move to my location (and whatever it has been through in its travels from greenhouse to show or whatever) has been stress enough for a while, especially if it is in bloom. I'm not somebody who is comfortable with sphagnum moss, so anything that is packed tightly in that will get repotted fairly soon.

I will generally keep new plants in my utility room for a few days before placing them in the vicinity of my others, but once they have been repotted, if I'm going to do that, I then will let them join the gang. I figure I've done a pretty thorough inspection with the repot. I also do not do any prophylactic treatments.

[CZF]

Ok, thanks for the feedback! I think I was so traumatized by the mealybug thing, I have been a bit paranoid of having that experience again!

I am pretty new to this, so I can't say if I have any trusted suppliers yet, but I will say, I picked up a batch of new plant babies on the weekend and repotted them all, and they all had great looking root systems, so maybe I can add that supplier to the 'trusted' list

[rbarata]

FYI, mealybugs are easy to erradicate. There are things far worse than that.

[SaraJean]

Originally Posted by rbarata

FYI, mealybugs are easy to erradicate. There are things far worse than that.

Ain’t this the truth. I would rather deal with mealys a hundred times over before battling spider mites. Right now my entire collection of Catasetums (save one, that’s just breaking dormancy) are completely covered in spider mites. To the point where I might have to trash half of them. Not a single other orchid has them, even the other thin leafed types like my Chysis or Stanhopeas. I’ve been treating, rotating chemicals every three treatments, and spraying them down since the beginning of April. I’ll take mealybugs any day... and I haven’t had to deal with scale yet, fingers crossed

---------- Post added at 11:06 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:04 AM ----------

Originally Posted by CZF

I am pretty new to this, so I can't say if I have any trusted suppliers yet, but I will say, I picked up a batch of new plant babies on the weekend and repotted them all, and they all had great looking root systems, so maybe I can add that supplier to the 'trusted' list

Check out the vendor feedback section. There are a lot of honest reviews on there and when you see a few nurseries pop up over and over with the same types of experiences (good or bad) that can guide you in the right direction

[CZF]

I've heard spider mites are bad! How frustrating!