New Member - In need of help.
 

Hello Everyone! I am brand new to the forums, and could use some good advice, but first a little about me.

I started collecting orchids the same way most people probably do, finding an orchid at a big name store. It is a Phal. but i have no idea of exact info for it other than the flowers were pure white. My wife and I loved the flowers and decided to try one. The flowers did last a long time, but eventually the unopened buds started to fall off. We were disappointed obviously, but we were relocating cross country at the time and figured maybe this had something to do with it. This sent me on my internet mission to find out what went wrong.

While looking, I came across all the sites selling orchids and was amazed by all the varieties, I was immediately bitten by the orchid bug. This was around mothers day, so I decided to buy some for my mother in law (who has 3 or 4 Phals.) and got some for my wife and me at the same time. We ordered from Exotic Orchids of Maui and were extremely impressed and satisfied. The orchids we ordered were: 2X Onc. Genting Angel X Onc. Barbie Patches, 2X Den. Samarai x Den. Blue Sparkle, 2X Encyclia ionophlebia (syn. Prosthechea), and received a free C. Horace 'Maxima' AM/AOS x Blc. Xanthette 'Chartreuse'.

My mother in law loved the gift and we were pleasantly surprised when the Onc. started producing a spike immediately. This added to my addiction.

I then decided to place another order for myself, and now am having problems that i didn't before. With the new plants, some leaves are yellowing and falling off, some are browning and dying it looks like, and i have realized that I am not sure what is going wrong (or if this is natural) because it seems that every plant has specific care requirements. So I am going to post the list of flowers I have, and if anyone has plant specific care instructions, or knows what I need to do or where to look, I will greatly appreciate it. I can try to post pictures if it will help diagnose problems. Thanks

Here are the Orchids i have in the order i acquired

1st, Phal. ?? (All White Blossoms)

2nd, Encyclia ionophlebia (syn. Prosthechea)
Onc. Genting Angel X Onc. Barbie Patches
Den. Samarai x Den. Blue Sparkle
C. Horace 'Maxima' AM/AOS x Blc. Xanthette 'Chartreuse'

3rd, Blc. Haiku Dawn x Pot. (Waianae Legacy x Waianae Majestic)
Den. spectabile x sib
Gram. rumphianum
Phal. (Jackie Debonis x Fantastic Lip) x Phal. (Tropical Fantasy x Exotic Sands)
Angcm. sesquipedale x Angcm. sesquipedale var. bosseri
Prc. Exotic Leprechaun
Blc. Haiku Dawn 'Sunshine and Raspberries'
Bepi. Femme Fatale 'BJ' AM/AOS
Arpophyllum giganteum
Den. Wonder Nishii x Den. spectabile


PS. The flowers with problems are:

Den. Wonder Nishii x Den. spectabile - Leaves are turning brown, dying on like half the leaf from the tip down, leaves browning and cracking in the middle, browning on edges, leaves accordianing, tiny black spots on many of the leaves. had spots since i received it, but spots may have increased in number.

Den. spectabile x sib - Leaves yellowing and curling from the edges, then falling off. Half the leaf browning and dying lengthwise on the leaf.

Arpophyllum giganteum - Very pale green leaves, almost yellow, some leaftip dieback but not much

PPS. I live in ND. The newest flowers are in a basement area of the house seperate from the others which are upstairs. All are by windows with Eastern Exposure

bganzer - first off welcome to the Orchid Board - sorry you are having problems with your orchids. Pictures will really help us to figure out what is going on with your plants along with your watering habits, tempurature and light conditions. Below is a link on how to upload photos.

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ng-photos.html

Welcome to Orchid Board :welcome:

As Glen has said, some pictures will are probably needed for folks to understand just what you are seeing.

Welcome & Hello !
Sit back and relax...you've come to the right place...read postings from the other members and learn from their wealth of knowledge coming from their years of experience on growing orchids.

once you find the diagnosis; you can treat the plant...you have a wonderful descriptive talent but I agree with the others we need pictures of the whole plant to give advice.

Welcome to OB.
I started pretty much the same way, with orchids from a several different genera. Some just have not done well for me. I live in New England so we may have similar problems. North Dakota is very dry, no? I use ultrasonic humidifiers near the 'chids which seems to help. I have the best luck with phals, and after that with Masdevallias. One of the easiest and one of the hardest. I have some paphs that do well, and even some phrags, but I find that they take up more space than I can really afford so I don't plan on getting any more.
This is a great hobby- I started with a Den and a Phal in February 2009 and I now have about 80. You will love it and it is great that your wife is into it too.

Yes, check the humidity, and if it's dry, ultrasonic humidifiers are great.

A lot of the dendrobiums are deciduous - they lose their leaves for winter (and like to be "tortured" [withhold water; no ferts at all, a very light sprinkling of very pure water if they look very dry] in their winter resting period). Google your specific dendrobiums to see if they are deciduous; you may have to look up the hybrid parents to work it out.

:)

Thanks for all the replies, been having some computer issues so I haven't been able to get back to the forum for a while. I will try to get some pictures up soon.

As for the humidity, I am usually at around 50% humidity and try to raise that by misting the orchids early in the morning, but humidity doesn't get very high. I will have to check out the humidifiers.

I did know about the dendrobiums that lose everything and then they bloom, but I don't think thats what I have, but unfortunatly I am having a hard time finding specific information about these. Probably just need to spend more time searching through the forums.

bganzer - none of the three Dendrobiums you list are deciduous so that is not the issue. The accordioned leaves indicate a lack of water, if the roots are okay then you need to water them more often.

Again, the browning of the leaves could be caused by several issues, low humidity, too much fertilizer, not enough water during very hot growing periods. Pictures will tell us a whole lot more, when you get around to them.

The Dens you listed problems with are from the Latouria section - they must remain moist. Crimped foliage is a sign of either underwatering, OR rotted or otherwise dead roots

Den spectabile likes a reduction in water and no fert in winter, when it isn't growing. The cross with Wonder Nishi probably wants to be evenly moist and fertilized year-round, tho I can't say for sure.


Onc. Genting Angel X Onc. Barbie Patches is a cross of Tolumnia and Oncidium, favoring Tolumnia, I believe ? No visible or very small, barely visible pbulbs, hiding in fans of stiff heavy foliage ? - it should probably receive Tolu type care - grow in very small clay or net pot with a small amount of well draining, fast drying media (charcoal is common), allowing to dry completely before watering again. Fairly high light.

gl

Ok all, Ive gotten my pictures up. Here is the link to the gallery http://www.orchidboard.com/community...hp?albumid=915

Also myPhal. (Jackie Debonis x Fantastic Lip) x Phal. (Tropical Fantasy x Exotic Sands) has started to bloom. :biggrin: Here are those pics. http://www.orchidboard.com/community...hp?albumid=916
Thanks all