My first impression with S/H

[Roberta]

I have noticed that there is a tendency for many people to jump to conclusions based on very small amounts of data with regard to orchid culture (among other things) ignoring some important factors.

1. As WW pointed out, orchids tend to grow very slowly. They are slow at everything, often even slow to die. (In general, I am not inclined to draw any conclusions at all until I have grown a plant though a full cycle of seasons, or more - a year at least. If I have less history, I will always say so, identifying any conclusions as "speculative".) I am not an expert... maybe "advanced novice". The amount that I have yet to learn is always larger than the amount that I know.

2. A newly-acquired orchid has additional challenges - it is inevitably experiencing a major change in its environment (and orchids tend to not take kindly to rapid changes of any sort), and may have acquired additional challenges (such as poor roots due to old media). At this point, the plant needs a lot of observation and gentle adjustments as needed, not conclusions jumped to. (Is that English?)

3. Correlation does not necessarily equal causation. Until you have some significant period of observation, preferably on more than one or a few plants, it's pretty hard to suss out what is coincidence and what is useful information.

There was a very dear man, no longer with us, who came to meetings of several clubs of which I was a member. He would be full of enthusiasm about some new medium or treatment. THIS was the ONE ... A couple of years later, he would be wildly enthusiastic about a NEW medium... a different one. A couple of years later, another breakthrough... Of course what he was really seeing was that when orchids are repotted, they often respond with a burst of growth. The real conclusion, they benefit from repotting every few years! Duh...