Were these mistakes, and what should I do next?

[Windwaker]

Thank you so much, desertanimal, this is very helpful and reassuring. I will just trust the process and carry on with watering.

Since I will be using a heat mat and grow light, should I fertilize with anything or use superthrive once in a while, or hold off until new roots start growing?

Also, I noticed you grow your orchids in glass vases and drain the excess water. I am pretty intrigued by this method because I love how the roots look in glass (I potted one of my rescues like this and so far, so good). How has that worked out for you in the long run?

---------- Post added at 10:50 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:49 AM ----------

Thank you, Ray! It's helpful to have good guidance and reassurance from more experienced folks here.

[desertanimal]

Originally Posted by Windwaker

Since I will be using a heat mat and grow light, should I fertilize with anything or use superthrive once in a while, or hold off until new roots start growing?

Also, I noticed you grow your orchids in glass vases and drain the excess water. I am pretty intrigued by this method because I love how the roots look in glass (I potted one of my rescues like this and so far, so good). How has that worked out for you in the long run?

You should fertilize. I follow Ray's fertilizing advice. If you fertilize often, you do so at lower concentrations than if you fertilize rarely.

That worked out fine in general. It would be a pain with a lot of plants as you have to fill them and dump them to flush. It was also tricky with tall plants and plants in bloom. But it was fine and it was free.

I did have issues with algal growth, and in one plant, it got bad enough that it clogged up the LECA. So stay on top of algae better than I did. Another trick I had is that it was VERY difficult to get a very well-grown plant out of its jar when the time came. The rigidity of the glass combined with the slightly narrower mouth than body pinned the whole root mass in, and since the roots were attached to the LECA, I couldn't get any of the LECA pieces out, even. So watch out for that as well. I've switched to standard plastic pots now for that reason. But you could avoid that with just repotting before that's a problem.

Have fun!

[Windwaker]

Thank you so much desertanimal, really appreciate it.

Interestingly, even though it's only been a week or 2, the rescue in glass seems to be doing the best with absolutely no fungus and her roots are turning the most green. We'll see how it goes. I'll have to be sure to flush well, maybe weekly, and dump the water afterwards.

So far they are all looking a lot better than when they arrived. I hope to be able to post happy pictures of them in a few months!