Louisiana Orchid Connection

[Grim Tuesday]

Originally Posted by estación seca

2. Others here disagree but I almost never would repot a tiny seedling on arrival no matter how it looked. It guarantees at least some root damage of a tiny plant that can't tolerate it. I completely disagree with the advice to repot all plants on arrival. I always wait for new root growth. Bad insects, bad medium, etc can be managed by proper care but roots damaged by repotting cannot.

For what it's worth, the plant does have a new root growing! I think it was hidden in the picture. Fingers crossed that it will work out. I only decided to do it because it seemed to be currently growing and the medium it was in is not great for my watering schedule and I want to changed it in the next few months anyways (I haven't mentioned this before but the listing specifically said it would be in spaghnum but I got my plant in pretty coarse bark, which in my indoor climate dries out too quickly for the amount of water a zygo is said to need). And there didn't seem like a better time than now, since it is growing. And the bonus was I got to inspect the roots

Originally Posted by stonedragonfarms

I would agree that the roots are not in great condition; to me the seedling looks like it was potted on from a community flat into an individual pot [which is pretty common treatment for Cymbidium & Zygopetalum seedlings; they go from flask to community flats/pots for a year and are then 'dug up' and potted on individually.] Typically though, clearly dead roots are removed during this process, or, in the event that there are only 1-2 live roots on the seedling, the dead roots are trimmed back to about 1", to give the seedling additional anchoring in the new media. For a plant this small, I would likely not ask for a refund; had this been a mature [ie of flowering age, with 3+ pseudobulbs in leaf] plant arriving in a similar condition [barring it being an import that is], then I likely would.

This is good to know and helpful to set my expectations and learn the etiquette of online orchid ordering (particularly seedlings). I've had very good luck buying succulent plants online, but their growth habit is so different from orchids I think it makes them easier to ship. I also think I was spoiled by an order I recently got from Olympic Orchids where every plant was very robust and healthy looking and had essentially perfect roots.

[Ray]

I would not be happy with that zygo, and would let them know.

[Leafmite]

What Zygopetalum is it? Some Zygos will put out new growths two to four times a year if they are happy while others only have new growths once a year. Before making any decisions, it might be best to determine how often this one will put out new growths. Louisiana Orchid Connection might have felt this to be perfectly fine if this orchid is going to put out new growth a few times a year. I just bought a tiny one-growth Zygo that probably isn't long out of the Com-pot...it was advertised that way.

[Grim Tuesday]

One last update on this. I unpotted another plant from the order, a chysis bractescens a few days ago to find that it had no viable roots whatsoever. What I had initially thought was a decent root system with flashes of green was actually a volunteer clover plant growing in the basket, choking out the chysis roots. There were zero living roots on the chysis. Before cutting off the clover, I sent them a message with a picture asking if my interpretation was correct. Their response: "You may be right." No offer to refund. So, taking Ray's advice from another post on how to deal with vendors, I specifically asked for a refund or replacement and eventually received a refund.

I also sent an email to the person who originally agreed to combine two orders for me (John) asking for clarification on why the orders didn't get combined (as a reply to the original email saying "sure we can do that") and have heard radio silence on that front after several days. In conclusion, I'm disappointed and will not be ordering from them in the future.

[Leafmite]

Sorry about your experience.

[katsucats]

I ordered a flask of Mormodes rolfeana from LAOC. It's my 2nd flask. First was a Clowesia glaucoglossa, also from the same vendor, but I only have about half a dozen that survived so far, mostly due to neglect. Well with that under my belt, I'm a lot more confident this time around. Threw them into moss today in a covered plastic tray, and I think it should be okay like that for a few months, though I'll check periodically.

My personal recommendation for this vendor is to get the flasks. In my opinion most of their plants that they sell are tiny, maybe a year out of the flask. For 90 per flask, you get 25-30 seedlings. But if you buy their plants individually, he charges you 15-30 for a single plant.

The only exception to this is that I picked up a pretty decently sized Catasetum naso from them a while back.

LAOC has some pretty rare species from time to time, but considering how tiny they are, it's easy to accidentally kill them. Get the flask so that you could survive the purchase even if you kill a few. Most of my single plant purchases from this vendor have perished. I don't know whether to blame my inexperience with seedlings or the vendor. Probably both, since the auctions definitely make it appear as if you'd get a bigger plant. My

If I'm correct, LAOC is run by John Nelson and Tin-Wein Yu, the latter of which is the breeding expert, goes on trip to find rare species to sell. John seems to be responsible for the business and logistics side. I haven't had much luck getting info out of John. His responses to my email inquiries have been... terse. I feel like, to me at least, buying the flasks is the best way to take advantage of Tin-Wein Yu's findings without having to deal with whatever that's going on in the greenhouse operation.

[Toadwally]

Me neither.