Here is one 'don't do this' from my experience:

I once bought an orchid plant from a very reliable grower. It was my very
first Dtps, and my very first plant bought in spike but not yet in bloom.
When I got home, I looked the plant over even more carefully than in the
greenhouse, and noticed little pimples on some of the leaves. I wondered and
worried about what they might be, so I looked on the Web for possible
explanations. I found out about symptoms of various pests and plant
diseases, and before the day was done, I worked myself up to a panic. I was
like a hypochondriac patient who had just read a whole bunch of illness
symptom descriptions, and who had convinced herself that she had them all,
albeit in the early stages. The following morning, I saw a tiny insect on or
near the plant. I wrote a paniced email or two or three to the grower I had
just gotten the plant from, who was incredibly tollerant of my outburst.
Finally, I took the plant to a local nursery where I knew a staff person who
specialized in orchids. Before taking the plant in, I called to ask whether
it would be ok to bring the plant (in my paniced state of mind I was worried
about causing an epidemic in the nursery). When I arrived, and showed the
plant to the person there, she said, something along the lines "Oh, you are
worried about this? This is nothing!" And when I mentioned the tiny insect
that I may have seen, she said "If it was tiny, and there was just one,
don't worry about it." The plant was very healthy, and went on to bloom
beautifully, and became my favorite.

The moral of the story: it's important not to overreact, if one does not
know enough about an issue; don't study all possible symptoms of all
possible pests that might affect orchids, it's scarry stuff, and probably
does not apply; and ask for advice and a second opinion of someone with
experience before (or preferably instead of) making a fool of myself.

wrote in message
...
Hi all. I'm new to growing orchids and enjoy reading your coments-
mostly in hopes of not repeating the same mistakes someone else has
made. I killed my first orchid by letting the water stand in the water
tray-thinking it was no different than a wild orchid's habitat. By the
time I got educated enough to see MY mistake it was too late. I
currently am nursing a two leaved seedling with no roots, yep a
survivor of ground rot. It's a real trooper-put on a tiny new leaf and
faint show of a root. Looking for the lost tag on this one, see I told
you I was new to this. If you guys want to post some of your mistakes
or "don't do this' I'll enjoy reading them-I could really use the tips,
thanks....Burr