Help identifying orchid...
"Ray"
Sometimes plants bloom as a last-ditch effort for survival. If it was
mine,
I'd cut the spike, and resort to the old "sphag-n-bag" technique to get
new
root growth.
Could you explain "sphag-n-bag" to a total newbie
please?
Now that I wrote that, let me state that I am ASSUMING it has bad roots.
It
is obviously desiccated - the pseudobulb is WAY too shriveled - which
means
it's not getting enough water. That is commonly due to two causes: under
watering, or overwatering (or badly decomposed medium) that has led to
root
rot. No roots, no way to absorb water.
When I found it in the trash at the nursery I asked
the girl to pot it. I agreed to pay whatever amount
they needed to charge (10 bucks if I remember
correctly). She wasn't too happy to pot it but she
did. After reading your post I decided to take it
out of the pot to see what was up. The so-called
"orchid expert" put it on a pot with standard
potting soil and then she very nicely sprinkled
orchid bark only on the TOP of the pot! Grrrr!
It has a good mass of roots (I can see the perfect
shape of the pot it was in prior). I can't really
tell if they're in good shape. I took a jpg of the
roots if anyone cares to look (my server won't
let me post to the binary group).
Ruth CM
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