On Thu, 26 May 2005 00:35:38 -0500, wrote:

Since this is your first orchid tell us what window it's in and how your
taking care of it. A pot an inch bigger than the root mass would be
good for size wise. Roots growing like weeds is a good sign-your orchid
sounds healthy-I don't know what that medium is but you don't want it in
soil (as in normal houseplants) Orchids loose leaves now and then as
they grow new ones-they'll turn yellow this is normal. Now with the
reusing of old soil, don't do this with orchids I think they can go a
year without repotting but in the mean time their medium breaks down
(decomposes) so use fresh sphagnum moss or orchid mix. Usually when I
buy an orchid I repot it immediately and I always find bad roots-you may
or may not....good luck....don't try seeing a doctor for your orchid
fever once your bitten there's no cure only the relentless drive to
quench your thirst with more, more, more!......Burr


Basically I'm doing everything wrong. g It's in a north facing
window (only direction my windows face) and the windows don't open, so
there is no temperature variation between night and day. It's also
about a foot or so away from the window pane. I don't have any growing
lights.

It usually gets a bit of fertilizer whenever I water, which is
whenever the moss feels dry (not damp) to the touch. I think I
probably let it dry out a bit too much, but I'd rather err on that
side than on the wet side.

It was repotted directly after I bought it. It came in a double pot --
smaller plastic inside of slightly larger clay. The woman at the
hardware store where I bought it said she grows them and the best
thing to do is to remove them from the plastic pots as soon as they
arrive home, so that's what I did. At the time I didn't change to
growing medium or the moss. I just swapped the pots.

Now despite my abuse g the plant bloomed for me, rebloomed after a
few months, has doubled its leaf count and has recently started
growing those visible roots like crazy. Even my moss has started to
green up. I've had the plant for less than a year, so I'm pretty
happy with it.

I really don't know what it is growing in. It's that dark stuff that
looks like regular old potting soil, but I'm working on the assumption
that it's not. I know there is some kind of orchid growing medium that
looks like plain old garden dirt -- I've seen reference to it either
here or somewhere on the Internet -- but I forget what it is called.
As I said in my first post, the dirt is covered with a layer of moss.
I guess it is some type of sphagnum. Ideally I'd like to keep the
plant in the same type of environment since it seems to be thriving
(or at least surviving).

As far as I can tell the growing medium/soil-type-stuff seems like it
is in pretty good shape. The moss looks a bit thin, but that could be
because the the roots have pushed through or it has broken down a bit.


I don't mind keeping it in the same pot for now. I was just concerned
that the aerial roots would be damaged if they didn't have room to
spread out, but if doesn't hurt them to touch the edges of the pot,
then I'm perfectly happy leaving it alone for a while.
--Vic