On 24/11/2013 09:16, Pam Moore wrote:
On Sat, 23 Nov 2013 13:51:33 +0000, Spider wrote:

On 21/11/2013 09:42, Pam Moore wrote:
Has anyone used a product called Orchid Myst? I saw it and bought some
yesterday. It is a ready-mixed spray which you spray on leaves, aerial
roots and on the bark/compost, but not on flowers.
www.focus-on-plants.com

Pam in Bristol




Hi Pam,

You don't seem to have any replies, so I thought I'd drop in.
I don't use Orchid Myst, but would be very interested in your impression
of it in due course.

I have about 35 orchids (excluding the hardy ones) and they are kept
close together on two long window cills. I am sure this helps provide
its own local humidity (one of OM's claims). My feeding/watering regime
falls about every ten days. After 3 sessions of feeding, I have a
session of watering only. I don't buy a proprietary leaf shine product;
they're horrendously expensive! Insead, I routine wipe dusty leaves
with a soft tissue. Once in a while, if the leaves are looking really
dull and lack-lustre, I wipe them all (takes ages!) with a weaker than
usual fertiliser solution, which cleans them and gives them a filip, in
much the same way that OM does. When I do this, I miss out a feed to
make sure I'm not inflicting too much chemical brew on them.

All this seems to work and I bring most orchids back in to flower. I'm
dead chuffed this year, as I've managed for the first time to get all
three of my Cymbidiums to flower! :~).

I always fail to get Zygopetalum and Dendrobium to reflower and, indeed,
have lost a few.

If I were to try OM, it would be on the Cambria types whose roots are so
thin they don't hold onto moisture and nutrients as well as
Phaelenopsis, say. I certainly don't want to start spraying in the
living rooms - we've just got rid of a fungal problem in one room due to
a neighbour's garden wall butting up against our party wall, so I'm a
bit paranoid about encouraging fungus again.

Interesting advice, Spider. Thanks.
I only have 5 orchids, 4 phals and 1 cymbidium.
I don't feed much or water enough, I think but this year I got all 4
phals, in my bathroom, to re-flower.
My cymbidium I have written about here before. Bought it in flower for
my Mum for Mothering Sunday about 20 years ago. It never flowered
again for her but got weaker and smaller. I brought it home and
nourished it for 15 years. It never flowered but got bigger and
bigger. I split it and gave 4 pieces away and kept one for myself.
All 4 others, in 4 different houses, flowered last year. Mine NO.
Maybe Orchid Myst will help!

Pam in Bristol




I can understand your frustration with Cymbidium. I nearly gave up on
mine, but with advice from Bob Holden here on urg and added advice from
an old friend, I've finally got flowers - lots of them on one :~).

When all risk of frost was over, I put my 3 large plants outside for the
summer, only bringing them in around the end of September. At first
they were sheltered from full sun but, by the end of the summer, I'd
moved them into full sun, which they seemed to love. In that more
prominent place, I also remembered to water and feed them a bit more
often! Indoors I use a proprietary orchid feed, but outside I gave them
about 1/4 strength Tomorite.

Low and behold, when I prepared to bring them inside, I discovered
strong flowering shoots - 3 on my favourite plant! At this point I did
something a bit naughty, so this part is not a recommendation. All 3
plants were very unwieldy with a massive amount of long, strappy leaves,
so much so that the plants wouldn't remain upright on their own due to
the excess weight. So I cut the foliage back by about a third! Yes, I
know one isn't supposed to, but it's not as if I chopped all the leaves
off. It had made the plants look much tidier *and* they have stopped
falling over. Next year will be the test of how damaging that has been.
I am hoping, of course, that I can get away with it. I'll try and
remember to report back here in a year's time.

One thought has just nudged its way to the front of my brain: could it
be that when you split your huge plant 5 ways and generously parted with
4, you kept the oldest, tiredest part for yourself? If so, you may not
get it back into flower, unless it has built up sufficient new
pseudobulbs. Indeed, it may never flower. I'm sure Bob would know ...
let's hope he pops up in a mo.

--
Spider.
On high ground in SE London
gardening on heavy clay