I recently repotted my Phal and Dend with just fir bark and charcoal
mixture. In fact was bought in home depot marked for orchids. Water it
then about a couple of days ago and today, I noticed one leaf turning
pale on the Phal and on the Dend the 3 remaining flowers were sort of
curling to itself. Not a good site. I took them both out and sure enough
except for the very bottom of these clay 4" inch pots were dry. Some of
the roots were rotting and I clipped the bad ones off. But they were
healthy looking a couple of days ago. Did the repotting do this? Are
they that sensitive? I like it when the botanical garden book that I
have on orchids recommends to water them at best weekly with a fir bark
soil arrangement. Mine needed it in 2 to 3 days. Its enough to drive one
insane...only kidding.

"boothbay" wrote in message
...
I recently repotted my Phal and Dend with just fir bark and charcoal
mixture. In fact was bought in home depot marked for orchids. Water it
then about a couple of days ago and today, I noticed one leaf turning
pale on the Phal and on the Dend the 3 remaining flowers were sort of
curling to itself. Not a good site. I took them both out and sure enough
except for the very bottom of these clay 4" inch pots were dry. Some of
the roots were rotting and I clipped the bad ones off. But they were
healthy looking a couple of days ago. Did the repotting do this? Are
they that sensitive? I like it when the botanical garden book that I
have on orchids recommends to water them at best weekly with a fir bark
soil arrangement. Mine needed it in 2 to 3 days. Its enough to drive one
insane...only kidding.


I can`t comment on your mixture,but I doubt very much that underwatering is
your problem in this case.If you have been underwatering the roots shouldn't
have rotted that quickly.It may be the plants natural process that has co
insided with you repotting.You shouldn't repot when a plant is in flower or
you risk losing the blooms .If the phal is losing the lower leaves this
shouldn't be anything to worry about as they do this.Your growing conditions
will determine how much you water.Plants will dry out sooner in clay
pots,how to water is only a guide line when you read it in books etc.It is
something that you learn with experience & your growing conditions.One of
the best ways to determine whether a plant needs watering is by lifting the
pot,if light then water & heavy then don't.This is learnt with experience as
most plants /pots will feel different!
Overwatering kills most orchids,they can stand periods without water
especially in winter.
Cheers Keith

Anthony! Turn off the faucet! You are overwatering that Dendrobium. ;-)

Diana

Orchid damage generally does not happen as fast as your message seems to
suggest. It is far more likely that the damage happened some months ago,
while the roots were rotting, and is just now showing up, than that it is a
result of your repotting.

That said: Your Phal likes to be more "evenly moist" than your Den, which
needs to get thoroughly dry in between waterings. So if you potted both in
the same kind of pots and same mix, you're going to be watering them on
different schedules ... at a guess, without seeing them, I'd say the Phal
will need water 2x as often as the Phal. If the Den is "mostly" dry after 3
days, then 1x/week may be about right _for now_.

But fixed schedules are dangerous. Better, as has already been posted, to
water "as needed." How often will probably vary at different times of year,
as your weather changes ...

Kenni

"boothbay" wrote in message
...
I recently repotted my Phal and Dend with just fir bark and charcoal
mixture. In fact was bought in home depot marked for orchids. Water it then
about a couple of days ago and today, I noticed one leaf turning pale on
the Phal and on the Dend the 3 remaining flowers were sort of curling to
itself. Not a good site. I took them both out and sure enough except for
the very bottom of these clay 4" inch pots were dry. Some of the roots were
rotting and I clipped the bad ones off. But they were healthy looking a
couple of days ago. Did the repotting do this? Are they that sensitive? I
like it when the botanical garden book that I have on orchids recommends to
water them at best weekly with a fir bark soil arrangement. Mine needed it
in 2 to 3 days. Its enough to drive one insane...only kidding.

Bark is notorious for drying out very fast when fresh or until
bacterial/fungal action begins to break it down just a bit. Then it can hold
more water. For that reason, many people will add some sponge rock and maybe
a bit of peat or coir (depending on the orchid to be potted) to help hold
some moisture in a new potting. In most cases, the peat or coir will have
washed through when the bark begins to really do its job depending on how
much you added. Watering a fresh pot in with Physan will also help in that
it is 1) a surfactant making water wetter, and 2) a microbiocide which
should help with any of those unavoidable cuts and bruises made during
repotting. I've never liked potting phals in bark (I know there are plenty
of heavy waterers who do and do well with it). On the opposite extreme, I've
seen phals in spaghnum and Fafard #3 potting mix (a peat base mix). To each
his own according to watering habits. Like a number of others on this list,
I have several thousand plants and it would be impossible to water them
differentially according to what they would like. So you must adapt the mix
to your watering habits to hold enough water for the plant until your next
round. Unfortunately, this takes practice and time and maybe a dead plant or
2 (or 3,...). Everyone on this list, if being truthful, would admit to
killing plants from over or under watering at least until they mastered
their mix. Then you kill fewer.
Gary
"boothbay" wrote in message
...
I recently repotted my Phal and Dend with just fir bark and charcoal
mixture. In fact was bought in home depot marked for orchids. Water it then
about a couple of days ago and today, I noticed one leaf turning pale on
the Phal and on the Dend the 3 remaining flowers were sort of curling to
itself. Not a good site. I took them both out and sure enough except for
the very bottom of these clay 4" inch pots were dry. Some of the roots were
rotting and I clipped the bad ones off. But they were healthy looking a
couple of days ago. Did the repotting do this? Are they that sensitive? I
like it when the botanical garden book that I have on orchids recommends to
water them at best weekly with a fir bark soil arrangement. Mine needed it
in 2 to 3 days. Its enough to drive one insane...only kidding.

"V_coerulea" wrote in message
. ..
snip
Everyone on this list, if being truthful, would admit to
killing plants from over or under watering at least until they mastered
their mix. Then you kill fewer.
Gary


Gary,

Hurumph! I resent the implication that I am not being truthful. I honestly
have not killed a single orchid yet in four years of growing them.

Now I will admit that I have come close: one of my orchids has only one leaf
left (but it seems to have stabilized, and it has been growing lots of
healthy roots, so there is hope for it), another two orchids were down to
two leaves or so (but now both have grown a couple of new leaves and are
recovering), and the only Oncidium-like orchid (Burgerea Nelly Isler 'Swiss
Beauty") that I have is getting worse and I suspect that it's due to the
heat in the apartment (in the interest of full disclosure, if it continues
down the path that it has been going down on, it may well become my first
orchid-kill someday).

But none of these orchids are dead yet, and several others have recovered
nicely. Since I have a total of 43 orchids, having only 4 that are in any
danger of dying is quite good I would think.

Sorry, I had to brag ... err ... I had to defend myself in face of the
accusation that I am not truthful. I am.

Joanna

Sorry for the implication, Joanna. Only 10% of your orchids are in trouble.
And, if you loose that 1, you will have lost only 2.3% of your collection.
Over the passed 2 years (the only ones I have these records for) I lost 22
plants out of 2100 or about 1.0% including seedlings. Now I'm not bragging,
but ...
My points a 1) the more you grow, the more chance of error and loss; 2)
the more you branch out and take risks, the greater your chance of loss.
Several years ago, I purchased some Burr, Vuyl, Oda, Odm, Masd and a few
others along these lines after having experienced great success with
cymbidiums in a water-cooled, unheated greenhouse here in SC. Well a few
have died and a few others might as well, but some are doing very well. If I
hadn't tried I wouldn't know if I could grow them or not regardless of what
others say of heat tolerance. Some Paphs and Phrags remain a challenge
during our sweltry summers. But with the right place, the right shade, the
right air movement, the right watering and fertilizing and with the right
mix, they'll not just make it but thrive.
Sorry Joanna, don't be afraid to exxperiment. Good growing.
Gary
"J Fortuna" wrote in message
news:IjfGe.15717$uy3.719@trnddc05...
"V_coerulea" wrote in message
. ..
snip
Everyone on this list, if being truthful, would admit to
killing plants from over or under watering at least until they mastered
their mix. Then you kill fewer.
Gary


Gary,

Hurumph! I resent the implication that I am not being truthful. I honestly
have not killed a single orchid yet in four years of growing them.

Now I will admit that I have come close: one of my orchids has only one
leaf
left (but it seems to have stabilized, and it has been growing lots of
healthy roots, so there is hope for it), another two orchids were down to
two leaves or so (but now both have grown a couple of new leaves and are
recovering), and the only Oncidium-like orchid (Burgerea Nelly Isler
'Swiss
Beauty") that I have is getting worse and I suspect that it's due to the
heat in the apartment (in the interest of full disclosure, if it continues
down the path that it has been going down on, it may well become my first
orchid-kill someday).

But none of these orchids are dead yet, and several others have recovered
nicely. Since I have a total of 43 orchids, having only 4 that are in any
danger of dying is quite good I would think.

Sorry, I had to brag ... err ... I had to defend myself in face of the
accusation that I am not truthful. I am.

Joanna

Gary,

You are right of course that the more you grow and the more you experiment,
the more you risk and the more you learn.

For now I am in a phase when I am still reluctant to experiment for the most
part -- in part I am victim to my own track record, it has become a matter
of pride to me that I have not killed an orchid, so I am reluctant to
experiment too much because if I experiment I know I will loose some.
However I am experimenting a bit: for example, I have an Lc that's in lava
rock and strangely enough even though it is my first orchid in the cattleya
alliance and my first one in lava rock, it is doing just peachy, so I will
definitely need to get more mini-catts. One of my Paphs is in this medium
that looks like dirt, but I think is mostly peat moss, and it's happy. But
yeah, overall I am a cautious person, not experimenting too much with
orchids, because I am still in the stage where I care too much about how an
individual one is doing. It is strange that I don't care too deeply about
either of my african violets or my few non-flowering houseplants, but the
orchids are something else -- I still remember how I cried the first time I
broke a Phal spike (now I am just slightly irritated with myself when I do
that, but still).

Good growing to you too,

Joanna

"V_coerulea" wrote in message
...
Sorry for the implication, Joanna. Only 10% of your orchids are in
trouble.
And, if you loose that 1, you will have lost only 2.3% of your collection.
Over the passed 2 years (the only ones I have these records for) I lost 22
plants out of 2100 or about 1.0% including seedlings. Now I'm not
bragging,
but ...
My points a 1) the more you grow, the more chance of error and loss; 2)
the more you branch out and take risks, the greater your chance of loss.
Several years ago, I purchased some Burr, Vuyl, Oda, Odm, Masd and a few
others along these lines after having experienced great success with
cymbidiums in a water-cooled, unheated greenhouse here in SC. Well a few
have died and a few others might as well, but some are doing very well. If
I
hadn't tried I wouldn't know if I could grow them or not regardless of
what
others say of heat tolerance. Some Paphs and Phrags remain a challenge
during our sweltry summers. But with the right place, the right shade, the
right air movement, the right watering and fertilizing and with the right
mix, they'll not just make it but thrive.
Sorry Joanna, don't be afraid to exxperiment. Good growing.
Gary
"J Fortuna" wrote in message
news:IjfGe.15717$uy3.719@trnddc05...
"V_coerulea" wrote in message
. ..
snip
Everyone on this list, if being truthful, would admit to
killing plants from over or under watering at least until they mastered
their mix. Then you kill fewer.
Gary


Gary,

Hurumph! I resent the implication that I am not being truthful. I
honestly
have not killed a single orchid yet in four years of growing them.

Now I will admit that I have come close: one of my orchids has only one
leaf
left (but it seems to have stabilized, and it has been growing lots of
healthy roots, so there is hope for it), another two orchids were down
to
two leaves or so (but now both have grown a couple of new leaves and are
recovering), and the only Oncidium-like orchid (Burgerea Nelly Isler
'Swiss
Beauty") that I have is getting worse and I suspect that it's due to the
heat in the apartment (in the interest of full disclosure, if it
continues
down the path that it has been going down on, it may well become my
first
orchid-kill someday).

But none of these orchids are dead yet, and several others have
recovered
nicely. Since I have a total of 43 orchids, having only 4 that are in
any
danger of dying is quite good I would think.

Sorry, I had to brag ... err ... I had to defend myself in face of the
accusation that I am not truthful. I am.

Joanna