Black jewel question
 

Any ideas on this? It really looks like the one stalk that has pinched
off wants to be repotted, but I don't know the right medium or if I'm
supposed to just bury it as-is or cut it back.

Thanks.

--------------------------------
I have a beautiful black jewel that seems to be doing very well. It just
finished flowering, and has a main growth with two stalks (both with new
growth on them) and 2 new stalks away from the main plant.

My question is that one of the stalks attached to the main growth is
shriveling about 1cm of the stalk near the main growth. It's basically
just dangling now, and seems like it will fall off.

Does this mean it is trying to propagate, or am I doing something wrong?
If it's very happy and is just trying to replant itself someplace else,
what sort of medium should I use (the current stuff looks a lot like
Miracle Grow special aka regular dirt, which seems weird for an orchid).

Many thanks! Cristof

On Sat, 2 Jul 2005 02:08:41 -0700, Cristof
wrote:

Any ideas on this? It really looks like the one stalk that has pinched
off wants to be repotted, but I don't know the right medium or if I'm
supposed to just bury it as-is or cut it back.

Thanks.

--------------------------------
I have a beautiful black jewel that seems to be doing very well. It just
finished flowering, and has a main growth with two stalks (both with new
growth on them) and 2 new stalks away from the main plant.

My question is that one of the stalks attached to the main growth is
shriveling about 1cm of the stalk near the main growth. It's basically
just dangling now, and seems like it will fall off.

Does this mean it is trying to propagate, or am I doing something wrong?
If it's very happy and is just trying to replant itself someplace else,
what sort of medium should I use (the current stuff looks a lot like
Miracle Grow special aka regular dirt, which seems weird for an orchid).

Many thanks! Cristof

Cristof,

Can you post a photo on alt.binaries.pictures.orchids or on a
website and give us the link? It would help to see what you are
trying to describe. It does not sound hopeful. I know of no
orchid that propagates by replanting itself. It sounds like a
type of rot to me.
SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php

I might have tried to answer your question earlier but I couldn't really
picture what you are describing. If I knew what kind of orchid your
black jewel is, it would help to understand what you are describing.
The part that is dangling sounds like it has rotted off at the bottom.
Not a good thing.

Steve


Cristof wrote:

Any ideas on this? It really looks like the one stalk that has pinched
off wants to be repotted, but I don't know the right medium or if I'm
supposed to just bury it as-is or cut it back.

Thanks.

--------------------------------
I have a beautiful black jewel that seems to be doing very well. It just
finished flowering, and has a main growth with two stalks (both with new
growth on them) and 2 new stalks away from the main plant.

My question is that one of the stalks attached to the main growth is
shriveling about 1cm of the stalk near the main growth. It's basically
just dangling now, and seems like it will fall off.

Does this mean it is trying to propagate, or am I doing something wrong?
If it's very happy and is just trying to replant itself someplace else,
what sort of medium should I use (the current stuff looks a lot like
Miracle Grow special aka regular dirt, which seems weird for an orchid).

Many thanks! Cristof

On Sun, 03 Jul 2005 00:38:29 -0400, Steve wrote:


I might have tried to answer your question earlier but I couldn't really
picture what you are describing. If I knew what kind of orchid your
black jewel is, it would help to understand what you are describing.
The part that is dangling sounds like it has rotted off at the bottom.
Not a good thing.

Steve



My guess is that she's talking about a Lusidia discolor. If that's
the case, she should be able to pinch off the growth, remove any
rotten part, let it harden off for a couple days, and pot in a well
drained standard potting mix (though I would add extra perlite). These
guys root easily. Of course, if it's not a Lusidia discolor doing
what I described wouldn't work at all. As Susan suggested posting a
pic to alt.binaries.pictures.orchids would be a good idea.

deg

Thanks to you both! I'm trying to get a pic taken to upload. I'm having
two other issues (one with a cattleya and another with a "ang.
sesquipedale" that I'll post separately once I can get pics taken) that
I could use some advice.

The only thing on the pot was "black jewel" (got it from Trader Joe's
several years ago). It's kinda black velvet-like leaves with a light
pink stripe through the leaves. I wish I knew the actual name, so I
could speak more intelligently on this.

Deg, I'll try your suggestion!

And BTW, I'm a guy, not a girl. :)

Thanks again.
Cristof

In article ,
says...
On Sun, 03 Jul 2005 00:38:29 -0400, Steve wrote:


I might have tried to answer your question earlier but I couldn't really
picture what you are describing. If I knew what kind of orchid your
black jewel is, it would help to understand what you are describing.
The part that is dangling sounds like it has rotted off at the bottom.
Not a good thing.

Steve



My guess is that she's talking about a Lusidia discolor. If that's
the case, she should be able to pinch off the growth, remove any
rotten part, let it harden off for a couple days, and pot in a well
drained standard potting mix (though I would add extra perlite). These
guys root easily. Of course, if it's not a Lusidia discolor doing
what I described wouldn't work at all. As Susan suggested posting a
pic to alt.binaries.pictures.orchids would be a good idea.

deg

On Sun, 3 Jul 2005 09:35:33 -0700, Cristof
wrote:

Thanks to you both! I'm trying to get a pic taken to upload.

If you do a google search, you should be able to find lots of pictures
of Lusidia discolor. It sounds like you may have one of the variants
with darker leaves than the standard Lusidia discolor, but the culture
is the same.

deg

Cristof wrote:
.....................................
....................
And BTW, I'm a guy, not a girl. :)


I was waiting for that! I was tempted to break the news to Deg but
decided to watch and wait. :-)

Steve

On Sun, 3 Jul 2005 09:35:33 -0700, Cristof
wrote:

And BTW, I'm a guy, not a girl. :)

chuckle Please don't take offense. I always sign my email with my
initials, deg, which doesn't give a clear indication of my gender. I
was an active participant on one email list (meaning 6 to 10 emails a
day) for a couple years before folks there figured out my gender. I
just kept quiet on the issue until I finally referenced the fact that
I have a prostate in an email. No, it's not one of "those" list.
It's a list for owners of cat's with chronic kidney failure and I was
referencing a possible source of a male cat's infection.

And besides, I just glanced at your name and read it as Crystal. :-)

Oh, and I can't remember exactly what I said now, but when I referred
to potting Ludisia discolor in a standard potting mix, I was referring
to a standard garden store potting mix and not an orchid mix.

deg