Please Help !!! Baby Catts and Vanda

[orchid lady]

Okay, here I go again. I received these in the mail today and did not expect they're gonna be this small, the plants are about 2.5-3". I have no clue what to do with them. Should I use bark, sphag, or coconut husk? How often should I water and fertilize? Should I soak overnight with Superthrive before re-potting? The Vanda is my very first one, I do have a 4" Octagon Vanda basket, should I put bark or just leave it in the basket?

Thanks everyone,

Marissa

C289 BLC Greenwich 'Elmhurst' AM AOS
C160 LC Chyung Gun Swan 'Ruby Lip' AM/AS
C232 Cattleya CTNA Sogo Doll
V341 Vanda Pure's Wax

[cindiras]

I have been buying babies off of ebay lately. This is about the same size. I potted them in fine bark after a 10 minute soak in rooting hormone (Kinda like superthrive). I have been letting the bark mix get almost dry before giving a 10 minute soak in rooting hormone water. They are growing slowly (at least, I tell myself they are growing. They're still green.) I have them under flourescent lights in my basement, abpout 8 inches from the light. Hopw this helps.

[clintdawley]

The look good to me for bare root e-auction plants. The vanda will do fine in a basket if you have enough ambient humidity, but I would put them in some kind of large bark if you don't.

Small catts like that I put in spag in a clay orchid pot (with the slits).

[Cjcorner]

I recognize the tags and the names of your plants....and I'm sure I know where they came from. If you have already potted them, do yourself a favor and start treating them for root rot. I can tell you one of the above looked very suspicious to me and I have gotten stung by this particular vendor before. Be very careful when watering and do not let these plants drip on your other plants or you may be in for a huge problem. If you do a search about vendors on here you will come up with posts about our past experiences. Not all of his plants bring problems....my bad ones were always the freebies. But when not careful the problem spreads to your other plants. Usually my expensive ones, my biggest floofies....I gave up shopping on there. Also note, when his listings contain an "S" it stands for seedling.
Physan 20 is a good idea to add to your soaking water when you shop with this guy.
Connie

[orchid lady]

I have been buying babies off of ebay lately. This is about the same size. I potted them in fine bark after a 10 minute soak in rooting hormone (Kinda like superthrive). I have been letting the bark mix get almost dry before giving a 10 minute soak in rooting hormone water. They are growing slowly (at least, I tell myself they are growing. They're still green.) I have them under flourescent lights in my basement, abpout 8 inches from the light. Hopw this helps.

This is my first time buying on auction and did not expect they're gonna be this small, not a good size for a newbie like me. I just hope that they survive under my care. I did wash and spray the roots with Physan 20 and washed and soak them in Superthrive.

The look good to me for bare root eBay e-auction plants. The vanda will do fine in a basket if you have enough ambient humidity, but I would put them in some kind of large bark if you don't.

I did put the vanda in a basket after cleaning them and cutting the dead roots.

Small catts like that I put in spag in a clay orchid pot (with the slits).

I used sphag but potted them in plastic spots with slits. Is it better to put them in clay pots? because I have them too, just did not think of using them.

I recognize the tags and the names of your plants....and I'm sure I know where they came from. If you have already potted them, do yourself a favor and start treating them for root rot. I can tell you one of the above looked very suspicious to me and I have gotten stung by this particular vendor before. Be very careful when watering and do not let these plants drip on your other plants or you may be in for a huge problem. If you do a search about vendors on here you will come up with posts about our past experiences. Not all of his plants bring problems....my bad ones were always the freebies. But when not careful the problem spreads to your other plants. Usually my expensive ones, my biggest floofies....I gave up shopping on there. Also note, when his listings contain an "S" it stands for seedling.
Physan 20 is a good idea to add to your soaking water when you shop with this guy.
Connie

I was kind of disapointed when I saw them, because I was not expecting they're going to be this small. And I mentioned this is my first e-auction purchase and did not even pay attention to that "S". They were in the mail for 5 days (poor thing) I have no plan of purchasing from that vendor again. I will isolate them from my other chids and I also spray the pots with physan hopefully to get rid of any bacteria or fungus.

Thanks everyone!!!!

[zainal abidin]

When I saw Catt OMG very small is really unfair for you. Anyway you can try your best with the advised above. Through my experienced I preferred to use charcoal with small amount of spag on the root systems to maintain humidity while waiting the new roots appear.Cut off the dysfunctional roots system and carefully leaving the good one. Spray with diluted fertilizer regularly say every 2 to 3 days. You still can use bark no harm. Will take at least 3 to 5 years to bloom. Good luck.

[Brutal_Dreamer]

When I saw Catt OMG very small is really unfair for you. Anyway you can try your best with the advised above. Through my experienced I preferred to use charcoal with small amount of spag on the root systems to maintain humidity while waiting the new roots appear.Cut off the dysfunctional roots system and carefully leaving the good one. Spray with diluted fertilizer regularly say every 2 to 3 days. You still can use bark no harm. Will take at least 3 to 5 years to bloom. Good luck.

I agree. That is the worst part of getting orchids without many good roots. It will take them time to recover and grow.

Cheers,
BD

[Elitebettas]

Mmm Hmmm Ooo yes, I recognize those tags as well. You need to be careful not to shock the plants with too much water/soaking etc, they have been dried out long and probably stored bareroot in a very very humid greenhouse. You get great deals on his plants, it is going to take skill to get them to acclimate to your conditions. The ones I bought from him are doing excellent though, good luck

[orchid lady]

I re-potted them in loose Sphag. and they are staying outside except for the Vanda that I put on a basket over bark. I don't even know how often I should water, I just use my best judgment. I put them over a tray of stone and water to add humidity, I have to pour water every morning as it quickly evaporates. I won't be surprise if they won't to make it considering the limited experience I have with orchids. Hey, but who knows...lol

Thanks everyone

[orchid lady]

I lost some of these new babies after putting them outside in sphagnum moss so I decided to mount the rest of them and just crossed my fingers but was not really hopeful. Today, I checked to see if there's any improvement and to my surprised I see some new roots coming out.