My Poor Babies!

[Mammatam]

Got my 1st Orchids last year, Mother's Day '13. There were 2 pots inside a decorative, moss covered planter. Being familiar with normal houseplants, I assumed I could just pop them out of the tiny little pots and into an Orchid Potting mix I bought. I potted them together in about a 6 or 8 in regular pot. I've learned over the last few weeks everything I did wrong and have been taking many steps to save them.
They seemed fine at 1st. Even put out new leaves. I moved them by my kitchen sink thinking humidity would be better. Also, mistakenly, went to just spritzing the topsoil and aerial roots once in awhile. Apparently that wasn't enough and after awhile I saw, suddenly the big thick leaves were limp and starting to wrinkle. I freaked out and started researching immediately. One of the 1st things I read said soak it, so I did. Bad idea! Next day I was informed that could be really bad if it had been too dry for too long. So I took action! I pulled them out of the wet medium and noticed that what they had been in originally was Sphagnum moss and it was drinched! When I began to pull it away from what used to be lush roots, there were next to none!! Just empty paper like sleeves that used to be roots!! What they each had left were just a couple white, thick firm roots, plus the aerial roots, which I thought still looked OK, mostly. Sooooo, potted them back up, same "mix" as before. Also not good! Someone told me my mix was to fine, too much soil, needed a bark mix, suggested individual clear orchid pots for each.

Now, I wasn't able to locate pots near me, and online, what I was finding, was too much money or too many pots! So I made my own with clear plastic Solo cups! Punched holes in bottom and half way up! It works!! I got a nice looking chunky bark mix and repotted!
(I bought the 3rd phal while shopping for something to make my pots. It had some rot, some flowers, snipped a few bad buds, and all the rot and potted it in the new mix too.)

Anyway, long story longer! ---- Vendor information removed - see FAQs on Posting ---- rescue still has blooms, looks good. I apparently didn't soak the bark enough the 1st watering though but, I think I've got that figured out too. I've got the babies set on a small tray with water and beads for a humidity tray and after soaking, then letting them drain, I tented them. 2 days later I can still see there's moisture in the cups so that seems to be good.

Wondering if y'all think they're good in my East window, gets a bit of direct in the morning, but bright indirect after that. I have noticed one of them has some unhappy looking aerial roots I may need to snip??
OK, next, the pics ... I wont post the ones from before, just the now pics.

Well, I have to go look at the "how to post photos" link!! LOL
Posted via Mobile Device

[ksriramkumar]

A photo would help in checking the health. Did you use a fungicide/cinnamon after you removed the rot ?

[Mammatam]

A photo would help in checking the health. Did you use a fungicide/cinnamon after you removed the rot ?

Actually no, I didn't, because I didn't know about that at the time I repotted.

Photos are coming. I had to wait till this thread showed up for me to post them here. Then it took awhile for me to figure out how to do it with Flickr, from my phone.

I apologize for the delay!

Is there something I can add to water next time that can prevent any rot from spreading? I did sterilize my scissors. Rinsed the remaining roots too.

I hope it'll be alright.
Posted via Mobile Device

[Mammatam]

Hmmmm, I guess the post with pics is still waiting to be approved. I hope I did it right. I was trying to copy the link, in the Flickr app, but every time I did, it wouldn't work. So, I logged into Flickr in my phone's browser, and used the URL for each pic I wanted to share. It said it posted, but it's not here yet so, I don't know yet if it really worked.
If not I guess I'm gonna have to get on my laptop and go from there...
Posted via Mobile Device

[Mammatam]

OK, so I have finally gotten on my laptop and I am going to try to post just one pic. Just to see if it works. I am just afraid I did the last one wrong and it wont be posted...

This is the rescue phal I picked up a few weeks ago, before I repotted it. I just wanted to get at least one good pic of the whole plant...

[Mammatam]

I hope this will be ok, but since I see the last message I posted did go through with the pic showing I am going to go ahead and redo my post with the other pics. I am now using my laptop and I find it a lot easier to navigate and post pic on this forum with it than my phone.

I have 2 Phals I am trying to save as I said before, the pics from before and after the good soak I gave them the other day, the cups I turned into my homemade Orchid Pots and the tent I put over them. I'll keep it to 4 attachments per post.... I'll add the rescue pics in a separate post.

Before Soak


After Soak. As you can see, even after a good soak, some of those aerial roots look pretty bad off. Should I snip them back to the base?


My Pots


Tented, I have since removed the bag, I felt they were being kept too moist, it looked like one of those aerial roots was starting to get fuzzy.


OK,that's all for this post. Next I will show the before and after of the rescue...

[Mammatam]

WOW, so much easier to attach pics from the PC!! Plus the advance controls let ya see what it will look like!! WOOT!
I am going to post pics of the original moss/roots in the pot, the new medium, and the best close up of the bloom I have. I'll post what I believe is the tip still producing a new bud, but it is a little blurry...

Before, that moss was soaked and these pics were taken AFTER I had dug out a bunch of it off the top...


After I repotted in the new bark, freshly watered and yes I was careful not to get water in the crown.


Such a pretty flower, but you can see they had gotten pretty damaged at the store...


I think this tip is still producing, I know it is kinda blurry, but maybe ya'll can tell??



OK That is it for now... I look forward to hearing from ya'll about any advice, tips, encouragement etc etc!!!

[ksriramkumar]

The Phal looks very dehydrated. soaking it in normal water with seaweed extract or KLN would help.

[Mammatam]

Thank you! It's been soaked, 4 days ago. I may do it again in the morning, but I have no Kelp anything.
Posted via Mobile Device

[T4tlrman]

Is this your Mother's Day orchid? Fine looking specimen!

---------- Post Merged at 11:00 PM ----------

I got the impression it's still in bloom. Is it? If so, you're doing something right - if not, healthy leaves make for happy bloomers.

---------- Post Merged at 11:02 PM ----------

Good luck on these Tammy. Hope you can bring them back, T