What's growing here?

[Tikva]

And the GOOD news is - it's not MOLD or SNAILS!!!
I do think this section should be renamed in my honor though. Maybe "Tikva's all encompassing dumb questions for all the experts"


This is my Phal. I am a bit fearful that it's growing mold up thru the stem, but I don't think I can fix it if it is. And I could just be paranoid. The roots are good and it's growing something there.... I wish it were a spike, but it's already in spike...




The second is my Lusidia discolor Jewel orchid... Is it only more leaves? I looked at pictures online and see that they grow straight up. I didn't notice many growing leaves out the sides like this. But I also think that spikes come right out of the leaves too - straight up... I think I see a discolored leaf growing out of the growth so that's probably all it is... But at least it's growing something healthy

[Diane]

The description you gave isn't clear ---- are you talking about the green nubbin at the botton rightside of the plant?

[Tikva]

Yes, on both of them... are they both just new leaves?

[work2ski]

Not sure about the jewel orchid but the 1st one looks like it growing a new root. But you never know it might still be a spike yet. I have seen a phal carried 3 spikes at one time.

[Diane]

The phal at this point looks like a new spike, we'll have to wait a bit and see how it goes. could be a root, but from the picture looks more like a spike. Definitely not a bad thing. The other one appears to be a a new branch, but I don't know much about jewel orchids. Again, it doesn't appear to be anything bad..

[orchid-man]

I go along with Diane's assessment but would add that the phalkie could be doing a keikei

[andy]

Iam confused abut putting polycarbonateon the roof my slat house.the polycarbonate supply state the material lets 20% light how do I figure what shade cloth i need to achieve a 50% shade for my vandas and cats.

[Tikva]

Yeah, that's sort of what I was thinking. Until I took the picture, I had no idea which the Jewel orchid was growing, but I do think it's another branch (boring... lol). And my totally uneducated guess was a spike for the Phal - because it's pointed not round like a root. But like it's growing up and something neat. And because it's in the same place on the other side as the spike I have. I had some trouble with it because I ran out of potting material and then had to soak it, so it was not potted for a few days. Anyway, it dropped all it's flowers but one. I dont know growth habits of orchids yet, but thought it odd that it would spike when it already has one. I sort of imagined if it were going to multi spike that it would do them sort of all at once... but spiking would be cool with me...

[Diane]

Some orchids are just determined to bloom. Spikes start whenever the plant feels like it. (note: behaviour similar to felines) It could be a keiki start, like orchid man said, but at this point it is too early to know for sure. Give it a week or so and then post another photo.....

[orchid-man]

Iam confused abut putting polycarbonateon the roof my slat house.the polycarbonate supply state the material lets 20% light how do I figure what shade cloth i need to achieve a 50% shade for my vandas and cats.

to work out the shade cloth needed to get to 50% shade when using polycarbonate with a 20% rating as a start :-

no shade = X,lets say 100

we are wanting to get 100 / 2 = 50

100 - 20% = 80

shade cloth comes in 25-30%,50% and 70-75%

25% of 80 = 20
30% of 80 = 26
50% of 80 = 40
75% of 80 = 60

so 80 - ? = 50
so 80 - 30 =50
from above it can be seen that there is no shade cloth that has the percentage that we require.

I would personally go to the 50% in this case as it is better to have slightly less light than what would be the ideal of 50%,which would give us 60% shading where as 30% would give us 46% shading