No one will throw Tomatoes. Orchid growing is very different to gardening. Perhaps if you describe the place where you are trying to grow the Cattleyas one of the locals will be be able to help.

Lets see if I can use your example to list some common mistakes with beginners.

Biggest mistake I see is to think a pot of 90% roots needs a bigger pot. Orchids should be kept in the smallest pot possible. Most orchids will bloom in pots from 2-4 inches. A 6 inch pot is probably 2-4 years older than a 4 inch pot and still will have a small shock issue when re-potted.

I often re-pot 6 inch pots back to 4 inches. Big is not always better.

An oversize pot retains too much water causing rot problems. It almost guarentees that the plant will miss its next flowering season while it tries to fill the pot with roots.

Mixing medium like you did is a high risk venture. Some expert growers can do it for specific types but it requires a lot of skill. Orchid medium needs to dry evenly and your moss in the center will always be wetter than the bark on the outside. It can work with Phalaenopsis in 6-8 inch pots making specimum plants but again it requires considerable skill.

I understand this forum and others recomend bark over moss, but being a commercial grower I can tell you it does not always work.

Orchids will grow in or on anything. They just grow differently. Moss holds more water and therefor is watered less often. If you are a heavy waterer you will do badly with most on most orchids, but if you ignor your orchids for periods or travel moss can be excellent.

Light green leaves are often suggested to mean good light levels and dark green less than optimum. This indicates the amount of chlorophyll the plant produced to grow the food for the plant. It is not a perfect example and some species and hybrids are just darker or lighter than others. It only works when comparing the same plant.

Biggest mistake for beginners is to think orchids need our immediate attention. Your plants were doing well and should have been given more time to adapt to your home.

Orchids have survived for millions of years. They grow in spite of use not because of us.

As far as the transplanting of dirt plants and I as understand what you do, you go from soil to soil you don't really change/mix the two mediums. Going from spagh to bark, now that's a change/mix of mediums ;-)

Maybe if you had used a bigger pot and more spagh (same medium like dirt to dirt) it might be OK, but honestly based upon your previous 'Worried' post and those pics and responses, I would have left well enough alone for a few months, especially the one spiking.

If it were me and you still have them with their original root ball and spagh, I'd pull 'em out of the bigger pots and stick the original portion back in thier original pots just like you received them. As a 'general' rule, consider replanting once they are done blooming and you see new root growth.

My 2 cents and worth about that much ;-)

Good luck!!!

Bob

Cattleya in sphagnum can be tricky. It requires high light, warm temperatures and good air movement. The sphagnum needs to get crispy between watering. I do it with my Laelia anceps but I am very wary of watering too soon.

With the medium mixed like that, you have to treat the plant as if it were in all sphagnum. It will appear that the bark is dried out while the sphagnum is still wet. Use a bamboo skewer to test for moisture.

The point about pot size if important. The roots should just fit.

Watering cattleyas every five days is a bit too much, even after repotting. Cattleyas like to dry out before being watered again.

It will take several years for the bark to begin to disintigrate. In the meantime, as Jerry says, the moss in the center of your root ball will be sopping wet while the bark above will look crispy dry and you will think the plant needs water. As Richardol says, use the skewer method.

In growing orchids you will have to reverse some of the things you did with houseplants. Orchid roots like to be tight in their pots. Not only do they bloom better, but too much room will keep the roots too wet. Orchids should be repotted when they are growing, not when resting. Orchids like to dry out.

Thanks so much everyone! I really appreciate the fantastic advice and everyone's kind thoughtful words in spite! of my deserving the rotten tomato hurling, hee-hee! Poor orchids will probably do some hurling by refusing to bloom the second season around....Bob, poor orchids, their original pots were completely destroyed when I sliced them with my scissors...

At least I'm glad I did one thing right... I watered around the bark areas mostly and not the sphagnum moss...I sort of noticed that orchid roots are very active, they tend to reach out for that extra moisture if they need it, so that's why I just watered around the bark instead of the moss being that the moss still had slight moisture in it.

Thanks again too Richardol for that very good skewer method.
and JerryMeola for the how and why reasons behind orchids.

So far my spike's 2 buds (yeah, I know I'm obsessive with observations) have increased in size by about an inch each and their stalks are still extending upwards. But I guess the real test is to see if they ever get to their full sized blooms 7"...if they bloom prematurely it will definitely be my own fault and lesson-learned.

Arthurm, I'm such a kook... I will actually put them in the East-facing sun in the living room and when it gets to mid-late afternoon, I'll place them in my West-facing window to make sure they get all the light they can...Good thing I have only 2 orchids...LOL! sigh... what a weirdo...

Well looks like I have to be very careful! not to overwater... Good thing is that they are close by the air-conditioning vent...so they'll have more time to dry out in case they got too wet. However I heard that this is not ideal normally because it will dry out the leaves... Is this true? once my bark and moss dry out, do I need to water spritz the leaves... I wouldn't put them close to the vent but I have no choice since the windows are by the vent.

Your catts will like the bright light/sunshine, but be careful that you don't let the leaves burn. If there's a sheer curtain or a blind you should be fine. My west windows are good since they are lightly shaded by a large oak tree. You can feel the leaves of your plants, if they are hot, they will burn. I learned this rule the hard way! Poor plants...sunburned plants look worse than sunburned people. Our skin recovers, a plants leaves do not!

Enjoy your plants, once they bloom, you'll be hooked!

Sheila :)

Welcome to the world of Orchids :) Hopefully you'll really enjoy them as much as you enjoy your other plants - many of us started off (and still do) gardening, but there's something quite special about these plants. Don't worry if you kill a few..most of us have killed many! There's a lot to learn, but everyone so far has given spectacular advice and you will find yourself enjoying the hobby a lot because plants will start 'speaking' to you, telling you what tehy like...(oh wait maybe that's just me hearing voices lol)

Just a tip on watering - with orchids, you may wish to soak the entire pot while watering (ie plunge the pot up to nearly the brim in water). Soak for 2-3 minutes, once a week or so, depending on your conditions. The reason is that many orchids enjoy a wet-dry cycle...particularly for most catts and some dends. By sprinkling water around the roots, it is very difficult to achieve this, as the water just slips off the bark and out the bottom of the pot...so either they will likely be too dry, or too wet. But plunging, you know everything is quite wet, but you also know that in a week, everything will be quite dry...so all you need to do is get the timing right. Less guess work = more success!

Misting is generally not recommended (suprise!!) because you may promote fungal growth...typically only people with green houses or terrariums with plentiful buoyant air movement will mist plants to keep humidity up. Surprisingly (in my experience at least) most orchids are quite tolerant even despite dry conditions...not sure how dry Kansas gets, but I was growing phals and catts at a relative humidity of 40% with no issue.

-calvin

hee-hee, Granniek as soon as you mentioned checking the heat I ran to my orchid and felt it, lol!

Calvin, Granniek, and everyone who wrote, again, thanks for the cross-our-fingers-well-wishing...

Calvin, I am glad you reconfirmed about not paying attention to what I originally read about the spritzing (I didn't read it on this forum but on some online orchid care instructions)... When I first read those instructions I was thinking hmmm, spritzing, that's odd... You see spritzing roses is a huge no-no! it will cause blackspot and a whole array of nasty fungus...But then I thought well, maybe the reason why the online instructions stated this was because orchids are "immune" to these fungus vulnerabilities because they originate in jungle, tropical areas...Well so much goes for my "invented" theory about why someone would suggest this...

Kansas by the way is very hot! and the sun glares like heck! if I were to stick them outdoors the poor orchids would roast! unlike the lovely cooler weather of Toronto...My orchids are pretty close to the air-conditioning vents which is not ideal because it dries out the plant, but that! is so much more preferable to yucky fungus.

Calvin, two of my immediate cousins live in Canada. One lives in Newfoundland and the other now is in Ottawa. I love how beautiful autumn is in Canada... you just can't get those Canadian rich candy scarlets, brilliant oranges, tangerines here in the Midwest U.S.A... All we get is murky browns and muddy reds at the best... I have wonderful childhood memories of visiting my cousins in Newfoundland. The ocean cliffs are sooo gorgeous!

And oh, by the way, everyone, shame on me...there were quite a few online warnings to keep the pot on the small side, but nooooo, pigheaded me thought o.k. I better ask the experts here at this forum as the final say-so... Sort of reminds me that I'm like the pesky kid in the classroom who won't shut up and asks the stupidest things and can't seem to listen, hahahaha! But now I can sit back down on my seat and shut up! LOL!

Newfoundland is still on my 'must-see' places - one of the flaws of being a Torontonian is that you get disillusioned into thinking the city is the best place to be, which is definitely quite untrue. We have great autumns, but our summer basically started 2 weeks ago, so I definitely envy you guys down south...to be able grow orchids outside (under some shade cloth of course) must be such a treat.

You have a good sense of plants, so just keep your ears and mind open to ideas, experiment, have fun, take it easy and don't stress - everything will be great in the end and the plants will reward you for sure :-)

hi, everyone. and again thanks very much, Calvin, for being such a wonderful cheering presence as well... As a newbie I had so many scares about interrupting the bloom cycle with transplanting (brand new spike, walnut sized buds), getting way too big pots, not understanding that light colored orchid leaves are o.k. , and! freaking out that my beginning orchid blossoms had no scent (I really hate roses with little or no scent-and to me a cattelya without scent is likewise very disappointing unless of course it is one of those exceptionally exotic non-cattelya orchids).

But happily my orchids seem to be forgiving me for my boo-boos, or at least for this bloom cycle... I have been very spoiled by my Dad's ancient orchid which gave immediate scent even in the "bud stage" whereas mine did not start giving scent until yesterday when it was 2/3rds open...Now I can even detect fragrance as far as 5' away, hurray!

Here are my photo updates...I'm still! waiting for the blooms to fully open... From top to bottom the blossoms are 7" tall, from side to side the blossoms are only fraction wider than 6".

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Now here are my questions:

1. is there hope for these old pseudobulbs, are these tiny bud leaves peeking out? If these are indeed tiny buds, what would happen if I were to use very sharp rose pruning scissors to cut right below the "hopeless" backbulbs if I prune out all the woodiness and inner dead stalk, can that encourage a possible new bud? (see the 3rd pic, behind is a woody deadend...)

baby bud?
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baby bud?
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dead stalk stuck inside bulb.
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2. is this a leaf? or a beginning spike? (belongs to my other non-blooming orchid-Lc Longriver Compton 'Golden Star'. It just appeared 2 nights ago.

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My pot is exactly 7" in diameter and shows my true miscalculations... I was treating the orchid if it were a regular houseplant instead of keeping the roots tight. Here are the full proportions of my plants. hee-hee! Eluane, my border collie, is confused and wonders what I'm trying to plant.

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