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Posted 2w ago by @LustrousCactus

First Orchid Plant

I am new to orchid care! My sister bought this for my birthday in October. Then the flowers fell and the buds would wilt before blooming so after watching MissOrchidGirl on YouTube, I repotted at the beginning of January in a general mix medium. She just had one single bud now which is neither wilting nor budding, which seems like a small improvement. I'm rooting for it.

I water her once a week after looking at her roots but I felt like they turned silver very quickly and I was dehydrating her (I still held off on watering!). I recently started using a wooden stick, which still feels cold so I just hold off on watering for another few days.

One of the leaves has started yellowing, which I have read should be okay for older leaves? The cut has always been there since I got it. I also noticed on one leaf it has a bit of a wiggly line? I'm not sure how long it's been there or if I should be worried.

I bought the MiracleGro orchid fertilizer spray before I read mixed reviews about foliar fertilizers so I'm looking into getting something else, but any recommendations for Canada would be helpful! In the meantime, can I just soak her roots in the fertilizer directly or do I need to dilute it further? Or use as directed? I read it's a pretty weak fertilizer...

Any other tips would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!
#PhalaenopsisOrchid #OrchidLovers #OrchidOrg
2ft to light, indirect
3” pot with drainage
Last watered 6 days ago
Best Answer
Hi, and welcome to Greg. I wouldn't worry too much about dehydration at this point. Signs of would not only be shown in the dropped buds but also in the leaves (after a while), and they look okay to me. No wrinkles, and they look relatively plump and can hold themselves up, which is what you want. Maybe they are drooping ever so slightly, but it's hard to tell from the picture. I would say, you water overall correctly, especially since this doesn't seem to be a pure bark mix. As long as you water once they get silver, you are golden. Don't wait longer if they are silver already. If you feel it's getting too much of a hassle to keep up, you could add some more sphagnum to the mix.
I don't think the stick method will be very accurate here since it's mostly used in soil to see if the damp soil sticks to it, which simply isn't applicable to orchid media in most cases. But, again, I think from what you are saying and from the looks of the leaves, your watering frequency seems fine to me. Just continue to go by the roots. Though maybe at some time you might have waited a bit too long. When phals are watered too infrequently, the leaf can split, so maybe that's the cause of the line you are seeing.
Orchid fertilizer should *always* be used as instructed. There are so many products that work in so many different ways, so we have to rely on the instructions of the producer. Maaaaybe, if you notice fertilizer burns after some years or notice that it could bloom better, you could play around with the dosage with enough experience, but for now, i would not advise it. And even if you adjust the dosage, I'm referring to the frequency that you use the ready product (if necessary, diluted as per instructions). If the product says dilute, dilute. Otherwise, you risk burning the roots. Unless you spray with the undiluted product and and directly water, you might burn the roots.
The yellow leaf is normal, as long as there are no other definite signs of stress, like prematurely dropping blooms and buds.
Now to the buds: how long after you received the plant, did the buds drop? If they were already on the plant and spotted soon after you got it, I'm afraid that can happen. Simply from stress that it might have airway received in the shop, or on the way over, or just simply by the new environment. The buds are very sensitive to any stress that the orchid is experiencing.
If you feel that that cannot be it, then maybe look in it's surroundings, if in the nearer vicinity there might be some problematic things. Is there a drought, where you've placed it. Does it experience regular big changes in temperature or humidity for some reason. Are there bananas or apples nearby?
To me it sounds, like she recovered well enough from whatever the issue was to try to bloom again, but only for a bit, because the last bloom was so recent that it doesn't expend more energy than just one or two flowers.
Miss orchid girl is a great start. Just keep on doing your thing, monitor it, until you feel secure that is doing well and enjoy your blooms
@LustrousCactus Welcome to the Greg community! I am not too familiar with Orchids, they generally hate me! But I know that there are Orchid experts on this app Iβ€˜m trying to locate them for you! I am so sorry but I am unable to locate the orchid expert. But if you add a hashtag like #OrchidLovers or #OrchidOrg that might draw more attention to your post! Keeping my fingers crossed 🀞. Good luck with your Orchid which is quite lovely πŸ₯°
Hello my fellow orchid grower. Do you give your orchid a good soak? I soak mine once every 10 days in room temp water. The bark needs a good soak to retain the moisture to keep roots hydrated. I too use the Miracle grow orchid feed I feel as if it’s safe. And honestly I don’t hardly feed. I seldom feed and I have good results. I do spray the bare roots and spray the top of the medium so when I water it soaks from the top to the bottom when I water. Sometimes the bottom leaves turn yellow.. I always have thought it was from being so close to the moisture of the medium. When they yellow I cut them off. Also remember if your spike finishes blooming if it’s brown cut it down. If it’s green leave it be. Often they will throw a spike off of the original bloom spike .
@Hoyaobsessed hello yes! I soak once a week for 30 minutes in room temperature water, then let it drain in the sink for 10-15 minutes. It's pretty dry right now in the winter so the medium dries out really quickly.

I will give that method a try for the fertilizer. How do you know how much to spray on?

Thank you for all your advice! πŸ₯°
@Ms.Persnickety thank you for the welcome!
I just give it a good spray down enough to coat the exposed roots that climb out of the pot and the top of the medium. I have 4 that are throwing spikes right now and I am so thrilled!
@MusicalRedmint thank you very much! That is honestly super reassuring to hear. I will keep an eye on the leaves but I think they are overall doing okay.

I don't mind watering more since she's my only plant! I check every day anyway but I just really want her to make it and thrive. I'll make sure to water according to the roots. I just started using the stick because I was having issues getting a finger past the top to feel for moisture (it's a fairly small pot) so right now I'm just seeing if the stick is still cold/damp or if I should start thinking about watering.

That makes sense about the leaf line though. Before I repotted, it felt like the medium was both still damp but the roots were silver so I was waiting longer, closer to two weeks. I think that was because of the nursery plug that was keeping everything too wet in the middle.

The buds and flowers dropped probably within 2-3 weeks of bringing it home, so that makes sense too. There is a heater vent on the floor by the window so I try to keep it far away while still getting enough light. It's about 0.5m or less from the window. Otherwise, nothing else is around but just the usual winter conditions of some cold snaps and overcast skies.

Thank you very much for the advice and reassurance. It really helps a lot. ❀️
@MusicalRedmint I do have one question for you, how long did it take you to type that?
@Plants_Galore πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚πŸ˜‚ no idea. I was half sleep typing since it was already last midnight. I just saw the post and, as always, just wanted to give one concise and brief answer. Turns out, as suspected, I really can not do that, no matter how hard I try πŸ˜….
Just in case you were serious, it was actually okay this time. I swipe and am relatively fast that way. However, sometimes, my display rebells, and I have so many autocorrect mistakes that the text becomes illegible, and those long texts *really* take ages.
@LustrousCactus The leaves show the most signs of real distress, so it's always good to watch them. But they are slow to show it. Before there are wrinkles, they tend to get a bit thinner and get limp. If you notice that, it's good to take a closer look.
Just one more question, just so there is no misunderstanding: which root are you watching? Two weeks with wet medium seems long. And wet medium and silver roots just doesn't make sense unless you have only been testing the nursery plug. Now that that's fine, I also don't think fine treating the medium isn't very effective. Since it is (hopefully) in a transparent pot, I would use that to its full extent. The roots I was talking about, where those inside the medium, which are visible because of the transparent pot. The root on top isn't a good indicator because it doesn't get as much water probably and dries out way faster.
All the rest sounds fine. Happy blooms
🌸🌿🌸
@MusicalRedmint yes I was checking the roots in the medium. It came in a clear pot with only drainage holes on the bottom but I've repotted into one that also has ventilation slits on the side. So maybe I was just not very good and looking at the roots yet πŸ˜…

Thank you for all your help!