Experiment away!! That's how you find out what will and won't work for your orchids. I have orchids in Leca, Pon, Spagh Moss, Bark and Lava Rock. It's your channel and your plants, so I don't think you guys need to apologize for what you do and what content you put out. (just my personal rant of an opinion). Love your channel and I am looking forward to the results of your experiment!
thank you so much, you are very kind. I'm excited to finally do this experiment, it was a bit impromptu, but i think otherwise it wouldn't have happened!
Thanks for taking us along on this interesting experiment. I can totally understand how things are when health issues get in the way of taking care of your orchids. In the last year I don't even want to think about how many plants have died on me for that reason. You just have to let them go and try not to feel bad about it. Good luck with this experiment, I'll be interested to see the outcome.
Sphagnum and leca honestly seems like a very intriguing idea and I’m very interested. In theory it sounds like it could counter some of the cons of leca being drying and too coarse for roots, yet also help the sphagnum to stay fresher from sharing the hydration with the leca. Cool idea
Thar's what we were thinking. i also think the sphagnum might help maintain a lower pH, but we're going to have to test that later. thank you for watching!
Very interesting! I think the phal will perk back up cause many of her roots were in the air! The cattleya, how funny 😂 your least favorite but now you have 4! 😂 I so understand! I would have done same thing! 😂can't wait to see how they all do! Looking forward to update! 😊
Thank you so much! i almost scrapped the whole video, i was in such a ranty mood! i think 3 of the 4 cattleyas might end up as christmas gifts at some point ahah
Just an idea. But some people(namely myself haha) have major interest in recovering orchids or saving orchids, that you never need to trash anything. I don’t know if you have a community of orchid lovers where you are but I personally would take any problem orchid and try to save it. Even viruses or whatever else. For educational purposes and because of course I love them. I am glad you’re not just deciding the orchids are not worth saving cause they can always surprise you and since you don’t know the illness, it may not even be an issue. We would have to trash so many orchids if we did this everytime one got sick or pests, or fungal issues arrived in our collections. Also wanted to say I greatly appreciate your honesty and rawness in showing your process and your decision making. That is a virtuous thing in my opinion. And a recommendation that I have just tried for the first time but have seen many much more experienced growers reccommend this very method for dealing with very established but overgrown plants like the cattleya you’ve had to deal with the ramifications of it being wild in and out of the pot haha. Basically you just take the previous plant and its pot and try to remove any old media you can get to but even if you can’t, you just put the whole thing in another pot of fresh media. Of course it’s a good idea to tidy up some of the very wild growths and make the plant a bit more even as far as directions of growth/s and future growth pattern. The benefit of this is obviously that the roots are not disturbed but you also get the benefits of being able to hydrate the plant and not have to repot for a long while. PS. I like your experiment ideas! And I think this is actually a perfect way to get some answers about how to grow the same plant. Sorry for such a long comment! -L
Don't be sorry, we really apreciate it! I also try to save everything, there's a part of the hallway that always has one or more sick plants in isolation. this was the first time i was going to throw away "healthy" sections of plant, and still, they ended up in pots. But i think from now on i will separate them and put them in my luggage when i go home for the hollidays, and everyone will get orchids for christmas! I always thought no one outside of the hobby would want orchids that aren't flowering, but if they don't want them, they can always pass them on.
@@PetalsSepalsandSpines Great idea! Or ship them to me! lol! o_- I really hope my comment didn’t come off as condescending or rude or anything. I was just blabbing because I was scared the orchid was going to be lost. But I honestly think what you ended up doing with the experiment was the perfect solution!
It's not that surprising that you don't know what is wrong with your orchids. I won't claim I have any better answers but one thing I know is that orchidboard peddles nothing but lies and is run by absolute amateurs that have no clue whatsoever. If you were to post on orchidboard what were wrong with your orchids I can guarantee you the only answer you would get would be "dehydrated" which doesn't really help does it? The truth is which you will never hear on orchidboard is that thrips will eat roots! The result is that only aerial roots remain and if they are aerial then they have a much harder time absorbing water. I don't want to be critical of the growers on orchidboard but it really doesn't help new growers if they don't get told useful answers and think they are asking experts and all they get told is useless answers. The way I figured out how clueless orchidboard growers were was by watching youtube videos and from personal experience so your video's help too. What I wish was that there was a good english speaking forum on the web that had answers for beginners trying to figure out how to grow orchids. You know one where at least one expert who actually grows orchids knows what they are talking about... Not people trying to make themselves feel better by saying "just give it some more water and it will be fine" Now I know what you will be thinking, this is very rude of me. But I know what orchidboard is like. They purposefully kick out anyone more knowledgeable than the long term group running orchidboard because they want to be known as the most knowlegeable. I will let you consider this one thing, feel free to ask this question on orchidboard. Considering it is the best orchid growing forum in the world right, surely at least one person on orchidboard must have won an AOS award right....? I mean if they know orchids that well and are expert growers like they claim all the time, then surely out of the thousands of AOS awards that have been awarded to growers around the world, surely just one single grower on orchidboard must have won just one single award right? But the sad truth is that with all the misinformation that gets peddled on orchidboard new growers are lucky if they even keep an orchid alive longterm. Nobody would win an award because none of the usual people giving out advice would ever or have ever won one. Now I know its not necessarily about the awards and its about the joy of growing and that is all true. But it really helps in my opinion to get answers from someone who could win an award compared to someone who never could no matter how hard they tried. I will just let that sink in. Again I don't want to be critical of other growers, far from it. I want beginners to have fun growing orchids. But then ask yourself what is more fun, to become a successful orchid grower or to have orchids struggle? That is my main gripe really. If you follow my green pets, he doesn;t really post on that forum much anymore if at all. I don't really follow the forum much at all so I wouldn;t really know but I do know he tried to follow the advice given on orchidboard for a year..... Then he secretly gave up doing that. Now I wish people would be more honest but admittedly he probably knew if he had told others what he discovered he would have been banned. Like I mentioned. Anyway now he uses slow release fertilizer and his plants have recuperated from his experiement. He did not mention any of this on his channel but like I said if you follow him you'd know he tried and then switched. Why would anyone switch if the orchidboard advice was the best in the world? Well I hope in time you will figure it out if you haven't yet already. Like said it's a shame really more than anything. You are not the only grower who has had a struggling orchid and wish there was a forum online that could give you the right answer. You know something like google just for orchids...
I wish such a thing existed too! i have tried orchidboard, and facebook groups, to different degrees of success. But you are right, it is very difficult to find definite advice in these situations. i mostly read here and there and watch videos for fun, and make my own conclusions based on experience.
@@PetalsSepalsandSpines sorry I was in a grumpy mood, we all have struggling plants at times and thrips are a nightmare so I guess your video triggered me a little. I've thought so many times I have beaten them for them to come back but fingers crossed this year is the year they are all finally gone. Like I mentioned thrips eat roots and some people never get rid of them and thus assume that orchids only produce roots at a certain time of the year. It's true that they only produce a new set of roots at certain times but the rest of the year as long as the thrips are completely gone and the orchid is well looked after they will carry on growing on existing roots and branch out and produce roots for the rest of the year too. That is how I have been monitoring which plants still might have a problem. Thanks for being understanding with my way of commenting.
Experiment away!! That's how you find out what will and won't work for your orchids. I have orchids in Leca, Pon, Spagh Moss, Bark and Lava Rock. It's your channel and your plants, so I don't think you guys need to apologize for what you do and what content you put out. (just my personal rant of an opinion). Love your channel and I am looking forward to the results of your experiment!
thank you so much, you are very kind. I'm excited to finally do this experiment, it was a bit impromptu, but i think otherwise it wouldn't have happened!
Thanks for taking us along on this interesting experiment. I can totally understand how things are when health issues get in the way of taking care of your orchids. In the last year I don't even want to think about how many plants have died on me for that reason. You just have to let them go and try not to feel bad about it. Good luck with this experiment, I'll be interested to see the outcome.
thank you so much for your kind words! It sucks when health impacts our lives like this, we're still adjusting.
Sphagnum and leca honestly seems like a very intriguing idea and I’m very interested. In theory it sounds like it could counter some of the cons of leca being drying and too coarse for roots, yet also help the sphagnum to stay fresher from sharing the hydration with the leca.
Cool idea
Thar's what we were thinking. i also think the sphagnum might help maintain a lower pH, but we're going to have to test that later. thank you for watching!
@@PetalsSepalsandSpines hope to discover your discoveries on the matter. Thanks for the good videos
Really like where you ended up with the Cattleya, interested to see how they grow on.
We'll make an update video at some point! thank you for watching
Very interesting! I think the phal will perk back up cause many of her roots were in the air!
The cattleya, how funny 😂 your least favorite but now you have 4! 😂 I so understand! I would have done same thing! 😂can't wait to see how they all do! Looking forward to update! 😊
Thank you so much! i almost scrapped the whole video, i was in such a ranty mood! i think 3 of the 4 cattleyas might end up as christmas gifts at some point ahah
@PetalsSepalsandSpines That would work! 🤣 I'm sure others would love it in their collection too! 😁
Just an idea. But some people(namely myself haha) have major interest in recovering orchids or saving orchids, that you never need to trash anything. I don’t know if you have a community of orchid lovers where you are but I personally would take any problem orchid and try to save it. Even viruses or whatever else. For educational purposes and because of course I love them.
I am glad you’re not just deciding the orchids are not worth saving cause they can always surprise you and since you don’t know the illness, it may not even be an issue. We would have to trash so many orchids if we did this everytime one got sick or pests, or fungal issues arrived in our collections.
Also wanted to say I greatly appreciate your honesty and rawness in showing your process and your decision making. That is a virtuous thing in my opinion.
And a recommendation that I have just tried for the first time but have seen many much more experienced growers reccommend this very method for dealing with very established but overgrown plants like the cattleya you’ve had to deal with the ramifications of it being wild in and out of the pot haha.
Basically you just take the previous plant and its pot and try to remove any old media you can get to but even if you can’t, you just put the whole thing in another pot of fresh media. Of course it’s a good idea to tidy up some of the very wild growths and make the plant a bit more even as far as directions of growth/s and future growth pattern.
The benefit of this is obviously that the roots are not disturbed but you also get the benefits of being able to hydrate the plant and not have to repot for a long while.
PS. I like your experiment ideas! And I think this is actually a perfect way to get some answers about how to grow the same plant.
Sorry for such a long comment!
-L
Don't be sorry, we really apreciate it! I also try to save everything, there's a part of the hallway that always has one or more sick plants in isolation. this was the first time i was going to throw away "healthy" sections of plant, and still, they ended up in pots. But i think from now on i will separate them and put them in my luggage when i go home for the hollidays, and everyone will get orchids for christmas! I always thought no one outside of the hobby would want orchids that aren't flowering, but if they don't want them, they can always pass them on.
@@PetalsSepalsandSpines
Great idea! Or ship them to me!
lol! o_-
I really hope my comment didn’t come off as condescending or rude or anything. I was just blabbing because I was scared the orchid was going to be lost. But I honestly think what you ended up doing with the experiment was the perfect solution!
@@LauraStansfield-tw7xb absolutely not! I liked your comment, and i would gladly share the repeat orchids if it wasn't for distance :)
It's not that surprising that you don't know what is wrong with your orchids. I won't claim I have any better answers but one thing I know is that orchidboard peddles nothing but lies and is run by absolute amateurs that have no clue whatsoever. If you were to post on orchidboard what were wrong with your orchids I can guarantee you the only answer you would get would be "dehydrated" which doesn't really help does it?
The truth is which you will never hear on orchidboard is that thrips will eat roots! The result is that only aerial roots remain and if they are aerial then they have a much harder time absorbing water.
I don't want to be critical of the growers on orchidboard but it really doesn't help new growers if they don't get told useful answers and think they are asking experts and all they get told is useless answers.
The way I figured out how clueless orchidboard growers were was by watching youtube videos and from personal experience so your video's help too.
What I wish was that there was a good english speaking forum on the web that had answers for beginners trying to figure out how to grow orchids.
You know one where at least one expert who actually grows orchids knows what they are talking about... Not people trying to make themselves feel better by saying "just give it some more water and it will be fine"
Now I know what you will be thinking, this is very rude of me. But I know what orchidboard is like. They purposefully kick out anyone more knowledgeable than the long term group running orchidboard because they want to be known as the most knowlegeable.
I will let you consider this one thing, feel free to ask this question on orchidboard. Considering it is the best orchid growing forum in the world right, surely at least one person on orchidboard must have won an AOS award right....?
I mean if they know orchids that well and are expert growers like they claim all the time, then surely out of the thousands of AOS awards that have been awarded to growers around the world, surely just one single grower on orchidboard must have won just one single award right?
But the sad truth is that with all the misinformation that gets peddled on orchidboard new growers are lucky if they even keep an orchid alive longterm. Nobody would win an award because none of the usual people giving out advice would ever or have ever won one.
Now I know its not necessarily about the awards and its about the joy of growing and that is all true. But it really helps in my opinion to get answers from someone who could win an award compared to someone who never could no matter how hard they tried.
I will just let that sink in. Again I don't want to be critical of other growers, far from it. I want beginners to have fun growing orchids. But then ask yourself what is more fun, to become a successful orchid grower or to have orchids struggle?
That is my main gripe really. If you follow my green pets, he doesn;t really post on that forum much anymore if at all. I don't really follow the forum much at all so I wouldn;t really know but I do know he tried to follow the advice given on orchidboard for a year.....
Then he secretly gave up doing that. Now I wish people would be more honest but admittedly he probably knew if he had told others what he discovered he would have been banned.
Like I mentioned.
Anyway now he uses slow release fertilizer and his plants have recuperated from his experiement. He did not mention any of this on his channel but like I said if you follow him you'd know he tried and then switched. Why would anyone switch if the orchidboard advice was the best in the world?
Well I hope in time you will figure it out if you haven't yet already. Like said it's a shame really more than anything. You are not the only grower who has had a struggling orchid and wish there was a forum online that could give you the right answer.
You know something like google just for orchids...
I wish such a thing existed too! i have tried orchidboard, and facebook groups, to different degrees of success. But you are right, it is very difficult to find definite advice in these situations. i mostly read here and there and watch videos for fun, and make my own conclusions based on experience.
@@PetalsSepalsandSpines sorry I was in a grumpy mood, we all have struggling plants at times and thrips are a nightmare so I guess your video triggered me a little. I've thought so many times I have beaten them for them to come back but fingers crossed this year is the year they are all finally gone. Like I mentioned thrips eat roots and some people never get rid of them and thus assume that orchids only produce roots at a certain time of the year. It's true that they only produce a new set of roots at certain times but the rest of the year as long as the thrips are completely gone and the orchid is well looked after they will carry on growing on existing roots and branch out and produce roots for the rest of the year too. That is how I have been monitoring which plants still might have a problem. Thanks for being understanding with my way of commenting.