Best way to get started?

[Outsiders71]

What's the cheapest means to get started? The smallest orchids I've found at local farmers markets are like $15/25. I take it these aren't easy to come by in trade/cutting means?

 

[glider14]

garden center orchids are the best place to start. visist some orchid shows...they sell plants! join the AOS. garden center orchids arent the cheapest way to get them but it is deffinatly the easiest.
Alex

 

[elgecko]

Most my orchids I got from making trades with people on Garden Web in the orchid section. I traded some of my CP's for them.
My first orchid I bought at Lowes for $10.00. 3 years later it's still doing great.

There are a few others here at Terraforums that grow orchids that may have extras.

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

Like Glider said JOIN your local orchid society. Even if you don't have any orchids! Tha AOS is 60 bucks a year, and my OS is 15 a year. Prices vary with local OS groups. OUrs just went up from 6 to 15 so we can get bette speakers to come and talk to us. Any who at almost EVERY OS they have a raffle table at the meetings. Older members bring in plants and donate to the OS then members buy raffle tickes. OUrs are 2 bucks each and you normaly get a plant a ticket. I know I do anyways. I have picked up some Nice plants. In fact thats where my HUGE ventrata thats now devided up came from. You may not get the easiest of orchids from there, but you can get some of the better ones and some easy. You just have to know what to look for. HD and lowes has some pretty good easy orchids, but they are generaly pricey for a mass produces clone in my opinion. Sometimes you can find them cheap, but not lately. If your looking for some farely general easy cultivating orchids let me know. I am sure I can find something out in the GH for trade. The easiest ones I would say to start with would be a Phalinopsis, dendrobium, or an oncidium. Cattleyas are easy too, but people generaly don;t give them enough light, and some of them can be stuborn to bloom.

 

[herenorthere]

I got my start in orchids by buying discounted post-bloom hybrids (mostly unnamed) at chain nurseries and groceries.  The closest Home Depot doesn't cut the price enough and the closest Lowes, which has great discounts, wasn't open yet.  I'm pretty sure I never paid more than $5 for any of those plants, other than for a multigrowth named Paph that I think cost me closer to $10.

After a year of growing unidentified Dends, Oncs and Phals, I placed my first orders with orchid nurseries.  In addition to getting ~3 plants, I got a flask of Tolumnias.  A lot of GardenWeb traders were interested in those when I started trading and, from that time on, I fed my orchid and Bromeliad (and started my CP) habit by buying and growing out orchid flasks to get plants for trading.  It's a great "sweat equity" way of expanding an orchid collection, typically costing $30+/- per flask.  Trading orchids is like trading CPs, the more exotic the plants you have, the more exotic you can typically trade for.  So avoid the flasks of Colmanara Wildcat and focus on obscure, but attractive species.

I still occasionally pick up a discounted post-bloom Phal, but only if it has a name tag.  I grow them out and trade them, typically on GW's general plant exchange for non-orchids.

 

[Outsiders71]

Thanks all for the info. So which type is the easiest for beginners and does the sticky thread in this forum cover the up-to-date culture on them? Thanks.

 

[glider14]

Quote[/b] ]and does the sticky thread in this forum cover the up-to-date culture on them?

yep

Quote[/b] ]The easiest ones I would say to start with would be a Phalinopsis, dendrobium, or an oncidium. Cattleyas are easy too, but people generaly don;t give them enough light, and some of them can be stuborn to bloom.

does that answer your question?

Alex

 

[herenorthere]

The ones at Lowes and big grocery stores are all considered "easy", yet I've never done well with those Dendrobiums and Oncidium intergenerics.  But I grow their Phals almost as easily as my yard grows dandelions.  Others have the opposite experience.  So my advice is to keep an eye out for deep discounts on plants and choose what you like best.

 

[Nflytrap]

How easy are Paphs? I've seen them and like them alot.

I've seen the opposite of herenothere. Most people seem I know fail with Phals but if they succeed it is often an Oncidium of sorts.

 

[glider14]

Quote[/b] (Nflytrap @ Aug. 14 2006,12:20)]How easy are Paphs? I've seen them and like them alot.

I've seen the opposite of herenothere. Most people seem I know fail with Phals but if they succeed it is often an Oncidium of sorts.

im one of those!

. yea phals dont like me very much i have Degamora(inter) and Miltondium(inter?) growing beautifuly bu my phals....one a leaf growth thats about it.
Alex

 

[rattler]

i have OK luck with Phals, had an unnamed Oncidium that was the most abused plant in my house and it flowered for me on each new growth which was every 3-4 months. most of my orchids now are small species that i put in my dart tanks. start with the cheap ones and than move on to what ever else you decide you like the look of.

 

[sdeering]

Don't forget to look on the back shelf or table. Once they are done blooming stores may lower the price by 5o%.
Stephen

 

[herenorthere]

Look around before jumping at the first 50% off orchid you see.  That's the greatest discount the nearest HD will give, but others in the area cut deeper and so does the nearest Lowes.  A nearby grocery store sometimes gets a few Phals and discounts them down to $2 - $4 after the blooms wilt.  Phals bloom so long that it takes a lot of patience, but I always glance over to see if any have landed on the quick-sale cart.

But if the discounted cost of a chain store orchid is much beyond $5, leave the plant there and place an order with Oak Hill Gardens instead.  Oak Hill is the king of economical orchids; and with an awesome selection of species to boot.  The website is at http://www.oakhillgardens.com/.

 

[Outsiders71]

Thanks all for the info. I was reading through the culture sticky and I have a question.

I found one halved off at a Super Wal-mart when I was on vacation in PA. I believe it's called the Spider Orchid, has yellow flowers with markings.

Is it normal for Orchids to have exposed roots, especially at the surface (feeder roots?). Or is this a sign that it needs replanted? If it needs replanted I'm going to get some orchid bark and make a mix of bark, coco fiber and perlite.

Thanks again.

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

Pots are for our conveinence. Not the orchid. You can;t keep many orchids in a pot easily. Its normal to see arial roots. Sometimes its a sign that the mix is too wet and they want to get dryer. As a general rule you should repotr anything you buy to check the root system anyway. Bark is a good base mix to start with and then modify it from there as you learn your growing conditions and habits. I will respond more after I have had some sleep.

 

[Clint]

i like the way aerial roots look. like a million earthworms crawling for attention

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

Then Clint I need to take you a picture of a purparata I have mounted. Its got a steady stream of arials coming off the bottom of the treefern slab. Looks pretty neat. Also OUtsider, there are some orchids you do not even grow in a pot. May vanda orchids are just grown in a little pot to have something to hang the hanger on. All the roots are exposed and just hang out the pot. You will learn over time that you addapt your potting style to your growing conditions for your plants. Its alot harder to change the environment, and a little less dificult, but still hard to shange your habits. So the easiest, Atleast for me, is to change the media I grow a certain plant in or go from pot to mount, or mount to pot. I basicly change the way I house the plant to go with what the plant wants. So starting with a basic mix from lowes gives you a good baseline. Don;t forget to soak the bark for aboug an hour before you pot with it. The stuff is hard to wet sometimes. So you pot with the basic mix, and if you notice that you have a regular watering scedual, and you have multiple plants, but a few seem to dry out faster than others. Instead of spot watering you just pot the ones that dry out in a more water retentive mix unless they like drying out. For example if I grew a C, walkeriana(sp) I thin thats the species I am thinking of, but anywho that plant likes to stay really dry. So instead of skipping it when I waster I pot it in such a way that it will dry out really quickly like in a basket with aliflour or gravel or something like that. You want to think about the people who will take care of your plants when you go on vacation. Trust me you need to make it as simple as possible, or you could end up with some dead or very unhappy plants when you return. My GH is setup where on hot days it can be safely watered every 2 days with no harm done to the plants. So growing orchids IS NOT hard, it just takes a little learning. Feel free to ask any questions you wish. No question is a dumb one, and someone will be glad to help out. We all were newbies once, and had questions. In fact alot of my questions were answered when someone else already asked the question, or I read something for the sake of reading it, then that situation arrises I already have the answer. Good luck!

 

[Clint]

i used to think growing orchids was hard, just because of the way they looked. Eventually i grew an orchid and they aren't any harder to grow than anything else.

 

[JB_OrchidGuy]

Some can be tricky, but for the most part they are no harder than anything. Your absolutely correct Clint. You just have to knwo how to do it. Your not born with the knoledge on how to grow something. Most people are just lucky in the fact that some plants can prettymuch grow on their own. Orchids just need a little help. Whooooooo Clint. One more post and your at 3000 buddy! You go boy!

 

[Clint]

happy birthday for clint.