TheFury
Oh, the humanity!!
Hey folks,
This is my first attempt at growing orchids. Well, if you must know, it's actually my second - my first attempt happened at college and came to a sudden halt when I thought it would be a great idea to mix up a strong batch of Miracle Gro and flood the pot with it.
But I digress. I got this orchid in the fall as a pair of tiny plants with no flowers in the same pot for $6. Well, it still hasn't flowered, one of the two plants has died, it hasn't grown at all, and now the leaves are wrinkly! D'oh!
As for conditions: it's in my grow rack at the moment, hoping to coax it into recovery. But it usually stays near a south-facing window where it gets an hour or so of direct sun a day. I try my best to keep it shaded from the sun by putting an african violet plant I have between it and the window on the same shelf. Ambient humidity in the room is generally in the 50s. The media is mostly what it came with - seems to be a mix of charcoal, bark, and lava rocks. When I repotted it, I used LFS - by now it's all kinda mixed together.
I read online that wrinkly leaves can either be a sign of too little or too much water. The media always stays slightly damp, so I figured it was too much. I read that I needed to examine the roots - so that's what I did!
A vast majority of the roots were brown and crispy, so I removed them. There were only two roots that were plump and greenish-white. So I removed the dead mass and potted the plant back up.
Is there anything else I can do to encourage this plant to grow and flower? I have Maxsea fertilizer (16-16-16). Is that OK to use, or should I use a dedicated 30-10-10 orchid fertilizer? Several websites that sell Maxsea say it's great for orchids, but I figured I'd get some opinions here.
Thanks!
This is my first attempt at growing orchids. Well, if you must know, it's actually my second - my first attempt happened at college and came to a sudden halt when I thought it would be a great idea to mix up a strong batch of Miracle Gro and flood the pot with it.
But I digress. I got this orchid in the fall as a pair of tiny plants with no flowers in the same pot for $6. Well, it still hasn't flowered, one of the two plants has died, it hasn't grown at all, and now the leaves are wrinkly! D'oh!
As for conditions: it's in my grow rack at the moment, hoping to coax it into recovery. But it usually stays near a south-facing window where it gets an hour or so of direct sun a day. I try my best to keep it shaded from the sun by putting an african violet plant I have between it and the window on the same shelf. Ambient humidity in the room is generally in the 50s. The media is mostly what it came with - seems to be a mix of charcoal, bark, and lava rocks. When I repotted it, I used LFS - by now it's all kinda mixed together.
I read online that wrinkly leaves can either be a sign of too little or too much water. The media always stays slightly damp, so I figured it was too much. I read that I needed to examine the roots - so that's what I did!
A vast majority of the roots were brown and crispy, so I removed them. There were only two roots that were plump and greenish-white. So I removed the dead mass and potted the plant back up.
Is there anything else I can do to encourage this plant to grow and flower? I have Maxsea fertilizer (16-16-16). Is that OK to use, or should I use a dedicated 30-10-10 orchid fertilizer? Several websites that sell Maxsea say it's great for orchids, but I figured I'd get some opinions here.
Thanks!