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Old 08-16-2007, 01:27 AM
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Hi Joyce and welcome to the forum!

The American Orchid Society provides free culture sheets on a variety of orchids. Go to www.aos.org and click on culture sheets. Download the sulture sheets for Paphiopedilums, for Cattleyas, and for Oncidiums.

Also I'm not a fan of the "Orchids for Dummies" type of books. It's just a personal opinion of mine that they don't do a very good job of explaining things. I highly recommend Ortho's All About Orchids. It is clear, concise, and explains things very well, and it's a very affordable book too, less than $20USD.

Lets start with the Paph. Paph Temptation is what we call a "multi-floral" Paph meaning it will have 3+ flowers open all at once. Multi-floral Paphs like warmer temperatures, a minimum of about 60-65F at night and as high as 80-85F or more on a summer day. They like medium light like you'd find in an east window. Paphs like to be kept gently and evenly moist at all times; never waterlogged but never dry. They like fresh air so using a fan for air circulation is recommended. They like fresh potting mix and based on the look of the mix it is currently in it could use repotting. Paphs like to be repotted every year. I recommend a moisture retentive mix of medium to small bark, perilite, charcoal, chpopped sphagnum moss, and possibly some coir chips, peat, coarse sand and shredded oak leaves. The Ortho book describes many kinds of potting mis and what each ingredient does for the mix.

Cattleya culture is pretty well spelled out in the AOS culture sheet.

It sounds like you're all set with Oncidium culture but the culture sheet will give you some additional info should you require it.

The black spots on your leaves in the 3rd pic are probably mild fungal spotting. Black spots and speckles like these are usually fungal in nature and don't come from overwatering as your book suggests but usually result from a combination of high humidity and cool temperatures or poor air flow. So making sure there's plenty of nice fresh air circulating around your plants will help.

Don't hesitate to ask lots of questions here. There are lots of growers here from all over the world and they're eager to help. If you find other orchids you're interested, it's always a good idea to look up their culture before making the purchase. It will help to insure your orchid will do well when you bring it home and help to avoid frustration with loosing plants.

Happy Growing!
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