| You will find that as your orchid population grows, your care methods evolve correspondingly. I started off about 20 years ago with 3 catts in my office that I would inspect and meditate over on a daily basis. I now have an uncountable number of plants (thousands, with a high turnover rate since I sell them), so I basically have two areas - one a bit cooler and damper and the other a bit warmer and drier. Both basically get high light that can be modulated by use of shade cloth. Plants go in one or the other space and get fairly standardized care. Within each space there are microclimates (e.g., a shady cool area low in the greenhouse for pleurothallids, a bright warm area high in the greenhouse for catts and vandas, and a special corner area for plants that need a dry rest in winter. Plants are treated as groups, not individuals, although I do make the rounds every day looking for individuals that show signs of a possible problem. These will be pulled and treated as necessary, getting individual attention until ready to go back to the group. If not worth saving, I toss them. Maybe it sounds cold hearted, but it's better to euthanize one sick seedling than spend a lot of time trying to diagnose and cure it and/or risk having it infect other plants. As time goes on, I am also becoming increasingly discriminating about buying plants from outside sources, prefering to grow my own from flask. That's going to be a long process, but it's slowly happening. Your orchid growing will probably never evolve to this level of craziness, but it's likely that you will start grouping plants that need similar care.  |