Newbee In Florida

[monicamacho]

I'm hoping that someone can help me. My orchids were doing wonderful under one of my orange trees, that was until Hurricane Wilma came thru, I had forgotten to take them in and they blew all over the place. One is doing o.k. as I repotted all of them. My oncidium is not blooming anymore and the other two look like they are hanging on for their last breath. I repotted three of them, put new bark, fertilized and water them regular, but the three won't bloom. What should I do?

Thanks so much.

Monica in Florida

[Dave]

Hi Monica,
Sorry to hear about your orchids. Hurricanes can be scary and I'm sure the winds traumatized your orchids. Can you tell us more, i.e they have yellow leaves, or missing leaves? Are you hanging them in the same spot?

Some orchids seem to take awhile to recover in certain instances. I know when I had leaf rot on one of my orchids, I had to cut some infected leaves and I was left with a one leafed Phal lol. As you can imagine it looked pretty funny. A year later it now has one big leaf and a wee tiny leaf...I haven't been

[jerrymeola]

I have a number of traumatized orchids as a result of Wilma. My wall was blown out in the fish house where I raise Phalaenopsis and the phals were in the fish vaults. It looks like most will not bloom this season.

Patience is the only thing you can do. Especially with flowering, it takes a lot of energy for the plant to flower and it does not have any extra to spare right now.

In general I would not fertilize orchids after repotting. The roots are in stress and will not take in the fertilizer. For the same reasons I water less after a plant has been stressed. This is much more subjective as to amounts. This is why it is recommended to only transplant when there is active new root growth. At that time the plant will continue to grow normally.

I repot at any time but am much more careful as to water and fertilizer when they are not in active growth. Wilma came at a time of slow to neglibile growth. You are already past the worst but remember for the next time (hopefullly not as bad) you are repotting.

There is a product SuperThrive that is a root hormone I use a lot when repotting plug orchids out of season. A 4 oz container is not too expensive and you only use 1/8 the teaspoon per gallon. It is great for rejuvenating bare root plants.

[monicamacho]

HI David

I don't have any yellow leaves, although some have black spots on them. My oncediums roots are totally wrapped around the clay pot and I am afraid to pry it apart from the pot. I have a white phale that has one thumb size green leave that I will not give up on, it hasn't grown, but it hasn't died so something must be going on. I have anotherone that I don't know what the name of it is but the branches have to be about 2 feet long, its green with no blooms and was previously blooming on a regular basis.

Let me know what you think. If I don't get back with you right away it's because I work full time.

Thanks so much for you email and help

Monica Macho