intro

[valientor]

I bought an orchid from the Grocery outlet of all places and now I don't know what to do with the poor thing. it had three stems of flowers, but they are done now. I want to repot it, but don't know what size of pot or what medium to use. I don't know exactly what kind it is, but I saw a similar plant called Brassia Lillian oka "hawaii". So now I'm on a hunt of info about orchids.

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

You probably have an Oncidium family intergeneric, or just intergeneric since that term is used most for the oncidium family. If the flower was a very spidery shaped, it would have had a lot of Brassia in it that likes more light than most intergenerics, but they all are plants that look alike. Most intergenerics need light somewhere between Cattleyas (high light) and Phalaenopsis (low light). Repotting with most orchids is best when the plant is starting new growth. For most intergenerics with fine roots, a small/fine bark is good, with a little larger bark for those with a lot of Brassia in them that have thicker roots. Use the smallest pot you can get the roots into. Big pots dry too slowly causing root rot. Cynthia

[valientor]

Wow, I'm glad that I didn't have time to repot it yet, I would have potted it into a larger pot! Thank you for responding! I hope that I will have new growth soon. I have been keeping it outside with lots of morning sun and afternoon shade. I also water it every other day. Leaves are no longer dying, thank goodness, but should I trim off the flower stalks?

[Cynthia, Prescott, AZ]

You can trim the flower stalks, but if they have not not dried up to the point of being sure that there can be no fluid transfer along it, you want to used a sterilized tool. Alcohol is not good enough, use heat or 20 minute soak in fresh 10% bleach or in a staturated solution of tri-sodium Phosphate, but not one of the TSP substitutes. If the tool is not already thoroughly clean, a longer soak will be necessary. It is a good idea to get used to the idea of tool sterilization early in your experience with orchids, because you will always have to sterilize a tool every time you cut into an orchid. There are lots of orchid viruses around, and it is an incurable disease in orchids.

Watering every other day may be OK in warm weather (or maybe not), but you will have to water less as the temps moderate. You might want to search for some threads talking about using a bamboo barbeque 'skewer' to test for dryness of the pot. The Oncidium family can be just slightly damp (almost, but not quite dry) just like Phalaenopsis orchids at watering time. Cynthia

[valientor]

Great idea for the skewer! I'll put that into action immediately. But I have one more question about repotting, which I haven't done yet. Does it matter what the pot is made of? I have a copper pot, but wondered if that would promote disease or anything else unwanted.

[mayres]

You will find that the most popular choice is generally plastic - and then you can put the plastic pot into a more decorative pot for display. Plants that you might want to encourage quicker drying are often put in clay. Personally not sure about copper - I would find a plastic pot that would fit inside of it if you want to use it for display. Good luck. mike

[valientor]

It seems that I have found the tag for my orchid, it says Odbrs. Kenneth Biven "Santa Barbara". I also see that there are lots of roots coming out of the pot I bought it in making repotting it difficult! Do I just pull it out and hope that it recovers from the broken roots? I'm so going to end up killing this poor thing

[mayres]

Yep, just wiggle it carefully out - sometimes it helps to water or even soak for awhile to loosen up the root mass and minimize breakage. A few broken roots from what is coming out of the holes in the bottom of your pot is not going to be a problem - they are not that fragile - new roots will come and old ones will split off and grow again. After you remove all of the current media (when repotting) also remove any roots that look unhealthy (if there are any) - mushy black or dark brown or shriveled up paper-like appearing.

[jerrymeola]

You can confirm the orchid name easily as they are two similar plants but very differnt color patterns.

Both are called spider orchids and David Niven is black and Lillian Oka is yellow.





Both are easy to grow and can get very large fast. They have a tendancy to produce a lot of new leaves and old leaves may discolor and fall off.

Plastic is the best pot as they prefer to be a litle moist. They do extremely well mounted as well.

[valientor]

yup, mine deffinitely looks like the first one, when it was in bloom! Thanks