generalization for beginners

[0r-kid]

Dear educational video makers,

If you're making a video for newbie orchid growers, please be more specific about which orchids you're talking about. M'kay thanks!

With love,
0r-kid

....................................


I guess I don't have much of a point...this is mostly just a rant.

I came across this video, and it kind of annoyed me. I'm trying really hard to learn about caring for my orchids, and I'm looking for other sources of information past the AOS culture sheets. It's just hard when people show how to care for one specific kind and say "orchids need" or "orchids like".

In this video they talked about light, watering, humidity, and air movement for orchids, but they only used Phals in the video.

YouTube - Orchid Care

It was a very informative video, but what if I wanted to learn about those things for my two new vandas? I don't think they'll do as well, they may not ever flower, if I used the same techniques for my vandas as I did my phals.

I think it's even harder when I read an article about it, because then I can't even see what kind of orchid they're talking about. *sigh*

[grandmapenguin]

Really enjoyed your post since Dick is just down the road from us.
He has spoken at our meetings and we've had tours of his Greenhouses.
Sorry your unhappy with their generalization but I did enjoy your You Tube.
Terry

[0r-kid]

Oh I thought the video was very good except for that they didn't talk about phals...they talked about orchids. I was poking around looking for more info on vandas, and came across this in my search. Actually the only word I searched for was vandas and I came up with a ton of stuff on phals...it was sort of depressing.

[FLBob]

I think it was a good elementary intro to the care of epiphytic orchids. It touched on:
watering technique - drench and well drained
Air movement - very desirable, especially when it's hot
feeding - should be done regularly
temps - not too hot - not too cold
light - good bright light - be careful with direct sun

While not addressing your vandas, none of the information was dangerously wrong for vandas.

I'm fortunate to be surrounded by very successful growers, and can go and visit them in their green houses and discuss how they are successful with their orchids. I wish everyone could have that experience.

One of the very good growers of vandas is Robert Fuchs, here's a link to a discussion on vanda culture.

One of the frequent posters on this forum is Rodbender, he is an excellent source for advice on successfully growing and blooming vandas.

[Ron]

I'm trying really hard to learn about caring for my orchids, and I'm looking for other sources of information past the AOS culture sheets. It's just hard when people show how to care for one specific kind and say "orchids need" or "orchids like".

I joined this site for that very reason. "Generalization".
I personally specialize in a particular genera such as Phallies.
I learn as much as possible about them until I can grow as near to perfection as possible.
book reading helps in a little way, same as cultural sheets.
But the biggest and quickest way to learn is by studying every post on Phallies on this site.
When some ones say there Phallies are dying check it it and avoid doing what they just did. Learn to grow by looking at others failures, check out also why some do so well.
This applies to each different type of orchid you may wish to grow.
There is no magic bullet but time, study others mistakes and learn how to grow properly.
Growing a random mixed collection is the most difficult way to start out and all new growers take this road.
Good luck
Ron

[kmarch]

I remember seeing this video some time ago and thinking the exact same thing that Or-kid did. I also thought if the host had just made one little change, replacing his use of the word "orchid" with "phalaenopsis" it would have been a perfect tutorial.

[kid a]

Hahah Dick Wells is a funny guy. But he is nice and a good grower none the less. He mostly grows phals, but does grow some other stuff too. However all his plants grow in the same huge greenhouse and have somewhat the same conditions with the exceptions of his paphs and phrags. the only difference is one end of the greenhouse gets more light than the other. This is probably why the video expresses such generalizations. I think when they made it they were probably targeting people who had never grown orchids before. Here in Indiana orchids don't sell very well unless your selling to society members or other commercial growers there are very few people that grow orchids that aren't involved in some kind of orchid group of some sort. Mostly this is because you can buy them at meijer and walmart and becasue people think orchid in general are hard to grow. I think the aim of this video is for the complete beginner trying to get them interested and see how easy it could be. But yeah, I do agree he should have specified it was for phals. He also uses the same mix to grow everything in with the exception of adding sphag to the paphs and lime to the phrags.

I think if you are looking for more info past what you see on the AOS website, there are a few awesome things you can do!
1.) join a local society-plenty of people there will have expertise in sevaral different genera for your specific growing conditions
2.) Buy some books!-check your local second hand book stores, i found a great angrecoid book for $12! it's huge and it has detailed info, also check on ebay, look at websites, some growers sell genera specific books too!
3.) keep asking questions here on the forum, just like with societies we have tons of people with alot expertise! Also for some plants you can just google the name and come up with some decent care sheets specific to that plant. For some plants thoguh they are really hard to find and that is where your orchid friends come to the rescue! Yay!
4.) you can get an AOS membership to get acess to the other culture sheets and the forum and the magazines, but it is expensive unless you are a student if you are a student you get a huge discount