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09-19-2007, 09:17 PM
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| Survivor: Phalaenopsis well, i managed to hold myself back for the summer, but a week ago i visited Home Depot... in the clearance area of the garden section they had a bunch of phals left out to die a merciless death in the sun, never to be watered again. no idea how long they had been there already, but they still had green leaves on all of them, and what roots i could see looked decent! i asked the dept. worker how much they were reduced to, her reply was "they are a write-off, and not for sale." the store's policy is to match a pre-set write-off quota per quarter (of year). i offered to take the plants as-is, seeing as they were going to go into the dumpster anyway. well, that can't be done since they've already been declared write-offs! and thus must be dumped, regardless...a week later department manager granted me the plants for $1 each, "Sold!" i replied, see attached below! currently i have them all soaking in bowls and coolers and such, to loosen the sphag moss they are packed (like concrete now!) in, repotting is going to happen tomorrow. with winter coming, i expect very slow results, if any. 18 phalaenopsis, 16 clay pots (with saucers!), 2 bags of Schultz's orchid mix, $42.88. trying to upload the pictures, but can't seem to find them in the gallery...      |
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09-19-2007, 10:35 PM
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09-19-2007, 11:21 PM
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| well these plants were a write-off, meaning out of bloom, and destined for the dumpster. i honestly do not expect a high survival rate from them, but the 16 clay pots included for $18 sold me on it.  i'll be draining the pots tonite and getting ready for some repotting action tomorrow after school.  |
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09-20-2007, 01:05 AM
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| Funny, I went to home depot yesterday as well to see what they had, and they had a lot of orchids that were done blooming for half off. One in particular (a noid phal) had a cut spike with a very swollen node, an indication of a secondary spike coming, nice leaves as well as a new leaf and new roots. I lifted it out of the dry sphag and the roots were excellent. Bought it, repotted, a bit rough when i was repotting but i expect it to grow without skipping a beat, Can't pass up a deal and the chance to save them from Home Depot! |
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09-20-2007, 11:26 AM
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| Give them the tonic of Worm tea and their recovery will be amazing i doubt they are in worse shape than the ones i resurected |
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09-20-2007, 01:11 PM
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| its quite scary how commerical garden centres throw away plants and other stock like that, its such a waste for all the effort gone into those plants. I hope they do very well for you in the future |
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09-20-2007, 01:38 PM
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| making room as needed. currently converting the top of a long dresser in the bedroom into a phal-spital last night i gave them all about a 2 hour soaking in various bowls, coolers, etc. they all are showing improvement already, with the leaves much more rigid and erect. today i get to trim the roots and leaves and stems. tom: the main reason behind my persistence with the store was exactly their policy; they claim all these "green" initiatives, yet are willing waste perfectly good GREEN plants! i was quite prepared to confront the store manager, but the department supervisor (named Ivy, appropriately enough!) interceded, and got me the above mentioned deal |
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09-21-2007, 01:35 AM
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| trying to upload the pictures, but can't seem to find them in the gallery... working now: http://www.orchidgeeks.com/gallery/s...php?i=1651&c=2 |
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09-21-2007, 02:17 AM
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| jay: thanks  so far i have repotted 8 of them, and all have very good roots (considering sitting in rotting sphag for a few months and then baking rock solid for 2 weeks), albeit the cores of the roots are all quite rotten. i end up trimming out the middle of the root ball, saving a bunch of roots around the edges. so far 2 leaves have had to go, due to yellowing (but both were the oldest leaves on the plants, so maybe natural). i have found quite a few with multiple spikes on them as well, and the roots and leaves that are left after trimming are quite decent, really thick, green and yellow/white fleshy things. i think the 2 hour bath last nite really helped  Last edited by robb; 09-21-2007 at 06:43 PM. |
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09-21-2007, 07:20 AM
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| What a great opportunity there robb. These look to be in salvageable condition and should be a pleasant and challenging undertaking for you. I would have grabbed these too. The only 'for sale' on orchids I've seen so far, were a bunch of rotted, dead oncidiums marked down 50% that I would not have taken even if they were giving them away. Good luck with these and enjoy. |
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09-21-2007, 09:52 AM
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| That is a good score. Happy to hear your persistance paid off. It has inspired me to be much more of a pest with the local Home Depot the next time I observe a cart full of tropicals heading for the trash. Here is a phal I saw in a trash can while checking out at Trader Joe's. The girl gave me a funny look like I was crazy, but she gave me the pot (the plant was out of it) along with the phal. This is three months later, after a subspike popped out. jjs |
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09-21-2007, 10:04 AM
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| well you might have recived a funny look at the time with a flower like who cares about the funny look the flower is very nice good growing  |
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09-21-2007, 10:32 AM
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| Rob that looks like an excellent deal. When I visited a local grower, she told me she had approached a very famous UK high street store to complaim about the potting medium they sold their orchids in. She pointed out that they would not survive to flower again because the medium was so bad. The Company told her they didn't care as they would rather the customer threw the plant away and bought a new one the following season. I have often looked at plants in various branches of this store, and they are not the cheapest by any stretch of imagination. I am so disgusted I wouldn't buy ANY plant from this outlet ever again. |
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09-21-2007, 10:42 AM
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| I agree with you Tizzycat about the extortionate prices for Orchids from store in ? Its the China Pots they are often in that catch shoppers eyes but the price is extortion However earlier this year they had a 3 for 2 on Clematis plants which was a real deal and boy those 3 clematis plants were the fastest growing things on legs ..........absolutely stunning growth and flowers ...knocked spots of majority of the clematis plants i have tended for years |
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09-21-2007, 06:25 PM
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| start with a wimpering phalaenopsis, remove the dead and dying roots, and end up with a new potting medium, and the plant actually looks decent. this is pretty typical of the 18 plants i repotted. definitely a pattern to the neglect with sphag: the larger pots (6" size) were heavily rotted in the core of the root-mass, the best roots were on the top layers, and outer edges of the pot. frequently there was a layer of big bark chips, or volcanic rocks, or styrofoam peanuts as seen here, in the bottom of the pot, i presume for additional drainage. it certainly seemed to contribute to the lesser degree of rot found in smaller pots, and the roots had a higher degree of success. the smaller pots did better, overall, i think since less of the moss could rot in the middle, without drying up (more of the moss is closer to the outside than in the big pots, if that makes sense?). many of the plants had multiple spikes (cut and dried of course, but only 1 season of blooming), so these may be a bunch of bred-to-bloom NOID phals. some observations from this: 1. a layer of large drainage material (bark, rock, styrofoam, etc) reduces rot in the middle of the pot 2. smaller pots are better! and orchid pots are probably the best, something with a large inner cone with openings are ideal 3. phals are amazingly tolerant of drought situations, able to go weeks without watering! 4. (in my opinion) moss is terrible as a long-term, large volume, potting medium. the benefits for mountings and small pots are pretty good, but larger ones will likely rot in the middle. as for diseases and such, all had extensive root rot, a few had scale, and one had some sort of gnat or flying ant in the junction between roots and leaves with larvae. i was really expecting a lot worse! i was going to start with getting a hold of worm castings, making a batch of worm-tea up and soaking them all in shifts, then treat for scale and gnats. they will be isolated from my other 10 phals and 2 cyms, until things stabilize (i expect early next year), but would like to subject them to as little stress and chemicals as possible. would love to hear any suggestions on a treatment regime to get these phals back on their roots larger pictures available here (click the picture to see the largest size (not for the dial-up crowd  )http://www.orchidgeeks.com/gallery/s....php?i=1678&c= Last edited by robb; 09-21-2007 at 06:33 PM. |
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