General Chat

:-D

Mine are looking sad :-(

My late mother-in-law was an expert; I learned a little bit from her.

I have lots of dendrobiums (spelling?) and bush orchids, but they're either not flowering, or I only get a few buds.

I don't over-water, and I feed them correctly.

One of them (it was gorgeous last year) has developed a black "sooty" whatever on half of the leaves. White oil isn't helping much.

Any advice gratefully received! :-D

btw..... I'm in Australia, the plants are outside, not in a greenhouse

Only when forced to!

Do you mean the small Ozzie native dendrobium with flowers fingernail size (some hybrids have larger flowers)?
(Some people have big fingernails).
Sounds like aphids leaving a deposit. Have you tried an insecticide or spraying with a 50/50 Meths and water solution.
We are subtropical and have them under shade although the few thrown outside seem to do okay - but not so prolific flowering.
B

Hi Bernie

We're sub-tropical too, in NSW just south of the Qld border.

Our dendrobiums are hybrids, with larger flowers. We have several in full sun (in the trees) that do ok, I can't reach them to give them any fertiliser (maybe the birds do it), but can reach them with a spray bottle when we haven't had rain for a while (like the last three months). The others in pots have grown well, lots of nice shiny leaves (except for the one with the soot) but they haven't been flowering.

My fingernails are long, but not as big as the flowers :-D

We have bush/rock orchids, what a shame the flowers only last a short time, but we used to get a beautiful display in October/November, last year only two of our six plants had flowers.

I make my own plant spray, which so far has worked well, I don't really like commercial insecticides. Haven't heard of using meths... sounds a bit drastic. My spray is garlic & washing up liquid mixed with water. Stop laughing!

We also have "moth" orchids, they have new "buds" but are moving very slowly.... they're lovely, and the flowers last for months...... and the baby water-dragons like hiding there :-D

Bernie ~ I got the metho, then had to wait until I got back to the shops to get a spray bottle :-(

Sprayed the orchid, then left it out in the rain for a couple of days & sprayed it again..... a couple of days later I wiped most of the grunge off with a damp paper towel.

Ann has a thread about ants.... using cinnamon...... so I put some cinnamon in the metho/water mix & sprayed the orchid again, so far so good, no more mould & no ants on that orchid!

:-D

Hi Lady,

I wondered if you thought I was having you on. Herself can often been found with a small paintbrush and undiluted meths attacking scale etc. She has 70% cynbidiums and 30% 'this'nthat'. We used to have two commercial growers in our little cul-de-sac - we didn't mind helping out with some of the jobs, but never went anywhere near when they sprayed.

B

We have lots of different orchids, but no cynbidiums! Mum-in-law was the expert, she had lots of them, when they were in flower all you could see were the orchids, there were so many you couldn't see leaves!

Growing in the garden (in the ground and in trees) are lots of dendrobiums & crucifix orchids, and we have 50+ in pots, including bush/rock orchids.

I don't think I'd have the patience to paint all the leaves with a teeny brush.

I envy you the climate to be able to grow them in the garden LS I bet they look a picture when flowering all together. We have just 4 but indoors of course.

Ann ~ we move ours around all the time (the ones in pots, not the ones in the garden lol).

There's a long bench near the clothesline, crammed with orchids in pots.... we take the ones in flower & have them on the deck where we have a table & chairs, and some at the front door. The bush orchids are in huge pots and are too heavy to move, but they are spectacular when in bloom.

I used to think orchids were difficult plants.... I've since found out that they thrive on neglect :-D