My computer at work won't run the videos and my home computer is having problems, but hopefully will be fixed this weekend. I have taken some photos of the roots and will post them when I can. The pot is completely filled with the roots. and the sides are bulging a little. Think I may wait and let them bloom since they look so good otherwise. Do you think the black spots are from the sun?

Thanks,
Susan

Thanks, Kathy.

Oh, so sorry you can't see the videos this very minute, Susan. I know how great it is to get a question fully answered. I don't know about the black spots except one of my books said not to worry about them. I think some plants are more sensitive to spots of water sitting on their leaves as my slipper orchids and phals get black spots from water. It's not from sun-that is very obvious. You can see that it's a sunburned area. Not usually as small as a spot.

My box of bare root plants arrived yesterday The directions (prior to potting) are :

"5. Prepare a treatment solution 'Dip' made from 2 gallons of rain or sodium free tap water. Add in half cup of brown sugar, a normal dose fertilizer that includes an amount of vitamin E solution, 1-2 teaspoons of your favorite root-stimulant.

6. Gently sink the plants in the treatment solution for about 1 hour.

7. Remove and carefully lay the plants on newspaper in a dark location with high air circulation. Again, I recommend you use a fan on the lowest setting. Do not allow the plants to come into direct sunlight. Gently turn the plant every 15 minutes until dry."

Does this sound right to you?
The brown sugar sounds scary to me! All of our rainwater went to the Northeast...is it ok to use distilled water?
The plants in question are
Opst Suree 'See's" AM/AOS
Vanda Dr. Anek x Sanderiana
Oncidium Rodriguezia Lancelota
Kgwa Christie Low
Rnps Lena Rowold x Ascda Yip Sum Wah
Blc Chia Lin New City
Blc Samyang Ruby Kuan Long AM/OAS
Den Bobby Messina

Personally I'd skip the sugar. Distilled water is fine. I've heard of root stimulant for first potting before but I've never done it.

Do you have a photo of the bare rooted plants? All the ones I've received have been in pots. I'm just interested in seeing the difference. Where did you order them from?

Thanks,
Susan

I wouldn't be so hasty about disregarding the sugar.
It was now a few years ago that I heard a vendor discussing Superthrive versus sugar when soaking a whole shipment of bare root Orchids.
He mentioned that it was simply to expensive to use Superthrive when dealing with a lot of plants, so he uses sugar instead to help them perk up.
I have never done it myself, but ....

Ya learn something new every day!

Hi Susan,
Here's one picture of most of the contents after I had removed all the packing material. I got them from royal orchids off of ebay they also have a regular website.

And here's the only one that I am unhappy about, it's a den and I know they loose their leaves, but this frightened me when I unwrapped it!
Their web site is www.royalorchidclub.com

Yah. I stopped buying from that seller about 3 years ago because of a similar plant. That has been out of a pot for a while. You need to clean that baby up and hope for the best. You might want to segregate it till it's doing better. I also don't buy from Larry's either.

That last one does look scarey, but the others ones look nice. Hope they all do well for you.

Maybe it would be nice to have a list of sellers people have had problems with.

Susan

These orchids generally do well in a Daconil bath for me. I carefully strip away the spotted leaves. Don't pull if they resist, just cut away what you can, and put the orchid in a plastic bag with pre-mixed Daconil (available at local Big Box) for 30-60 min. The Daconil will leave a coating on the orchid that will peel off over time, like a milk bath, but it will hopefully solve the other problems. I'd not pot it in a mix either until I saw new roots. I'd double pot it in terracotta with the orchid in pot one, then a larger pot with some gravel and then a drain tray with water continually added. The moist terracotta will feed the plant water. I'd never again buy from a vendor who sent an orchid that looked like that (though I'm famous for rescuing orchids that look that bad all the time).
Laurel

I will post a "Be Careful of these Vendors" forum.

My eBay orchids all came from nia22d. She has 100% postive feedback. When I emailed her about the black spots, she said they were probably sunspots. Here's a photo. What do you think?

Another shot.

Do these look like healthy roots?

Btw many plants of Oncidium Sharry Baby have spotted leaves and it seems to be genetic.

I think your plants look great. The spots do look like sun spots (do you know what those are?) and the photo with roots look like dormant roots. No signs of rot there and a nice solid mass. The pseudobulbs in the first photo look shriveled on top, but what orchid is that? Maybe it's supposed to be dry for the winter. I'd be very satisfied with the send.
Laurel

Not sure about the spots but the roots look very dry and so do the psbulbs.