Earlier Jim mentioned Phals don't like to be moved. recently that point was brought home to me. One of my sons has a normally very happy Phal and when I visited over the 4th of July weekend all the flowers were drooping. He was disappointed because usually the flowers last for months. It turned out that the plant was originally right next to an aquarium and he had moved it across the room. We put it back by the aquarium and by the next morning the flowers had started to perk up again. It is hard to see in the second picture but after just 24 hours back in the more humid location it was happy again.

@creativeclover, I thought your fertilizer question would still fit into your existing thread since this is something many new Orchid growers might ask.

Richard asked:

creativeclover said:
I have a question about fertilizing. I heard that when we water we should give a light fertilizing to the orchid as it does not get much thru the roots. Also we should add a little to the water that we sprits on it also so it can absorb some more. Did I hear/read correctly?

Another questions. I heard that the orchids can benefit from higher nitrogen when its not blooming. Has anyone tried doing a manure tea and diluting that to partial strength for orchids. I know that I have used Alpaca on the irises to some good success and was wondering about the orchids. Any ideas or thoughts?

I assume your autocorrect played a trick on the Alfalfa?

(I will delete your new thread on this, hope you don't mind. )

Richard, yes many people fertilize their orchids by spraying the diluted fert onto the leaves, stems and the roots. Orchids do absorb most of their water and nutrients through their leaves. The function of the roots is mainly to anchor the plant.

I've been using alfalfa pellets widely as a soil amendment in my garden for a couple of years, and I think lots of plants love it. Yes, last year I did spray my orchids with alfalfa tea a couple of times - had to filter it through a paper towel into the sprayer so it wouldn't clog things up. Hard to say whether it had any effect as I'm also using a couple of other soluble fertilizers, but I'm sure it didn't hurt. I'm going to do it again this week.

Here is a nice article on Orchid roots and their function, if you like.
http://staugorchidsociety.org/...

Great video, Richard. Thanks for the link to it. Very creative, and giving me some great ideas!

Tara, It is a good video, I put in orchid greenhouse into YouTube and it was one of the first videos. Its creative and did give me a few ideas.

Ursala, That's fine on combining the 2 threads. It is suppose to be alpaca and not alfalfa. I just make like a tea or coffee and dilute it down. Questions about fertilizing is something that people new to this will have and if we don't ask we wont know. There can be more then one way to do something and if we don't try or ask who knows if it would work. I will check out the file today, probably after my dr appointment here in a little bit.

@dyzzypyxxy, With what I do, its easy cause it all floats. One you let it sit (I let it sit for a week at least), I just take another container the same size, but a small strainer in it. I strain it off and with what's caught in the strainer I just put around the plants or in the composter and let it break down. what's left is a dark brew and I use like a concentrated liquid fertilizer. I just was not sure on it cause of being a new world to me on orchids.

Alice, So far the Orchids like or seem to like the location. I have them in the dining room. They are near a North facing sliding glass door that's has blinds on it and can adjust the light level. It is away from the draft of the swamp cooler but it does blow into the connecting kitchen, so it does have a little bit more moisture snd I spritz lightly yesterday with a few dropds of water.

Hmm, really? Alpaca, not Alfalfa?

Llama, ears forward, Alpaca ears backwards. That one!! Animal mainly in the Andes? Rarely used to make tea....

Yes really.

you know, I had to google that one! I thought for sure your auto correct was messing with me!
Here it is
http://www.gardeningknowhow.co...

Do you keep Alpaca yourself?

Ah ha, so you are using manure tea then? That will be a much stronger fertilizer than my alfalfa tea.

Be careful to spray only a very dilute amount of that stuff on your orchids. Manures can release nitrogen pretty quickly to the plants, which can cause burn, especially on foliar feeders like orchids.

Elaine, Yes I am using manure tea Elaine. I dilute it way down. I make about 1.75 gallons at a time and then dilute it to 5 gallons. That's for the garden. Since I am new to orchids I thought I would ask about it.

Ursala,,That's them. I don't grow them but there is a guy who does raise them locally and he sales their dropping free from dirt/rocks/etc. Its not expensive for his. you can get a 2.5 cubic yard bag for 2 to 3 bucks. It would make 50 gallons probably of the tea. I know its something that not a lot of people have heard about.

@creativeclover asked the following question:

creativeclover said:I was at walmart this afternoon in the garden section. They had about 10 irises. I know most was Phalaenopsis, 2 of them I am not totally positive on. They all were looking half dead or so and dry
except 1. I was thinking of talking to the one in charge of the area and seeing if they would discount them to move them out. Currently they are 9 bucks each. I want to rescue them and bring them back to life. I am thinking of seeing if I can get them for 3 or 4 bucks a piece. What do think?

Richard, would it please be possible to continue your thoughts and questions in this thread please? It would help very much if you were to look for the appropriate thread to post before you start a new thread.
(I will now delete your new threads)

thanks so much!

Have a good one everyone

Richard, they are a lot of different thoughts on the subject of buying discounted Phals. Some people here have the magical touch and manage to bring them back to life. I am not one of them, that is why I always prefer to buy healthy plants.
I figure by the time I buy a new pot, a bag of orchid bark, repot the plant and then wait a couple of years to see if that plant might rebound or not, I might just buy a healthy plant, preferably in bud and enjoy my new pretty Orchid.
Besides, Phals are truly mainstream Orchids nowadays and quite reasonable in price. But I would never discourage anyone from trying to rescue some, if they want to try experimenting.

We have another fellow who got a deal on some pretty sketchy Phals from Walmart a while back, and he has had a lot of fun and a lot of learning, in his course of re-habbing them, Richard. I think he talked them into marking the plants down to $1 each. If the plants still have some good color, and at least a few healthy leaves plus some viable roots, go for it. Often Phals will put on what I call their "diva act" which is a case of wrinkled leaves. Lots of people toss the plants when they do this "oh, it was dead" but they almost always recover from it.

See if you can corner the nursery manager. Most stores would rather get some money for plants than throw them away. The exception is Home Depot who have a deal with their suppliers that they can return the plants when they are past their prime.

Here, Lowe's is the best for 'past their prime' plants though. They have a clearance rack at most Lowe's stores that we affectionately call the "death rack" and if you can score a Phal or two as soon as they hit the rack, they are good buys. They mark them down and put them on the clearance rack as soon as they are finished blooming. The clearance rack keeps me shopping at Lowe's over Home Depot every time . . .

Hopefully we haven't lost Richard/ @creativeclover in the process....

For my first post, I started a new thread and got smacked a good one upside the head. Then I learned that new threads were discouraged in this forum; all questions must fit into existing threads started by Ursula.

As all the other forums in NGA encourage new threads for new subjects, this forum has always been a little confusing to me. And when I see that a thread is 75 pages long and has 1000's of responses, I just don't want to bother.

Also, I'm not one of the 'good ol' boys' (I have never met any of you) and often your conversations leave me in the dust.

If Richard is feeling the way I often feel, we may not see him again.

Just sayin'...

Sorry you feel that way, Daisy. I thought you'd been welcomed quite warmly and we sure enjoyed seeing your pictures of your orchids. I've been wondering where you went.

Many of us have been chatting for years now, and feel like we know each other but in truth, only a few of us actually do. We meet up down here in Florida for orchid shopping. I have never met Ursula although I'd like to.

It makes sense to me that we should all post pictures of our new blooms into the monthly "Blooms" threads that Ursula starts. That way we all see them because when you post, then you are automatically watching the thread for everyone else's pictures and comments. We have a thread that Lindsey started to show off new things we bought, and one to show our "other" plants that I started. There's no need to go back to the beginning of every thread to pick it up and chat, just "Jump to the End" then maybe go back a little bit and read.

I participate in a lot of the other forums, Tropicals, Brugmansias, Vegetables, and the Birds and Butterflies forum is really fun. They all work a little differently but I'll admit that I enjoy this one the best because it IS a little bit organized, thanks to Ursula.

Btw she was not "smacking upside the head" when she suggested to Richard that he put his new question into the thread that he had started.

Hi Daisy,
I too,am sorry you have those feelings...it's certainly not our intention here!
Many of us start out with Phals..from the scratch and dent table at Lowe's ( myself included!) Many of us don't know
what they are..other than an orchid plant. None of us came here knowing what to do to help save that particular plant.
Maybe Ursula can make a pinned post that says something like 'Just Jumped into the world of Orchids??? Have a new plant that you want to know how to take care of?..C'mon in!'' The pinned post would stay at the top of the forum so new people could find it.

I've been here since 2010 and this was my first picture and post ( of my renovated Phal. collection from Lowe's)..this group has moved from Dave's Garden, to Cubits to whatever it was after that and now NGA...I don't know what it was before Dave's Garden so yes, some of us are old (virtual reality) friends...and I think we all agree that it takes a diverse group to keep the conversations going. But having just looked at our thread count..it's like 36 PAGES long and finding a specific thread IS time consuming. I know there are new threads that I haven't seen because they don't show up on my first page...but that doesn't mean that I'm not interested in the thread..I just haven't seen it! I remember when I first joined and other members had what seemed like THOUSANDS of plants...every day new posts of 4 or 5 new exotic bloomers...and all I had were 2 blooming Phal
and 4 more in intensive care without a clue of where to start...heck..I couldn't even take a decent picture of a flower! These folks that I had never met in person took the time to encourage , guide ( and sometimes) smack me upside the head!

Oh dear! This is exactly what I was afraid of!
Daisy, I am truly sad you feel that way and I am not saying this lightly.

If I may explain -
I don't really like those super long 10000 posts either. One might be afraid to be told to read the whole thing so as to not have to ask the same question again. I have seen forums like that.

On the other hand, look at a library. Books are in specific order for a good reason, that you are able to find your way around and have easy access to whatever you wish to read.
You can't be that orderly here, after all a forum is a living, breathing entity? But you can try to be a bit organized. We do have monthly bloom thread and we certainly do chat about other things besides blooms in those, no? If a thread gets too long, you have the option to continue in a new thread and put links in place to find your way around.

Daisy, you said

all questions must fit into existing threads started by Ursula.

Now I must protest since this is simply not true. Unfortunately you got that impression and this needs to be addressed:
This is happily OUR forum and I would like to ask everyone's help and advice on how to deal with the type of threads which have popped up more recently lately.
Nine out of ten times it is a new member who is very excited about his/her newly discovered love for Phalaenopsis. I love the enthusiasm which goes along with that, and it is important that we help our new members in their quest. But, and here comes my question, do we let every Phal question bloom into its own thread, or do you try to combine them?

Would it be helpful, if we start threads like
Questions about Phalaenopsis?
I was about to suggest a catch all chat thread, but then we have that already in the split off from the names game.

Thanks for your comments, Daisy and Elaine. I think this needs to be addressed.