Home |
Search |
Today's Posts |
#1
|
|||
|
|||
Orchid Myst
Has anyone used a product called Orchid Myst? I saw it and bought some
yesterday. It is a ready-mixed spray which you spray on leaves, aerial roots and on the bark/compost, but not on flowers. www.focus-on-plants.com Pam in Bristol |
#2
|
|||
|
|||
Orchid Myst
On 21/11/2013 09:42, Pam Moore wrote:
Has anyone used a product called Orchid Myst? I saw it and bought some yesterday. It is a ready-mixed spray which you spray on leaves, aerial roots and on the bark/compost, but not on flowers. www.focus-on-plants.com Pam in Bristol Hi Pam, You don't seem to have any replies, so I thought I'd drop in. I don't use Orchid Myst, but would be very interested in your impression of it in due course. I have about 35 orchids (excluding the hardy ones) and they are kept close together on two long window cills. I am sure this helps provide its own local humidity (one of OM's claims). My feeding/watering regime falls about every ten days. After 3 sessions of feeding, I have a session of watering only. I don't buy a proprietary leaf shine product; they're horrendously expensive! Insead, I routine wipe dusty leaves with a soft tissue. Once in a while, if the leaves are looking really dull and lack-lustre, I wipe them all (takes ages!) with a weaker than usual fertiliser solution, which cleans them and gives them a filip, in much the same way that OM does. When I do this, I miss out a feed to make sure I'm not inflicting too much chemical brew on them. All this seems to work and I bring most orchids back in to flower. I'm dead chuffed this year, as I've managed for the first time to get all three of my Cymbidiums to flower! :~). I always fail to get Zygopetalum and Dendrobium to reflower and, indeed, have lost a few. If I were to try OM, it would be on the Cambria types whose roots are so thin they don't hold onto moisture and nutrients as well as Phaelenopsis, say. I certainly don't want to start spraying in the living rooms - we've just got rid of a fungal problem in one room due to a neighbour's garden wall butting up against our party wall, so I'm a bit paranoid about encouraging fungus again. -- Spider. On high ground in SE London gardening on heavy clay |
#3
|
|||
|
|||
Orchid Myst
On Sat, 23 Nov 2013 13:51:33 +0000, Spider wrote:
On 21/11/2013 09:42, Pam Moore wrote: Has anyone used a product called Orchid Myst? I saw it and bought some yesterday. It is a ready-mixed spray which you spray on leaves, aerial roots and on the bark/compost, but not on flowers. www.focus-on-plants.com Pam in Bristol Hi Pam, You don't seem to have any replies, so I thought I'd drop in. I don't use Orchid Myst, but would be very interested in your impression of it in due course. I have about 35 orchids (excluding the hardy ones) and they are kept close together on two long window cills. I am sure this helps provide its own local humidity (one of OM's claims). My feeding/watering regime falls about every ten days. After 3 sessions of feeding, I have a session of watering only. I don't buy a proprietary leaf shine product; they're horrendously expensive! Insead, I routine wipe dusty leaves with a soft tissue. Once in a while, if the leaves are looking really dull and lack-lustre, I wipe them all (takes ages!) with a weaker than usual fertiliser solution, which cleans them and gives them a filip, in much the same way that OM does. When I do this, I miss out a feed to make sure I'm not inflicting too much chemical brew on them. All this seems to work and I bring most orchids back in to flower. I'm dead chuffed this year, as I've managed for the first time to get all three of my Cymbidiums to flower! :~). I always fail to get Zygopetalum and Dendrobium to reflower and, indeed, have lost a few. If I were to try OM, it would be on the Cambria types whose roots are so thin they don't hold onto moisture and nutrients as well as Phaelenopsis, say. I certainly don't want to start spraying in the living rooms - we've just got rid of a fungal problem in one room due to a neighbour's garden wall butting up against our party wall, so I'm a bit paranoid about encouraging fungus again. Interesting advice, Spider. Thanks. I only have 5 orchids, 4 phals and 1 cymbidium. I don't feed much or water enough, I think but this year I got all 4 phals, in my bathroom, to re-flower. My cymbidium I have written about here before. Bought it in flower for my Mum for Mothering Sunday about 20 years ago. It never flowered again for her but got weaker and smaller. I brought it home and nourished it for 15 years. It never flowered but got bigger and bigger. I split it and gave 4 pieces away and kept one for myself. All 4 others, in 4 different houses, flowered last year. Mine NO. Maybe Orchid Myst will help! Pam in Bristol |
#4
|
|||
|
|||
Orchid Myst
On 24/11/2013 09:16, Pam Moore wrote:
On Sat, 23 Nov 2013 13:51:33 +0000, Spider wrote: On 21/11/2013 09:42, Pam Moore wrote: Has anyone used a product called Orchid Myst? I saw it and bought some yesterday. It is a ready-mixed spray which you spray on leaves, aerial roots and on the bark/compost, but not on flowers. www.focus-on-plants.com Pam in Bristol Hi Pam, You don't seem to have any replies, so I thought I'd drop in. I don't use Orchid Myst, but would be very interested in your impression of it in due course. I have about 35 orchids (excluding the hardy ones) and they are kept close together on two long window cills. I am sure this helps provide its own local humidity (one of OM's claims). My feeding/watering regime falls about every ten days. After 3 sessions of feeding, I have a session of watering only. I don't buy a proprietary leaf shine product; they're horrendously expensive! Insead, I routine wipe dusty leaves with a soft tissue. Once in a while, if the leaves are looking really dull and lack-lustre, I wipe them all (takes ages!) with a weaker than usual fertiliser solution, which cleans them and gives them a filip, in much the same way that OM does. When I do this, I miss out a feed to make sure I'm not inflicting too much chemical brew on them. All this seems to work and I bring most orchids back in to flower. I'm dead chuffed this year, as I've managed for the first time to get all three of my Cymbidiums to flower! :~). I always fail to get Zygopetalum and Dendrobium to reflower and, indeed, have lost a few. If I were to try OM, it would be on the Cambria types whose roots are so thin they don't hold onto moisture and nutrients as well as Phaelenopsis, say. I certainly don't want to start spraying in the living rooms - we've just got rid of a fungal problem in one room due to a neighbour's garden wall butting up against our party wall, so I'm a bit paranoid about encouraging fungus again. Interesting advice, Spider. Thanks. I only have 5 orchids, 4 phals and 1 cymbidium. I don't feed much or water enough, I think but this year I got all 4 phals, in my bathroom, to re-flower. My cymbidium I have written about here before. Bought it in flower for my Mum for Mothering Sunday about 20 years ago. It never flowered again for her but got weaker and smaller. I brought it home and nourished it for 15 years. It never flowered but got bigger and bigger. I split it and gave 4 pieces away and kept one for myself. All 4 others, in 4 different houses, flowered last year. Mine NO. Maybe Orchid Myst will help! Pam in Bristol I can understand your frustration with Cymbidium. I nearly gave up on mine, but with advice from Bob Holden here on urg and added advice from an old friend, I've finally got flowers - lots of them on one :~). When all risk of frost was over, I put my 3 large plants outside for the summer, only bringing them in around the end of September. At first they were sheltered from full sun but, by the end of the summer, I'd moved them into full sun, which they seemed to love. In that more prominent place, I also remembered to water and feed them a bit more often! Indoors I use a proprietary orchid feed, but outside I gave them about 1/4 strength Tomorite. Low and behold, when I prepared to bring them inside, I discovered strong flowering shoots - 3 on my favourite plant! At this point I did something a bit naughty, so this part is not a recommendation. All 3 plants were very unwieldy with a massive amount of long, strappy leaves, so much so that the plants wouldn't remain upright on their own due to the excess weight. So I cut the foliage back by about a third! Yes, I know one isn't supposed to, but it's not as if I chopped all the leaves off. It had made the plants look much tidier *and* they have stopped falling over. Next year will be the test of how damaging that has been. I am hoping, of course, that I can get away with it. I'll try and remember to report back here in a year's time. One thought has just nudged its way to the front of my brain: could it be that when you split your huge plant 5 ways and generously parted with 4, you kept the oldest, tiredest part for yourself? If so, you may not get it back into flower, unless it has built up sufficient new pseudobulbs. Indeed, it may never flower. I'm sure Bob would know ... let's hope he pops up in a mo. -- Spider. On high ground in SE London gardening on heavy clay |
#5
|
|||
|
|||
Orchid Myst
On Sun, 24 Nov 2013 13:12:10 +0000, Spider wrote:
On 24/11/2013 09:16, Pam Moore wrote: On Sat, 23 Nov 2013 13:51:33 +0000, Spider wrote: On 21/11/2013 09:42, Pam Moore wrote: Has anyone used a product called Orchid Myst? I saw it and bought some yesterday. It is a ready-mixed spray which you spray on leaves, aerial roots and on the bark/compost, but not on flowers. www.focus-on-plants.com Pam in Bristol Hi Pam, You don't seem to have any replies, so I thought I'd drop in. I don't use Orchid Myst, but would be very interested in your impression of it in due course. I have about 35 orchids (excluding the hardy ones) and they are kept close together on two long window cills. I am sure this helps provide its own local humidity (one of OM's claims). My feeding/watering regime falls about every ten days. After 3 sessions of feeding, I have a session of watering only. I don't buy a proprietary leaf shine product; they're horrendously expensive! Insead, I routine wipe dusty leaves with a soft tissue. Once in a while, if the leaves are looking really dull and lack-lustre, I wipe them all (takes ages!) with a weaker than usual fertiliser solution, which cleans them and gives them a filip, in much the same way that OM does. When I do this, I miss out a feed to make sure I'm not inflicting too much chemical brew on them. All this seems to work and I bring most orchids back in to flower. I'm dead chuffed this year, as I've managed for the first time to get all three of my Cymbidiums to flower! :~). I always fail to get Zygopetalum and Dendrobium to reflower and, indeed, have lost a few. If I were to try OM, it would be on the Cambria types whose roots are so thin they don't hold onto moisture and nutrients as well as Phaelenopsis, say. I certainly don't want to start spraying in the living rooms - we've just got rid of a fungal problem in one room due to a neighbour's garden wall butting up against our party wall, so I'm a bit paranoid about encouraging fungus again. Interesting advice, Spider. Thanks. I only have 5 orchids, 4 phals and 1 cymbidium. I don't feed much or water enough, I think but this year I got all 4 phals, in my bathroom, to re-flower. My cymbidium I have written about here before. Bought it in flower for my Mum for Mothering Sunday about 20 years ago. It never flowered again for her but got weaker and smaller. I brought it home and nourished it for 15 years. It never flowered but got bigger and bigger. I split it and gave 4 pieces away and kept one for myself. All 4 others, in 4 different houses, flowered last year. Mine NO. Maybe Orchid Myst will help! Pam in Bristol I can understand your frustration with Cymbidium. I nearly gave up on mine, but with advice from Bob Holden here on urg and added advice from an old friend, I've finally got flowers - lots of them on one :~). When all risk of frost was over, I put my 3 large plants outside for the summer, only bringing them in around the end of September. At first they were sheltered from full sun but, by the end of the summer, I'd moved them into full sun, which they seemed to love. In that more prominent place, I also remembered to water and feed them a bit more often! Indoors I use a proprietary orchid feed, but outside I gave them about 1/4 strength Tomorite. Low and behold, when I prepared to bring them inside, I discovered strong flowering shoots - 3 on my favourite plant! At this point I did something a bit naughty, so this part is not a recommendation. All 3 plants were very unwieldy with a massive amount of long, strappy leaves, so much so that the plants wouldn't remain upright on their own due to the excess weight. So I cut the foliage back by about a third! Yes, I know one isn't supposed to, but it's not as if I chopped all the leaves off. It had made the plants look much tidier *and* they have stopped falling over. Next year will be the test of how damaging that has been. I am hoping, of course, that I can get away with it. I'll try and remember to report back here in a year's time. One thought has just nudged its way to the front of my brain: could it be that when you split your huge plant 5 ways and generously parted with 4, you kept the oldest, tiredest part for yourself? If so, you may not get it back into flower, unless it has built up sufficient new pseudobulbs. Indeed, it may never flower. I'm sure Bob would know ... let's hope he pops up in a mo. Thanks Spider LOL Last point first. I potted the divisions into smaller pots, and put mine in a bigger pot. The ones which flowered were more pot-bound and no, mine was a good chunk, not just the oldest part! I'm really interested that you cut your cymbidium leaves back. I've been wondering how it would look if I did so as mine is so large and I've not much space for it. I'm glad you thought it worked OK. Mine has been outside all summer but in the shade. I was told by an orchid expert to keep it moist in order to promote flowering, but it didn't! A lot of the time it has to put up with tap water but looks very healtthy. I'm not giving up now! Pam in Bristol |
#6
|
|||
|
|||
Orchid Myst
On 24/11/2013 15:46, Pam Moore wrote:
On Sun, 24 Nov 2013 13:12:10 +0000, Spider wrote: On 24/11/2013 09:16, Pam Moore wrote: On Sat, 23 Nov 2013 13:51:33 +0000, Spider wrote: On 21/11/2013 09:42, Pam Moore wrote: Has anyone used a product called Orchid Myst? I saw it and bought some yesterday. It is a ready-mixed spray which you spray on leaves, aerial roots and on the bark/compost, but not on flowers. www.focus-on-plants.com Pam in Bristol Hi Pam, You don't seem to have any replies, so I thought I'd drop in. I don't use Orchid Myst, but would be very interested in your impression of it in due course. I have about 35 orchids (excluding the hardy ones) and they are kept close together on two long window cills. I am sure this helps provide its own local humidity (one of OM's claims). My feeding/watering regime falls about every ten days. After 3 sessions of feeding, I have a session of watering only. I don't buy a proprietary leaf shine product; they're horrendously expensive! Insead, I routine wipe dusty leaves with a soft tissue. Once in a while, if the leaves are looking really dull and lack-lustre, I wipe them all (takes ages!) with a weaker than usual fertiliser solution, which cleans them and gives them a filip, in much the same way that OM does. When I do this, I miss out a feed to make sure I'm not inflicting too much chemical brew on them. All this seems to work and I bring most orchids back in to flower. I'm dead chuffed this year, as I've managed for the first time to get all three of my Cymbidiums to flower! :~). I always fail to get Zygopetalum and Dendrobium to reflower and, indeed, have lost a few. If I were to try OM, it would be on the Cambria types whose roots are so thin they don't hold onto moisture and nutrients as well as Phaelenopsis, say. I certainly don't want to start spraying in the living rooms - we've just got rid of a fungal problem in one room due to a neighbour's garden wall butting up against our party wall, so I'm a bit paranoid about encouraging fungus again. Interesting advice, Spider. Thanks. I only have 5 orchids, 4 phals and 1 cymbidium. I don't feed much or water enough, I think but this year I got all 4 phals, in my bathroom, to re-flower. My cymbidium I have written about here before. Bought it in flower for my Mum for Mothering Sunday about 20 years ago. It never flowered again for her but got weaker and smaller. I brought it home and nourished it for 15 years. It never flowered but got bigger and bigger. I split it and gave 4 pieces away and kept one for myself. All 4 others, in 4 different houses, flowered last year. Mine NO. Maybe Orchid Myst will help! Pam in Bristol I can understand your frustration with Cymbidium. I nearly gave up on mine, but with advice from Bob Holden here on urg and added advice from an old friend, I've finally got flowers - lots of them on one :~). When all risk of frost was over, I put my 3 large plants outside for the summer, only bringing them in around the end of September. At first they were sheltered from full sun but, by the end of the summer, I'd moved them into full sun, which they seemed to love. In that more prominent place, I also remembered to water and feed them a bit more often! Indoors I use a proprietary orchid feed, but outside I gave them about 1/4 strength Tomorite. Low and behold, when I prepared to bring them inside, I discovered strong flowering shoots - 3 on my favourite plant! At this point I did something a bit naughty, so this part is not a recommendation. All 3 plants were very unwieldy with a massive amount of long, strappy leaves, so much so that the plants wouldn't remain upright on their own due to the excess weight. So I cut the foliage back by about a third! Yes, I know one isn't supposed to, but it's not as if I chopped all the leaves off. It had made the plants look much tidier *and* they have stopped falling over. Next year will be the test of how damaging that has been. I am hoping, of course, that I can get away with it. I'll try and remember to report back here in a year's time. One thought has just nudged its way to the front of my brain: could it be that when you split your huge plant 5 ways and generously parted with 4, you kept the oldest, tiredest part for yourself? If so, you may not get it back into flower, unless it has built up sufficient new pseudobulbs. Indeed, it may never flower. I'm sure Bob would know ... let's hope he pops up in a mo. Thanks Spider LOL Last point first. I potted the divisions into smaller pots, and put mine in a bigger pot. The ones which flowered were more pot-bound and no, mine was a good chunk, not just the oldest part! I'm really interested that you cut your cymbidium leaves back. I've been wondering how it would look if I did so as mine is so large and I've not much space for it. I'm glad you thought it worked OK. Mine has been outside all summer but in the shade. I was told by an orchid expert to keep it moist in order to promote flowering, but it didn't! A lot of the time it has to put up with tap water but looks very healtthy. I'm not giving up now! Pam in Bristol Answering in order: Thank goodness you've got a decent-sized plant! Hopefully, it will soon fill its pot and flower within the next year or two. A 'growth' feed, as opposed to a 're-bloom' feed, may help early next year. My Cymbidium looks okay with its leaves trimmed. I cut them on a slant to try to recreate the pointed appearance, which I'm sure helped. As to whether it works in the long term (by limiting photosynthesis), I can't say. Whether or not it blooms next year, I'll report back. I'm not going to advise you to cut yours back, but you could certainly look at removing any tatty old leaves. I don't regret cutting mine back at all - it's certainly much tidier and, in truth, there's still an awful lot of healthy leaf left. I just don't want to encourage you to cut your leaves back if it will impede flowering. You'll have to take that risk yourself :~). Perhaps next year, you could put your Cymbidium out in the shade to begin with, then gradually move it into a sunnier position. The leaves showed no signs of suffering from the sun. They got a bit battered when the wind blew them over, but nothing more than that. I shall certainly repeat the exercise next year. All my orchids get tap water and, like yours, look none the worse for it. The Cymbidiums had rainwater outdoors most of the time, but they are back on tap water now. The oddest thing is that all my Cymbidiums were quite strongly scented when I bought them. The first thing I did when the flowers opened fully was sniff for scent. There was none, nor has it developed since. I'm sorely miffed as the scent was lovely. I'm still enjoying the flowers, of course, but I'm so disappointed there's no scent. -- Spider. On high ground in SE London gardening on heavy clay |
Reply |
Thread Tools | Search this Thread |
Display Modes | |
|
|
Similar Threads | ||||
Thread | Forum | |||
Orchid genus name listings on the London Orchid Society website | Orchids | |||
Need Help ID'ing an Orchid (or orchid-type plant)... | Orchids | |||
Orchid research at the ANH [Was: Orchid Taxonomy and Mycorrhiza] | Plant Science | |||
WANTED: back issues of the American Orchid Society Bulletin & The Orchid Digest. | Orchids |