There are many good culture pages on the Web dealing with specific types of orchids. I will not try to duplicate that information here, but I will show some of my successes and failures, and try to answer some frequently asked questions.

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Your New Plant	How an Orchid Grows	Floppy Leaves/Repotting
Diseases, Deficiencies, & Pests	Water Quality

or

"how do I grow roots on my poor orchid"

Root rot resulting from over watering often results in a rootless plant and a panicked owner. A common technique for saving such a plant is the "sphag and bag" technique whereby the plant is placed into a plastic bag along with moist, wrung out long fibered Sphagnum moss. I have not done this per se, but I have used the basic concept to grow roots back on several plants. Orchids are very hardy and contain an abundance of stored energy in their leaves and pseudobulbs. They are also adapted to store moisture, much like cacti and succulents. So as long as a rootless plant is not placed in a very dry area, it most likely will put out a new shoot and start new roots. Some greenhouse owners simply place rootless plant in a humid shady area (under a bench), sometimes sticking the plant in a wet clay pot until roots start, others use sphagnum moss and a plastic bag. In the above picture I have placed rootless Cattleya backbulbs into a glass of distilled water with just the rhyzome submerged. This is acually the second time this plant has been through this proceedure. I initially placed all seven pseudobulbs into the glass until a new pseudobulb and several roots started from the youngest "front" pseudobulb. I then cut off the oldest four pseudobulbs (backbulbs) and started the process all over again to see if I could start new growth from a dormant node on a backbulb. Once again, a new pseudobulb started after about two weeks, and once the new "sprout" reached about 1 inch long, a new root started from its base. At this point, the distilled water was swapped out for my regular fertilizer solution.

I some how ended up with several Phalaenopsis seedlings with few or no roots. The worst of these (see below) had no roots, and 1 & 1/2 wilted leaves (I trimmed a leaf because of black spot disease). This plant was initially treated as above using a shotglass with distilled water up to the base of the leaves, but water kept wicking up into the crown so I simply replaced the water with moist Sphagnum moss. The little plant started a new root in about two weeks and soon rehydrated itself. In four weeks, a new leaf started, but the tiny root nubs show slow growth while the new leaf continues to grow. The other seedlings had at least one small half inch root left, so I simply repotted them into a mix of 1/4 inch coconut husk chips, charcoal, Aliflor (expanded ceramic pellets), and a little chopped Sphagnum moss. They are doing fine.

Am I placing these plants into a bag with 100% humidity?

No, they sit in with my other plants, or in my "hospital tank", in a moderatly low light corner, temperature 57-75 degrees, humidity 50% to 60%. I worry about the high humidity of a bag environment facilitating crown rot, so if my plants are not dehydrating with my present conditions, I prefer not to chance it.

How do I prepare the plants?

I carefully remove as much dead tissue as possible in order to remove anything for mold and bacteria to grow on. Dose any cut tissue and the plant base with cinnamon, and let the plant dry for a day or so. This will enable the plant to begin forming a callus over any cuts. I use distilled water so that bacteria and fungus cannot get any nutrients/minerals they may need to grow. A wash of hydrogen peroxide on the base may also be good to help kill the bacteria and fungi that caused the rot in the first place.

Once roots are growing in the water what do I do?

Roots can remain in the water, and the plant can be grown in water culture, or the plant can be repotted. I initially repotted the Cattleya into water culture with Aliflor, and then dropped the water level to continue with semi-hydroponic culture. At some point within a month of dropping the water level, the original "water roots" died, but the plant was growing well and puting out new roots adapted to the semi-hydro culture, so repotting was not a setback. I plan on letting the water level drop slowly this time to condition the roots to air.

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Backbulbs w/ new lead ~ 2 weeks	New root off of lead~5 weeks	Root growth in relation to new lead/pseudobulb
	Front bulbs repotted with new growth and roots

Aquaria in medium to high indirect light area.	Late afternoon sun hits terrarium and left half of hospital tank. Plants are on a pebble tray. All are backbulbs/divisions purchased at an orchid show. The large Cattleya in the damp clay pot suffered from total root rot when purchased ($5). The two Miltassia to the left had at least two good roots so they were simply potted in a coconut husk mix.	Hospital tank
	Of the two divisions of Mtssa. Aztec 'Nalo' HCC/AOS purchased, one division had good roots on the backbulb, but not on the frontbulb or start, so it was divided, and the old bulb was planted, and the new bulb and lead were place in a cut off two liter soda bottle on wet Orchid Rock pellets.
	Roots appeared in about 3 weeks, and the plant was transfered to a square pot with more pellets added to cover and support the base of the plant.

Note: The large Cattleya in the damp clay pot showed no activity after 4 weeks so it was placed into a cut off soda bottle with distilled water covering the rhyzome (I didn't have any brandy snifters large enough, I hope the plant was not be offended). After two months it began growing roots, and was them oplace into higher light. A new lead started after three or four months and was itself producing roots and ready to take out of water culture after ten months.

Long strap like V-shaped leaves from over fertilization. Slight sunbleaching from being placed under center of flourescent light bank.	Compare oval shape of top right leaf grown under proper conditions. Notch due to growth inhibition or physical damage from repotting.

This plant was initially tortured for several years by not repotting, not watering on any schedule, watering with tap water high in total dissolved solids (TDS), over watering, and over fertilizing. Salt build up was thick on the original clay pot. Only a few short roots were alive at any one time. Generally only two or three leaves existed at any one time, and generally they were wrinkled and floppy.

 

Crown rot

Rot affected the tip of one leaf, and worked its way down the side of the other into the crown. The leaves were trimmed, and hydrogen peroxide was dripped into the crown.		Unfortunately this did not help and the plant died.
Phal. 'Mimose'  Failure?	This was a beautiful Phal with seven leaves and two blooming spikes. Rot worked its way into the base of the lower leaves and so the plant was repotted to clay pellets and the lower leaves trimmed. Unfortunately this left a weak top that did not recover. The plant did not recover	Watching side nub on left closely for sprout

Both of these plants were lost, so you may not choose to do what I did here.

 

Pests

Fungus gnats: Do you have swarms of little "fruit flies" around your plants? Yes! (more info)