Orchid, found by dumpster diving

[Inkanyezi]

About a year ago, someone dumped this orchid in the trash. As it was still alive, I rescued it, and put it in a pot at the kitchen window sill. A couple of months ago it had grown substantially, and I changed to a larger pot, whereupon it sprouted three large shoots, that now have twenty-five flowers and a handful of buds.

[DanK]

Very nice. That's an unusually large number of flowers. We have quite a number of orchids in the house, and we can't get them to flower often. About getting it from a dumpster: it reminds me of what a cousin who used to be a landscape architect told me about how be buys plants for himself. He said he is happy with things that are cosmetically in poor shape as long as they look healthy, since all he really wants is the genetic material.

[Shadowman]

Nicely captured.

[Wavelength]

Very nice

[chauncey]

Amazing...a month at our house and they're dead.

[bnnrcn]

It looks nice and healthy

[IzzieK]

You've got green hands, Urban...good for you. I have 5 of them the same as yours here of different flower colours and the other two are the cymbidium and the Cattleya. Once in two or three weeks I dunk the whole pot in Fish fertilizer and they love it....most of mine came the discounted-almost-dying section of Lowes Hardware but I am able to revive them to life...how did you make this one flower so bountiful and beautiful???

[Rita]

This is beautiful. I can't say that I have seen so many blooms on an orchid before.

[Jimr1961]

Very nice phally. What potting medium did you use? I used to grow orchids in a very serious way (600 at a time). I also used to be on the local lecture circuit teaching how to grow them in a passive hydroponic method. If it's in normal potting mix, you will have to change that, but not now, just let it dry out between watering until the flowers have faded and you begin to see new root growth, then get it out of the soil and into something suitable. The web is full of info on suitable media. Each successive pair of leaves should be larger than the last. Since it was neglected in a dumpster, it doesn't surprise me that the new leaves are not.

[bnnrcn]

Fish fertilizer? How much fish fertilizer do you mix with how much water Isabel?

You've got green hands, Urban...good for you. I have 5 of them the same as yours here of different flower colours and the other two are the cymbidium and the Cattleya. Once in two or three weeks I dunk the whole pot in Fish fertilizer and they love it....most of mine came the discounted-almost-dying section of Lowes Hardware but I am able to revive them to life...how did you make this one flower so bountiful and beautiful???

[Inkanyezi]

I didn't actually change what they were sitting in, just removed the plastic pot around the root system and let it keep the bark splinters it grew in. I gave it more room in the new pot and filled up with some very poor dry soil that had lots of dead roots in it. As this pot has no hole in the bottom, I am careful not to give it more than a few drops of water now and then. I feel it with a finger to make sure that it is rather dry, but not totally.

Those orchids I have in Santiago, I water them freely, but there's nothing to hold the water except the rotting plant matter they grow in. It's been very dry for a long time now there, but it seems we have rain imminent now.

I didn't get so many flowers on any other of them, but it seems that the orchids like some sun, but not all day, and being drenched now and then and then left till almost dry before the next time they get water. I have some in an old banana palm trunk in Cuba, and they seem to like it there. But this really is the first time I had one of the phalaenopsis to sprout so many flowers. I guess there must be some magic in the dry soil I put it in.

[Jimr1961]

Since this is a photography forum, I won't go on and on. There is plenty of info on the web, but yes, being epiphytes, they like being drenched, then dry out quickly. That's why the potting medium is so coarse. When the blooms die back and new roots just start to show a little nub, re-pot it in a course bark medium in a pot that seems a bit too small (just enough to hold the rootball after the dead roots are cut off). Water heavily and let it approach dryness before watering again. There are many approaches to fertilizing, but the main thing is to flush the pot heavily between fertilizer application to rinse out the salts that accumulate and burn roots. They need indirect sunlight to grow and bloom well. Direct will burn the leaves. You can shoot me a PM if you desire more info.

[Inkanyezi]

This is how I see it when sipping my morning cup of tea. My kitchen has a window toward north, and only in the summer will it receive direct sunlight a couple of hours in the morning. Now there is no more sun until next summer.

[IzzieK]

Fish fertilizer? How much fish fertilizer do you mix with how much water Isabel?

I do not measure Binnur, I just pour a little bit (maybe about 3 or 4 tablespoonfuls) to a gallon of water in one of those gallon juice container...I have a bucket on the floor and soak the roots around 2 - 3 minute mark (I use my kitchen timer) then drain it and I do not have to water it until 3 or 4 weeks after...they continue to flower, then rest for a while, then the shoots comes out...I have maybe about 5 plants now that I salvaged from the discount section of our hardware store here...around $2 or no more than $5. My cattleya I bought for $0.50 cents... sorry for the late response, I lost this post somewhere...