Hi. Any idea what kind of orchid it is? You could try putting it in a basket with either coarse bark or no medium at all and spray it like you're doing.

How about a photo

Yes, I think it would help if I let you all know the type of orchid it is. Here is the link for you:-)

It is a

BIN-Epi. Mabel Kanda 'Green Leaf' NEW! Must See! Very Nice! Fragrant!

http://www.ebay.com/itm/BIN-Epi-Mabel-Kanda-Green-Leaf-NEW-Must-See-Very-Nice-Fragrant-/290623303771?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0amp;hash=item43aa7fb05b#ht_2186wt_900

Hello Lumpy and Jolene, here is the picture of my plant in another thread. I will link that too:-)

Thank you

Here is a link that might be useful: My orchid

Mike,

First, I'm not really much of a catt grower...But if it were mine, I'd secure the plant firmly in the pot somehow (rhizome clips, wire, etc..) and just water it when the media needed watered. I'd think a quick daily mist of the aerial roots wouldn't hurt the underlying media too much, if you feel it is necessary.

Watch it, you'll kill it with kindness if you are not careful. (In other words, IMO they are tougher than we give them credit for and we may baby them too much at times...)

Good luck,

Bob

How long have you had it. It looks pretty healthy to me. I wouldn't water it that much, those canes are full of water so it should be fine with once or twice a week. Remember the Zygo behind the orange tree you forgot about until you saw the flowers open? Thats how you should treat them all.

In the decades I've been growing various plant material, I have personally found that we do tend to kill more plants with kindness.

Sometimes, a little neglect can go a long way in the overall health of a plant... depending on the plant, of course. But as we all know, more plants are killed by over watering than by any other one thing.

Knowing as we do, Mike, that medium plays a huge role in the health of a root system, and allows for a little leeway in the mistakes we tend to make, as in babying them... I would watch for any rot, get rid of any rot if there is any, and use an anti-fungal to help keep rot at bay. Cinnamon works... I use Captan.

But I think you've been given good advice by Bob and Lumpy. Don't over think it... and just keep a casual eye on it... I, too, think a lot of plants are tougher than we give them credit for... it's the over watering we want to be wary of. You'll do fine... you have the skills. :-)

Why did i change the title? Because if you do a little bit of investigation you will find that one of the parents of Epicyclia Mabel Kanda has a very pronounced dry period and grows in a place that has "rather dry, scrubby forest". Isn't Mr Google a wonder. That also reinforces what the posters above say about too much kindness.

Now, there might be a set of growing conditions where you could grow every type of "Cattleya" but i have my doubts. I would love to grow Sophronitis but it needs it cooler and moister and at the other end of the scale i am trying to grow and bloom Cattleya aclandiae again, this time on a barren cork mount in the warmest driest place in a glass-house.

Apart from Mr Google there are other clues to culture such as the shape of the pseudobulbs and the leaves. Does Mabel Kanda look like an Encyclia or an Epidendrum?

Hey Jodik!

There is something about you being here that always makes my heart leep for joy! Thank you.
I hear you on the neglect thing. You have actually helped me do very well with my regular plants based on this advice, especially my jades!
I must say that most can probably do without the tenderness while I did find one I did neglect for more than a few days almost dead from dehydration.lol
I guess there is a balance somewhere. The good thing is that it will probably come back a lot easier with a good dose of rain water than if it was rotted due to the opposite.
So far so good, all my roots but one Cattleya that I saved from the Orchid Society were healthy. On the one that had rotted roots, I used your method of cinnamon, and it WORKED! It is doing great now:-)

So happy to see you, and in case no one knows, you have been a very long time close friend of mine on every forum but this one thus far. Here we go again.lol

I also found out that in my type of mix which dries out very quickly in my warm greenhouse and with all those fans, the Cattleya seedlings would croak if I didn't provide constant moisture. These I can't ignore. So far so good. They are thriving with a good watering and misting every other day at the end of my hands.

I have been discovering too that depending on how much light we give and the temps will determin if we can truly ignore them or provide watering more often than not.
I know that a mount I tried, died to neglect with only a couple of days of no water, dried out to the bone.
I would say that there are too many variables in play here to determine whether ones can be ignored or need a constant source of moisture.
I have live hanging moss that needs a constant misting.

I am figuring it out though, thanks to you all here and my own hand at it!

I am still in the discovery process and finding out how well my orchids respond to my care with the environment, light, mix,air movement, and temps all taken into consideration. This is a blast!

Lumpy! You see to have it all together for what you have.
Would you believe that I have some of the same plants that are thriving in JUST 'hydroton', some in just plain 'orchiada bark', some in a combination of fine fir bark, some in fine fir bark, pumice, and perlite, some in chunky fir bark, while others in fine bark, charcoal, and perlite? It can very fun seeing how they all respond. It seems no matter what they are in, they need to be in a mix that provides a lot of oxygen and air movement, and does not stay wet too long.

Right now I have many in the mix Josh uses that LOVE that.

Time will tell if all do well in just about anything, as long as I can provide mixes that stay moist for fine roots, moist but dry out for medium roots, and then dry out fast for large roots.

Bob, I have taken your words too to heart. That is exactly what I am doing. I fine mist all my Cattleyas until the top of the mix gets moist, then do a deep watering every weekend. I use warm rain water and make sure I mist and rinse heavily with warm water for about 5 minutes on each.
I also have many clips that I have now started to use and in fact on many this am.

Thanks for all you do and for everything everybody has done for me. I enjoy you all!

I think my experience with living in the tropics and remembering how orchids grow in nature has given me a good headstart, well at least the basics of orchid care.

I do know that the only time I ever saw them was under trees! The ones exposed to more sun always had burnt and yellow leaves, but huge flowers. The ones that got dense foliage to protect them always had dark green leaves, but smaller flowers.

Mike:-)

Orchids, themselves, are relatively new to me, Mike... mostly because many decades ago it was thought that they were too finicky to withstand the environment of the average home, and one needed the proper climate or an expensive greenhouse setup to grow them well.

Well, we know differently now. We know more about the different orchid types and what they require, and the extremes they can deal with. And we also know that a lot of them are tougher than originally thought. Plus, many are being bred to tolerate the average home conditions, and they're also easier to acquire than they were decades ago. So, the orchid world has really opened up since I was a youngster trying to grow some of my first tropical houseplants.

The reason I say "neglect" is simply because many plant types go through a dry season in their natural habitat, or as our own garden plants do, require a dormant period.

Before I lost it to NBF, I had a Hippeastrum bulb that I positively neglected for the longest periods of time. It sat in a south east facing window, gorgeously filtered by a huge old Oak tree. It was almost an afterthought to water it, and being much younger and busier at the time, I wouldn't think about it until I noticed a few plants around it beginning to wilt. Those plants just thrived, and that silly $3 bulb bloomed every spring! And to think, the only reason I bought it the first place was because the variety name on the box was my dog's name, Minerva... very unusual! I had that bulb for well over 11 years, as a houseplant!

The moral of the story is, I suppose, that it's not really neglect we're going for, but a balance somewhere in between over thinking it and totally ignoring them. :-)

Knowledge is power, and if we know what each type of plant we have prefers, we're more able to place them properly, give them the medium they like best, and care for them without forgetting that the places they originate have differing seasons... so we can back off on watering when needed, or give them a little more when needed.

Everyone told me that Phals were the easiest orchids to grow in the average home... but I haven't had any success with that type, so either it's not true... or I don't have the conditions of the average home. I've had more success with Dens than anything else. I don't treat them in any special way... except for using the grittier medium that will hold a bit extra moisture than plain old orchid bark.

You're doing fine, Mike... and I can't wait to see more photos of your orchids and other plants in bloom!

Arthurm has a point... a lot of today's orchids are crosses, and if we know what culture the parent plant types prefer, and we can get a bead on which parent type our plant resembles more, we have more clues as to how we should care for it.