Hi Bob. To be honest I never thought about the waste. I am on a well and septic system so I'm not using a municipal water supply. Any waste water is obviously going out to water the lawn. I paid more than I needed to because I hired Culligan Water to install the RO. I paid extra for the best filters, they are rated to block bacteria and virus. I don't remember the micron size. They put a faucet on the sink so its easy to use. Long story short, I live in an area which is all well/septic and never trusted the well water to drink. I had it tested each year and it was deemed safe, but I am a City girl and prefer the smell of chlorine in my water. Thus the RO system. Plus our well water was high in hardness and acidic and I felt that affected some of my plants. If I empty the reserve tank, it takes a few hours to fill again. I use rain barrels to collect rain water and use that when they aren't frozen. I fill containers with RO water in gallon amounts. I estimate I use approx. 3 gallons with each full watering. So I continually fill one gallon containers throughout the week so I don't deplete the RO in one watering. Now I am using rain water exclusively. When the plants go outside, I use the well water from the hose. I really like the RO system. I feel it was worth the money. I even use it for ice cubes instead of the ice machine. I use it for cooking and drinking. I know there are cheaper ways to install them if you are handy. There are no 'handy-men' in this house. Jane

A few thoughts to share, he is the former president of my orchid society & has always preached conservation. From this point on is nothing but conjecture, but I, along with other members of the society who know him well feel this is a very plausible scenario. I envision a scenario where the plants make it thru the inspections & nothing had been noted or flagged as being illegally collected. He assumes the shipment is nothing out of the ordinary. He opens the boxes, discovers that the plants are potentially wild collected, what does he do, march back to authorities who just gave him the all clear and say "excuse me, you allowed me to import these wild plants from my in laws, will you please take them back?" He would have been arrested on the spot & his family would have been torn apart. So in this scenario, he did what any other person would have done when they find they are in possession of something that they shouldnÂt have, he kept his mouth shut & went on with life as nothing happened. Five years later someone leaks the information & the case is opened. Someone must have made a deal with the investigators to lessen their own penalties in order for a case like this to be started 5 years after the fact. Mac had a lot going for him, his business was growing & he has just been promoted in his job. Had he plead not guilty he could have been held in prison for 14 months (had they not granted him bail) while awaiting his trial. He would have to spend thousands of dollars in legal fees & risk fines up to $250,000 & several years in prison. He would have lost his job & his family would have been torn apart. By making a plea deal & cooperating with authorities, he would speed the trial up, save massive amounts of money in legal fees & fines & have a better idea of his punishment before he steps in front of the judge for sentencing. I think it is clear that the prosecutors understood his dilemma when he received the plants & discovered that they may have been wild collected & decided to show him leniency. In the end he served no time in prison, received 18 months probation & has had his importation license suspended. Like I said, this is all conjecture, but knowing Mac & how much he cares about conservation compels me to believe this is a likely scenario. I do not believe that he had knowledge of the plantÂs potential illegal status prior to opening the shipment on that day more than 5 years ago. As a final note, I have heard from a local grower that the plants in question were Phal. Schilleriana, not Paph. Rothschildianum as was previously speculated. -Ray-

Hello Bolo. Just to complicate your life, might I quote a portion of a recent post titled "Quick fix for water retention", to wit: "I recently repotted my phal in a Schultz brand orchid mix  itÂs composed of bits of charcoal, clay, etc. IÂd hoped it would prevent overwatering and the mould problems present in the moss it lived in for a year. Unfortunately, the water retention of this mix is terrible, as the water runs through it so quickly that nothing is maintained for the plant. The leaves have become wrinkled and wilted,..." Bark is not magic, moss is not magic, nothing is magic, anything you decide to use as a potting mix needs to be given the proper amount of light, air circulation and watering and most of us find (whether we know it or not) that when proper amounts of light, air circulation, humidity, etc. are supplied it just doesn't @#$$%! matter what you put in the pot as a substrate to hold your orchid in an upright position. Perhaps I have overstated things a tad to make a point but only a little. So my point isn't to tell you not to use a bark mix, I do (ammended with sphag moss) for some things. I am saying that different potting products have different physical properties and regional availabilities that determine how appropriate they ultimately will be for your uses and should be considered on those standpoints than a knee jerk consideration of water retention because ultimately a degree of water retention is often a good thing. If you have an average sized phal in an average sized plastic pot (~6") and you are seeing signs of overwatering you might conclude that a bark mix would solve your problem. WRONG. Or more accurately 'not quite'. Yes the faster drying bark mix would fix the most immediate signs of overwatering but chances are the phal was underlit to begin with and is still underlit even though its drying cycle is now closer to 7 days than the 10+ days when it was in sphag. Ultimately it is the being chronically underlit situation that will prove detrimental although it can take many months to discover this. H

The ones attached to the trees( I am in Zone 10 South Fl)get watered every other day or every third day as my schedule permits. If I get home late and if it is a little cooler I don't water them. I think they will love to be watered every day during the hot summer months. Depends on how vigorous the root growth is and the species, they may take a couple of months to get attached. Hope this helps.