Hello Brooke, When I suggested to Larissa if she uses a Ziploc that she not use any potting medium because she is fighting scales. If you have an orchid that has no roots you also dont need a potting medium. Here are some pictures of small paphs growths that broke off during potting that I ziplocked. This is the paph pictured in the bag above. You can see the new root growth just where the brown meets the green. There is a similar new root on the other side. This is after two weeks. This is another paph broken off during repotting. Root after about a month in a ziplock bag. There is a new leaf also growing from the apex, but you canÂt see it in this photo. When the roots get about an inch I will pot them up in bark, continue zip locking until the roots get well established in the medium. You can use sphag but it breaks down very quickly in this environment. What is happening is that the Ziplock bag is air tight, so the little bit of moisture that is in the bag stays in the bag creating 100% humidity. You donÂt need medium to hold the moisture. The bag contains it. Moisture travels into the cells that are desiccated. When you blow into the bag you raise the CO2 level up slightly in the bag helping with the plants carbon fixing. This helps in creating new growth. I admit not to do any experiment to prove this against not breathing in the bag and just filling the bag with air, but I feel reasonably assured that that is what is happening based on my experience and knowledge. I assume this bag would be out of any direct sunlight during recuperation? Yes. Whenever any person, animal or plant is recuperating the less stress the better. The bag method does not guarantee that a unhealthy orchid will recover. Some are headed south no matter what you do. Hello Sheila, How long in the baggie is 'a long time'? a week, a month? Once a orchid has fully recovered or reestablished roots into a medium you can take it out of the bag. I once did an experiment where I had a paph that had no roots. I bagged it grew the roots, potted it, put it back into the bag, and grew it for about three years in the bag. I wanted to see how long I could grow it in the bag after three years I decided it could go for as long as one wanted. One caveat was it didnÂt flower in the bag. During the three years I would add water from time to time, once the roots were established a little water with fertilizer. The roots grew well even outside the pot and you could see the fuzzy root hairs found on paphs. There were a few growths and a strong root system when I took it out of the bag and flowered it. I either gave it away or sold it. I thought I had pictures of it, but canÂt find them now. 'Every now & then opening the bag', same question, once a day, couple times week??? Once a week usually but I admit to be lacs-a-dasial about it. I would sometime blow up the bags whenever they looked like they were going down. If you blow into them more regularly you will probably have better results. Incidentally, I also use this trick if I am going on vacation, and some orchids need to be watered during the time I am not there. I havenÂt lost any healthy orchids

The cold weather, if the house the heater and perhaps lack of air circulation. It likes it warm. It doesn not like peat moss, and gathers mosture from the air at night. Don't leave by an open winder. Change the soil to dry soil, with a lot of coarse sand mixed into very little orchid bark, I live in the far West, I have African Weather, mine does fine year round, Do not mist them. If you are going to water,Then water thoroughly, the not again until the soil, not peat moss dries out. When you get a plant always change the soil. The western wholesale houses ships in peat so they won't dry out on the trip. Use a Cactus mix add in coarse washed construction sand at a ratio of 40% and only 10 % red wood bark or oak leaf. 50% perlite or pumice. Kalanchoe cannot grow in cold unless with other plants around them, they do not like harsh Eastern temps. Most Kalanchoe are from Madagascar. Has it outgrown it's pot? Norma

I think the problem is your Miracle Grow potting mix. I would shop for some Fertilome Potting mix. It is a Canadian product that does not have the timber, lumber, bark and twig crap in it that "Miracle if it grows" does. It does contain a very few twigs, that I can easily find and discard when I am filling my starting trays. (I germinate in paper towels inside plastic sandwich bags on top of my tropical fish aquarium (because my growing space in my basement is too cool for germination and I have had poor germination results in starting mix on heated mats), and transfer to starting tray cells when the sprouts have roots and start to turn green.

There is a caterpillar which bores into tomato stems. You should see a hole about 3-4 mm wide. Above the point of entry, the stem will be puny and slow-growing. If you have this problem, you're probably better off just cutting that branch off. If it's the main stem and that's not an option, you can try to open the stem and remove the bug -- I read about doing that, but didn't have much luck when I tried it; I don't know if the branch is supposed to recover once the caterpillar is gone. http://www.organicgardeninfo.com/potato-stalk-borer.html http://lancaster.unl.edu/hort/Articles/2002/TomatoWilt.shtml