[orchidhelp] Re: dead orchids

Gareth, you have my deepest sympathy. What a strange problem! It's almost like they were wet and got too cold? And maybe clay pots made the roots colder? I don't know - just a guess.... 

~Denise

Gareth Wills wrote:
I’ve had a strange angel of death pass over my greenhouse this past winter. First, most of my Angraecums were killed over a period of about a month. This included bosseri, distichum, eburneum superbum, elephantinum, leonis, Longiscott 'H&R', magdalense 'Pauwela', scottianum, sesquipedale, and superbum. All were good-sized plants last autumn some specimen-sized. Calceolus, compactum, didieri, and eichlerianum survived in good health. Sesquipedale and eburneum were massive plants in 12”clay pots for the last 5 years potted with clay shards, charcoal chunks and 3-4” pieces of cork. The lower leaves shriveled and dropped followed quickly by the next set and nothing I did stopped the progression. The shriveled leaves were black but not at all moist. The stem did the same. The compost was not degraded and the pots hadn’t been moved from their positions in several years. The survivors were potted in wooden baskets while those that succumbed were in clay pots. No insects were found.
The others that were smote were the Broughtonias all various clones of sanguine and were mounted on cork or fern. All except 3 were killed. The roots dried up (not too unusual) but then so did the p-bulbs. Some were clumps 8 inches across. Now they didn’t seem to be at their best at the end of last summer, they hadn’t grown much. The youngest mounts did the best. I’ve managed to revive a couple starting over with a couple of bulbs. But most of the bulbs were completely dehydrated. I always grow them with the vandas and have done very well in the past.
Anyone with some ideas as to what’s happening here? No other plants seemed to suffer in the gh this winter. 

Gary

In South Carolina







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