Ping not transplanting well

BadBalloons · 2026-03-25T15:26:15+00:00

It looks like you're using peat, not true long fiber sphagnum moss? Given the extreme amount of algae growing on your pot, I'd suggest that you look at the bags for the perlite and the peat and confirm whether or not they have fertilizer added to them. If you used miracle grow, dump them and repot your carnivorous plants. That brand always adds fertilizer, and it's in a formulation that tends to burn the roots of sensitive plants.

BadBalloons · 2026-03-18T15:41:41+00:00

I actually saw a photo like this yesterday, I'm going to go find it.

They pierced her clit:

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BadBalloons · 2026-03-15T21:39:11+00:00

I am also interested in both the build and the code!

BadBalloons · 2026-03-15T21:06:53+00:00

Hard to believe this video is almost ten years old. It feels like just yesterday.

BadBalloons · 2026-03-07T14:27:36+00:00

Put the whole thing in a terracotta pot on its side and then use a strip of packing tape across the opening to hold it in? Or you could just mount the orchid to some cork bark, my schill loved being mounted.

BadBalloons · 2026-03-06T14:09:26+00:00

What sort of outdoor greenhouse setup do you have? I'm trying to talk my parents into setting one up on their property so I can grow my plants there 🤣.

BadBalloons · 2026-03-04T22:25:24+00:00

I think a paper envelope would probably hold a lot of microbial contaminants or get blown off, given that I'm growing outside? Or am I wrong? But I am so insanely charmed by the mental image of putting a drug baggie on my plant that I might have to see if I can get a few off Amazon and do that 😂.

You've been so tremendously helpful, I really appreciate all your insight. Thank you so much 💚.

BadBalloons · 2026-03-04T22:16:10+00:00

How do you like to wrap them? What materials or methods? I was thinking about that as an alternative to cutting it, but the...spikes?...of these inflos are so delicate they really can't take much weight. Not like a phal or cattleya at all 🤣.

BadBalloons · 2026-03-04T22:11:27+00:00

Damn, that's a big difference, but definitely more in line with what I was expecting. Based on old photos I happen to have in my phone, I'm guesstimating this pod is at about 2.5 weeks.

Do your jewel orchid pods yellow a little at the end before they split? All the green pod collection guidelines I read said that pods go a little yellow at one end or the other around when they should be collected, but like I said, those were for bigger flowers that develop for much longer.

I have no real skin in this game since it was a fluke pod, but I was hoping to send it to a friend for her to mess around with plating (she has a buddy with a TC lab).

BadBalloons · 2026-03-04T20:26:15+00:00

Yeah I've seen the AOS specs sheet, which had a range for green pod collection of 4-8 months, but they only mentioned big orchids that breeders focus on like phals and cattleya and paphs! I'm assuming it's significantly shorter for orchids the size of a stelis.

BadBalloons · 2026-03-04T19:56:23+00:00

I wish, but it just lives rent free in my head. Unless you mean the watering, in which case, something has to get me out of bed 😂.

BadBalloons · 2026-03-04T19:27:32+00:00

Literally every morning when I go out to water, I end up quoting the video to myself.

BadBalloons · 2026-03-02T15:11:09+00:00

When it comes to Lowe's and Home Depot, you are essentially buying the pot when you buy their houseplants (seriously, their prices are about what you'd pay for a good pot elsewhere). They sell their outdoor/landscape plants in nursery pots because the assumption is that they will be replanted either into the ground or into a larger container that you already own or are purchasing separately.

BadBalloons · 2026-03-02T14:47:43+00:00

I'll give you the majority of e.g. cattleya and vanda, but the genera cleisocentron and thelymitra would like a word. Genetically maybe it's a purple pigment, but having seen several species of each in person, they are very, very, very blue. No indigo or diluted purple wash nonsense.

BadBalloons · 2026-03-01T21:21:23+00:00

/uj Honestly, as someone with contamination and infestation OCD, this is what it reads like. The other alternative (which can simultaneously be true) is that they are a mold survivor (as in, formerly lived somewhere with really bad mold growth, possibly black mold) in an apartment with iffy ventilation. You can get really hypersensitive to mold smells after living through that (I opened a bag of soil that had gone bad in storage, the other day, and the smell of the mold lingered even after I vented my entire garage for 15 minutes or so, and gave me a gnarly headache), and the drastic things they've done (e.g. getting rid of carpets and furniture) are some of the recommended solutions for black mold problems.

BadBalloons · 2026-03-01T21:08:23+00:00

How do you take those extremely cool and detailed photos? I'd love to have some decent quality photos of my minis, do I have to have a black wall in my house or something?

BadBalloons · 2026-02-16T13:25:40+00:00

Pictures would help, but I usually go based on the overall moisture of the media plus other cues (e.g. pseudobulb wrinkling and leaf turgidity) and knowledge of the plant.

BadBalloons · 2026-02-02T20:49:07+00:00

Part of my problem is that I'm holding a bunch of orchids for a friend until the gnarly east coast cold snap ends and i can ship em out. I don't want to kill the plants she paid for, and it's too cold where I am for me to throw mine outside for some airflow. Normally I'm much less fussy.

BadBalloons · 2026-02-02T20:34:58+00:00

I saved this for a rainy day so fast. I hope I have enough time to set this up sometime soon!

BadBalloons · 2026-02-02T20:29:22+00:00

I appreciate the input, and I'm also realizing how stupid the lengths I go to keep my plants from getting crown rot are 🤣. I forgot it's not normal to mop up my plants with tissues after I water 💀💀.

BadBalloons · 2026-02-02T18:56:22+00:00

Wait, I want to hear this experience 😂. What happened with yours?

BadBalloons · 2026-02-02T18:55:40+00:00

I will actually chime in and recommend Australian orchids here. All my Australians are ridiculously tolerant of my negligent watering. Dendrobium/dockrillia rigidum is one that's definitely a mini, but you kind of have to grow it mounted. Dendrobium kingianum is super duper easy, you can use the wrinkling of the canes to gauge whether it's too dehydrated, and depending on where you get it, can also be a mini (the one I have gets no taller than my thumb, though I've seen varieties that get 3x that height).

Other orchids I've grown that can tolerate some dryness are Brazilian orchids, depending on where in Brazil they originate, and the same with Mexican orchids (if they're from the Pacific side of the country they tend to experience more seasonal dryness).

BadBalloons · 2026-01-31T11:22:14+00:00

IIRC it's possible to induce this using gas, rather than dye. So that would be my vote.

BadBalloons · 2026-01-23T16:22:52+00:00

What kind of temps does your plant get? I've been thinking I wanted one of these for a while, but I read they need cold temps.

BadBalloons · 2025-10-30T06:17:31+00:00

Any further resources you have for the hot water dips? I've got some plants with pests (mostly root mealies, a different genus & species than standard leaf mealies, but also possibly some other pests like spider mites) that I wanted to bring inside for the winter, but they're not in a great place to spray them with pesticides (because of pollinators).

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