Orchid Growth – August 2017

Better late than never with this monthly update on orchid growth!

Of course, there are now four orchids to update you on! As well as Julie and Sandra there are two newcomers which you may of seen my previous posts about. The new ones are both phal orchids,  Big Ben and the newly named (by my lovely husband) Ratana. Ratana means crystal in Thai.

So, to begin with the miniatures!

Julie continues to grow and grow. Her new leaf, which hadn’t opened last month, finally showed its face and looks very healthy and green. There is also another leaf growing.

Julie’s aerial roots continue to grow with another one appearing towards the base of the plant. You can just see it poking out in the picture below. I will definitely have to repot Julie once this growing season is out as she is a bit too big for her pot now!

J

The most exciting development with Julie is the possibility of a flower spike coming through!

I have thought aerial roots have been flower spikes before but this little ‘nodule’ looks quite promising given its classic ‘mitten’ shape when the spike is in its infancy. Only time will tell!!

So, to Sandra – again, another good month of growth for the little one. Like Julie her new leaf eventually opened.

Her aerial root (the only one) continues to grow branching out along the way!

Now onto the newbies! After repotting both of these big buggers I have put them together in the bathroom. Both are doing well and seem healthy and strong although they won’t be ‘doing’ much until next year as both had bloomed when we bought them and will now be ‘resting’.

Big Ben:

Ratana:

One thing that has been concerning me about both plants are marks on the leaves which I thought might be a disease/pests. I noticed that when I was going into the bathroom there were a few tiny black flies that seemed to be sitting in the soil.  When I looked at the leaves, especially on Ratana, there were some round spots.

Also, on Big Ben there was some damage to one of the leaves which I wasn’t sure I had noticed when I bought him.

I did some research on the internet and decided initially that the plants had scale which is not really something you want on any plant.

As I still wasn’t sure I got in touch with the lovely Hannah from My First Orchid blog. Hannah didn’t think that the plants did have scale and advised me to monitor both and see what happens.

So, this is another little orchid related task for me from now on. I have noticed that the small black flies have now disappeared although this may be to do with a very robust and industrious spider which is also living in the bathroom.

So, thats it for now. I will give you an update in my September post and you never know….I may have a spike to photograph!!