# Orchid Recovery Following Shipping.



## amac (May 9, 2018)

How long does it generally take for orchids to recover following shipping? I realize that there are a lot of factors that likely contribute to acclimation, but I am just looking for a general time frame. 
At what point should I start worrying that an orchid has been placed incorrectly and needs to be moved?


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## kimcmich (Jan 17, 2016)

Generally, besides needing extra water when they first arrive, orchids should recover immediately (within a day or 2) from shipping stress. A species id or, better yet, an image of the plant you think is recovering would help in the diagnosis...


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## amac (May 9, 2018)

Plants arrived 10 days ago on 7/13. They looked alright the first 3 days or so, then dropped some leaves around the 4th or 5th day. 

The Masdevallia nidifica has new growth, but some of the leaves have gradually yellowed over the last 5 days. It seems the leaves that had purple on them have yellowed the most. 










The Pleurothallis grobyi 'Small form' has darkened somewhat since arrival and looks dry to me, but when I touch the sphagnum I mounted at the roots it is always slightly damp so it is not even drying out completely between misting.


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## kimcmich (Jan 17, 2016)

Greetings,

Your plants do looked stressed. It's possible they have root damage which will show up in leaf drop or desiccation. 

As for the Masdevallias: If you're seeing yellowing over the span of days, the leaves in question are on the decline and cannot be saved. I would carefully test the yellowing leaves with a gentle tug and remove any leaves that come free. Hopefully you'll just lose some of the older leaves.

For the P. grobyi: The leaves definitely look dry. If they mount is moist, then again, it's possible the roots are damaged and unable to transport water from the mount to the leaves. I would give this plant supplementary misting until the leaves stop looking so wrinkled.

How did you get these plants? Is it possible they dried out during shipment?

Do you have them all mounted on top of lichens? Lichens secrete acids and other compounds into their environment which might by bad for new orchid roots trying to re-establish. Moving the plants to bare cork (or cleaning their spots of underlying lichen) might be something to try.


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## amac (May 9, 2018)

Thanks for your quick reply kimcmich! I really appreciate it.

I tried tugging gently on the Masdevallias and the leaves appear to be secure. What could be some causes of root damage? I was very gentle when mounting them to the cork with bent wire, but maybe not gentle enough? 

I moved the P. grobyi about half an inch to the right to a spot without lichen. I remounted the P. grobyi with a fresh, thicker piece of sphagnum. I will make sure to give it extra water. I hadn't even considered that the lichen could be causing an acidic environment. After a quick inspection, the P. grobyi was the only orchid that was mounted directly on lichen, although my cork is covered in the stuff. I'll make sure to avoid it or scrape it off in the future. 

I purchased the orchids, as well as a number of epiphytic ferns, from GlassBoxTropicals. It is very possible that they could have dried out during shipping, although they were shipped in plastic bags filled with sphagnum. The ferns all look unchanged from the day I got them, other than some slight new growth. 
These are the first orchids I have purchased. I guess people weren't kidding when they said orchids were tricky!


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## kimcmich (Jan 17, 2016)

> I was very gentle when mounting them to the cork with bent wire, but maybe not gentle enough?


It's possible you damaged the crown (where roots and stems meet) when you mounted them. I think it must be something systematic since so many leaves were affected so quickly. What kind of wire are you using?


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## amac (May 9, 2018)

kimcmich said:


> What kind of wire are you using?


I am using NEHERP's "Plant Mounting Wire". I did notice one of them was rusting, which surprised me. They allegedly break down and dissolve after 10-24 months. I guess rusting is a form of dissolving?


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## kimcmich (Jan 17, 2016)

OK - iron wire should not be a problem. (Copper wire, for instance, would not be a good wire to mount plants.)


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## amac (May 9, 2018)

Ok, thanks! 

While these orchids are stressed out should I reduce, increase, or just leave light intensity as it is? The P. grobyi is currently receiving about 1000 Fc, while the M. nidifica are closer to 500 Fc.


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## kimcmich (Jan 17, 2016)

The P. grobyi doesn't look like it is light stressed - that usually shows up as bleached or reddened leaves. And if the Masd already had the reddish tinge to some leaves when you got them, they look fine as well.

If your lights are a source of heat on the plants you might consider lowering them but otherwise I don't think illumination is your problem.


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## Spaff (Jan 8, 2011)

Where did these come from?

The nidifica looks ok, although it seems to be a small division. The purple tinge is just due to high light and the black spotting is likely bacterial or fungal due to insufficient air movement. 

The grobyi looks moisture stressed due to having little to no living roots left (and not having any for a decent while). Instead of misting more often, I'd just keep it evenly moist but put it in fairly high humidity. If the plant has no roots to uptake moisture, then more water isn't very useful. The higher humidity will help reduce moisture loss on the plant while you wait for it to produce new growths and roots.


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## amac (May 9, 2018)

Spaff said:


> Where did these come from?


The plants are from Glass Box Tropicals. 



Spaff said:


> The grobyi looks moisture stressed due to having little to no living roots left (and not having any for a decent while). Instead of misting more often, I'd just keep it evenly moist but put it in fairly high humidity. If the plant has no roots to uptake moisture, then more water isn't very useful. The higher humidity will help reduce moisture loss on the plant while you wait for it to produce new growths and roots.


Sounds like a good idea to me. There were not nearly as many roots on the P. grobyi compared to the Masdevallias, but I just assumed it was due to differences between species. I'll try moving the P. grobyi to an area of higher humidity.


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