help needed with Orchids

[sunnymay10]

Hi everyone,

hope someone can help me with orchid advice. My neighbour goes away for the winter in a motorhome to warmer places, and asked me to have 4 of her orchids. I said they would only be in an unheated greenhouse and she was okay with this, I didn't want them in the house as our cats pull out plant soil, and make a general mess of them.
Anyway, they look very bad and she's due back in March, help!
I bought baby bio feed for orchids, that made them worse, and now I'm thinking, re-pot them? I think it's special soil you have to use, so advice on how I can turn these around, or just buy her new ones, and say no next time. Got to say 2 have a bit of green left, but 2 two have yellow leaves that are falling off, so any advice would be helpful. thanks if you can.
sunnymay.

[veggiechicken]

Can you post some photos of them please. It would help us to see them problem.

[Nicos]

Maybe overwatered?...and too cool?

Piccie would be useful!

[Nicos]

Oh...and if all else fails....IKEA sell them at £4 -£6.50 each

House Plants & Garden Plants | IKEA

[sunnymay10]

Will do a photo if I can, think it's the cold more than anything, but how can I revive them, I have a about 6 weeks to do it.

[Nicos]

Bring them indoors...and don't water them possibly?

Do you have a room which the cats can be kept out of or put them too high for them to reach?

[veggiechicken]

Don't panic!! Orchids are tougher than you think. Mine look completely dead at the moment. yellow leaves falling off, but a few weeks of ignoring them, and they'll be back. They always have done anyway!

[sunnymay10]

Well, I've brought 2 of them in, one really bad and the other has black patches on the two remaining leaves, the other two in the polytunnel are yellow, taken a picture but forgotten how to post it, had a look on FAQ and still didn't get it, must be a wooly head.

[mothhawk]

Black patches can be a symptom of over watering. They like high humidity (but not if it's cold), but hate wet feet. Let them dry out completely, and don't give any more water until the roots you can see are beginning to look shrivelled. Then give a tiny amount of water, literally tiny - an eggcup full is plenty. Also if the ends of the leaves are going brown that may be too much feeding, I only feed mine once a month (which is about how often I water too).

The black patches won't go, but the orchid will grow new leaves so it's not a worry. This winter all the leaves on one of my orchids went speckledy brown and dropped off, no idea what caused it, but although it looked a goner, I left it, and it has now started to grow new leaves again.

If the owners are back in March, there won't be a huge improvement by then, but they should still be alive. As Nic says, I would deffo bring them in to give them a bit of warmth and help them dry out their feet.

[sunnymay10]

Thanks for your replies, think they have probably had too much water and too much feed. So, dry them out a bit, perhaps buy the lady one nice new one, and hope the better two might improve, fingers crossed.

[rary]

I would try putting them in a warmer environment, but if they dont recover I would not bother purchasing replacements, if I ask someone to take plants I am not looking for the back, and if I was told they were going into a cold greenhouse I would not expect the to survive