Stephen Batchelor was a teenager when he purchased his first orchid. Having heard that orchids grew in trees, he hung the plant in a tree in the backyard. It was strange to look at, with its leathery leaves and thickened stems, but soon it sported two of the most exquisite flowers Stephen thought he’d ever seen. He watered it diligently every day.
Imagine Stephen’s horror when he noticed his orchid turning black from the bottom up. Within the week all that remained of his cherished first orchid was a collection of oozy, blackened stumps. Such was his rude initiation into the black-thumbed legion of orchid growers who have suffered with rot.
In Part 1 of Orchid Culture: Diseases, Stephen shares his hard-earned knowledge about ruinous rots—fungal, roots, and bacterial. At the same time, he counsels us on the prevention and treatment of these black rots.
Download the lesson in PDF format below...
