# Edumacation



## NYEric (Dec 27, 2007)

This is one of the little Pleuro's I have growing, unfortunately the ability to grow anything came at a high price as shown by the tombstones!


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## likespaphs (Dec 27, 2007)

dude... bummer.
we all gotta learn, often the hard way, though...


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## goldenrose (Dec 27, 2007)

Yikes? Do I dare ask over what course of time? This looks worse than when my GH furnace failed in Feb, the coldest weekend of the season!


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## Gilda (Dec 27, 2007)

Eric, It's time to bury(trash) all the evidence of the deathsoke: and move on..you have graduated orchid school with all your blooms !


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## NYEric (Dec 27, 2007)

Oh it took a while, but there are some there that are not easy to replace. Maybe 9 years..


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## Candace (Dec 27, 2007)

A lady in my OS used to keep them, too. She probably had as many. I probably have had that amount of tombstones over the years. Loss of a compot or two and in the beginning years lots of hard lessons learned. It is painful to look at, especially when there are still price stickers attached.


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## goldenrose (Dec 27, 2007)

Gilda said:


> Eric, It's time to bury(trash) all the evidence of the deathsoke: and move on..you have graduated orchid school with all your blooms !


I agree with Gilda! Recycle those tags ..... life goes on!


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## NYEric (Dec 27, 2007)

Nah, I'm a holder-on person. It reminds me of 2 things. Don't try things w/out making the proper preparations for maintaining them; and don't buy little tiny pieces of plants or seedlings if avoidable.


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## Ed M (Dec 27, 2007)

Dude. That second picture is tragic. I stopped saving mine a long time ago, but I see the point, its a good history lesson.


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## SlipperFan (Dec 27, 2007)

I kept my dead tags a long time, but decided to sever ties this summer.


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## Bolero (Dec 28, 2007)

Oh my god!!! On the positive side, you did throw out more tags than me.......well it's positive for me anyway.......

Sorry for all your losses. I can feel your pain.


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## JeanLux (Dec 28, 2007)

I have my +/- 500 plants stored in a small Access-DB with one field named 'KO-Date'. This allows me to do a cleaning-up from time to time. I must have deleted over the years more or less the same number as your pictured tomb-stones. Now, what I must confess is that there were certain species that I had to delete again and again: ex. Cattleya dowiana, Phrag. besseae!, Sophronitis coccinea... . I am sure, I do not have the real green thumb, but I am tenacious ( or stubborn?) enough to retry those always again. Jean


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## Roy (Dec 28, 2007)

Eric, I know how you feel looking all those labels. We had been in our new location for 3 years with the Orchid Nursery really starting go. We had 2 late frosts hit late in the year, one at -7c & the next day -4c . Over the next 3 months I through 2000 flowering size cymbidiums and 100 compots of cym (20 plants/pot) on the compost heap. Edumacated big time.


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## Grandma M (Dec 28, 2007)

Ouch, Roy and Eric. That would REALLY hurt.

My plants are listed in Excel. When I lose one, I copy and paste that row into the 'Plants That Died' section. I found that depressing ??????? so I deleted most of them. Mostly the common ones which I don't really miss. The ones I really miss are still listed, if I gain enough confidence, I may replace them later.


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## NYEric (Dec 28, 2007)

I think the problem is that most of us see or hear about things that are interesting but they're either not in the range of our growing conditions, or they're not really established enough to survivr our conditions, or our cultural methods, watering habits, media choices, lighting, etc. are improper and we don't make the necessary adjustments. The type of plant I've massacred in quantity is small pleurothallids. Unfortunately living in apartments and acquiring tiny plants from vendors accerbated the problem. Finally I got an ultrasonic fogger that [combined w/ a fan] seems to provide the cool humid condition they need. The worst part of the graveyard is that some of those plants [like the besseae 'peachy x chinook'] are not around any more.


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## Roy (Dec 28, 2007)

Eric, most of what I lost were seedlings but also my breeding stock which were "one only" exclusive plants in the main. All were awardable or close to but never presented. Some had won Champions of shows and about to be M/cloned. Some of the seedlings I sold before the loss have flowered and are winning Best of Shows and awards. Doesn't help me coz I can't continue the breeding program, there's nothing left.


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## NYEric (Dec 31, 2007)

Have you installed heaters now?


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## swamprad (Dec 31, 2007)

I've still got the tags from 1977, when everything in my greenhouse froze! Maybe it's time to let them go, hahaha....


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## TheLorax (Dec 31, 2007)

Oh Eric! Your photograph of your tombstones is priceless. 

Suggestion- give them away before they hit rock bottomoke:
Keeps my tombstone pile to a minimum.


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## NYEric (Dec 31, 2007)

Some of them died so fast it was as if I had set them on fire!


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## Roy (Dec 31, 2007)

NYEric said:


> Have you installed heaters now?



Nope, through out or sold off what was left and built a Paph house, with heater. I can grow nearly three times as many Paphs etc in a space 1/10th the size house as I needed for the cyms for the equivalent turnover of plants. I also get flowers 12 months of the year.


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## biothanasis (Jul 9, 2008)

I don't know why, but I started to throw away the tags of the plants that died as soon as they did... Maybe subconsiously I thought that it was a new beggining for everyone I bought next... I have always changed my conditions properly for the plants I bought and nowadays things seem better... There are lots of losses though... 

Eric, I haven't bought this number of plants yet, but the loss rate may be the same or higher...ity:


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