orchids sharing water...drips and drops to common reservior

[DirtyCoconuts]

So this came up in a recent thread and I thought it deserved some discussion


the RULE is, do not mingle the water between plants BUT it seems many commercial and advanced growers DO allow either some water to drip down, say a vertical wall, or at least have a setup where water can and does go onto more than one plant.

I personally have several vertical oriented areas where plants simply DO drip on each other.

SO, is it bogus? is it about more than just dripping like Roberta suggested? maybe about the time of contact for transmission?
Or something else, perhaps it is BEST PRACTICE but not required as long as you have good other conditions?

Thoughts?

[Dollythehun]

If you visit hauserman's and walk to the end of the greenhouse, you will see an entire wall of plants hanging above each other. They got to get watered somehow.

[Clawhammer]

Following...

[SouthPark]

DC ----- you're right! For the over-hang case, if one or some plants have pathogens (hypothetical only), then the outbreak or spread may be limited - as maybe only the plants in the firing line (below) will be affected. So not the entire collection.

But for full-on water sharing, where an entire collection of plants are watered with 'contaminated' water ----- especially with re-used contaminated water on successive days --- then the chance of encountering issues could become significant. The longer the amount of time the true (full-on) water sharing practice is carried out, the more chance of encountering issues.

It's just one of the probability things.

Methods that don't involve usage of potentially contaminated water most likely benefits the plants and their owners.

For their most treasured or prized orchids, the nurseries probably won't be putting them underneath other orchids. Probably.

[WaterWitchin]

Well, good for you to get this going instead of waiting on me DC! On a different thread, Ray was discussing different benching systems, and using a vertical walls system. I chimed in with What about plants dripping down on each other? DC chimed in with All plants situated vertically drip on each other and don't let anyone tell ya otherwise. Now paraphrasing my next thoughts from that thread...

Well, what about all the "don't share water" spreads virus, yada yada advice? Does it not count if they're hung vertically, or what?

I stopped sharing water about 10 years back because of that advice. And stopped using a neat setup I had for a wall. Not that I'd ever had a problem, but...

I've never had a virus (that I know of). I started lurking on OB around 2004 or '05. And spend a ton of time just reading and "listening." Finally joined up in 2011. A couple or so years in, after all the "don't share water" comments, I decided I'd better follow suit. The more experienced growers appeared pretty serious and adamant about it.

So I got rid of the two "walls" where I had vertically put orchids, and established trays on each shelf so they wouldn't drip on the ones below. I also used to soak orchids in the sink (back in the day when I didn't have as many) and they were certainly sharing water for many years.

Then I got to the point of "party line" where I was saying the same thing... Oh, don't let water from one orchid and another orchid coincide. Now I'm hearing the opposite. So is this something where we're saying this to beginners as a "best practice." Which also appears to be the ol' Do as I say, Not as I do thing? Hmmmmmm....

Roberta gave some insight into that, but I'll let her join in if she wants... don't want to paraphrase.

But I'm still sitting here thinking... Why am I giving out this best practice advice as a top "rule" about orchid hygiene? It appears many of us say it... but then we don't heed that same advice.

Discussion?

[DirtyCoconuts]

SP raises a very interesting point about prized orchids not being hung under other orchids and there is a ring of truth with this in my set up....

I do not TRY to have the water go from plant to plant and in the situations where it does, i always make sure the lower plants are not super important, irreplaceable or delicate plants.

i figure that all my plants are exposed to spray from other plants given the environment of sideway rain and constant breezes so they are either already hardy or i am keeping them in good enough condition.


I was recently looking at a picture of an amazing backyard with a koi pond and a water fall and the pond was teeming with amazing plants......an extreme example of sharing water perhaps ( i know a pond has bio filters and helpful eaters etc) but clearly plants are able to intermingle their water in nature...like several orchids up and down a single tree

[Roberta]

As I mentioned in the thread that started this one... I think that there is a big difference between "sharing water" and being dripped upon. Virus especially seems to be transmitted mostly through situations where plants share juices - like when cut. If two plants are soaked in the same water, any break in a root, or a cut, is a potential infection site. Soaking gives lots of contact time, so if that greatly increases the odds that the infection will be shared. When plants drip on each other, water is fresh and being exchanged. So contact time, and potential concentration of pathogens, is greatly reduced. In any nursery (especially a greenhouse, but even outside) some plants will be hanging above others, water (among other things) flows downhill. But I also suspect that the dose makes the poison - transfer of disease is a lot more efficient with lots of contact time, and high concentration (a soak), than in a flowing-water situation. Social distancing works for plants too.

[farley101]

I'm trying to figure this out for my new outdoor setup, I really want to be able to water in place but avoid plants on lower shelves as much as possible. Ray suggested plastic sheeting to avoid that entirely, but I still have some hanging plants that I'll have to deal with. Once it stays warm enough to keep them outside full time that will be an issue, not quite there yet so I've got time to think.