In Situ Vs Home/Greenhouses. What makes orchids strong?

[Cach26]

hello everyone

I live in a country without seasons, which means that there is only a minimal difference between Summer and Winter periods, /Sometimes it rains on sunny days at 35Celsius (o__o)/

Therefore, I don't believe much in things like "not watering plants at certain times of the day", it rains randomly here. And sometimes it rains ALL NIGHT



Because of this, I have been very anxious, thinking about why in situ, cloud forests and rainy jungles, where the humidity is 100%, and it rains all day, orchids do not die, they do not become infected with root and rot. crown. (of course, I understand that they are not in pots, and that is a point, and in addition, they are not vertical, which allows the water not to become puddled)

However, it rains every day, and the humidity is very high. They are wet all the time, or humid. Why don't they rot?

Could mycorrhizae play a fundamental role in strengthening and hardening plants?

What difference is there in the "immune system" of plants in situ, and those at home?

If you want to know more about how they grow, in this case the Phrags in nature, watch the video of Phrags in Situ by Ecuagenera

[Louis_W]

It's a great question!

I think about that with native plants here in the desert. They grow on rainwater in nature, yet if I plant the same species in the same desert it requires additional water through its life.

Here are my thoughts:

1. Our plants are cared for like babies from the time they germinate. Never forced to endure hardship. So when they suddenly do, they are not prepared.

2. They don't develop relationships with fungi as you said. They probably also don't build immunity to natural pathogens like wild plants do.

3. Nature doesn't care about providing good conditions for plants. They survive or they die. Most die probably. Human orchid growers would probably not be ok with loosing 95% of the plants they buy.

4. Cultivated plants are bred for flower quality and vigor in cultivation which means they must surely loose a little bit of that rugged natural toughness. I otherwords they are 'domesticated'

5. As you mentioned they grow on vertical surfaces. They also hang down. We force them to grow in positions that would not be safe in nature.

Just theories...



All that said there IS a difference. If you stick your plants out in wild type conditions they will likely die. You can always push the boundaries of how you care for plants but they will probably always require more care than a wild plant even if they are a native species.

[Roberta]

Orchids in situ have the "secret ingredient" that their roots need - moving air. Of course, also warmth helps. But even where nights are chilly and there is evening rain (and dew) the orchids do fine. (Think higher elevation orchids in places like the Andes) Their roots are exposed to the air. Anything that we, in temperate latitudes, do is a compromise. We put orchids in pots to maintain sufficient moisture and to "control" them in indoor environments (water on the floor is not so desirable) so getting sufficient air in the root zone becomes a challenge that Mother Nature doesn't have to deal with. For mounted plants, adequate water is the challenge - nature does so much better at that than what we can manage in our controlled environments (where we have to pay for water, and then control the runoff and often have humidity that is much lower than ideal). Nature just does this better than we do.

Now, some orchids do come from climates where there is variation - rain patterns, day length, temperature. Those do need to have those factors respected. Even then, getting it right can be a challenge - they might not get rain for some portion of the year, but they get dew and humidity. Taking the "no water" advice too literally is a good way to kill orchids even from those seasonally "dry" environments. Again, nature does it right (that's where the orchids evolved), we can only try, imperfectly, to match what happens naturally.

[Fairorchids]

Having participated in numerous discussions on this subject, I have come to several conclusions:

A. The common 'rules' for growing orchids apply to growing in your house, and are intended to compensate for the 'mistakes' this brings into the equation.

They are also a short-cut for not including the critical factors of light intensity, humidity & air circulation.

B. The ways we grow orchids in the house, are in no way based on the conditions the plant would experience in nature. They are more aptly described as 'what we have to do make the plants accept our less than perfect conditions'.

That Cattleya should 'dry out between waterings' is a trade-off to compensate for people using moisture retentive media and often plastic pots.

For the past many years, I have grown my mature Cattleya in clay pots (but not 'orchid' type, pots with slots in the side dry out too fast), with a very coarse bark/charcoal/perlite mix, which drains rapidly. That allowed me to water 3 times a week in summer, and twice a week in winter.

However, last fall we replaced the plastic on the greenhouse. By mistake, our supplier shipped one piece in white instead of clear. We did not discover this till after we took the old plastic off, so we were forced to use it.

With the white plastic on, I have been forced to scale back my watering considerably.

[Cach26]

Regarding the care of a plant in situ vs. at home, it is true that they require more care, after all, as has already been mentioned, "we grow them so that they do not die", and of course they are not robust plants like in nature.

About what the market wants vs. what can tolerate the most poor care. It is very true that the not so pretty plants are the ones that sell the least, for example: Phrag Longifolium (Tolerates cultivation in soil without repot for years!), compare that to a Kovachi...

While it is true that there are plants that produce "robust" genes, the vast majority are not sold...

---------- Post added at 01:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:16 PM ----------

About the symbiotic relationship with fungi, it makes me laugh that many Professional growers say "Don't apply such organic stuff, because it can increase biological activity"

My question then is: What do orchids grow in nature? In PVC pipes?

No, they grow in moss¡¡, leaf litter¡¡, humidity and compost all together¡¡

Biological activity everywhere

However, there is the "mycorrhizae" factor, which we do not have D:

[alecStewart1]

From what I've learned about plants so far is that to have them outside all of the time you have to have a few things:

1. A plant that isn't more sensitive from being in cultivation
2. Where you live has to have conditions that are pretty close to what it's like where they live naturally
3. You have to give them time to get used to being outside.

My venus flytraps have been outside since this past spring, but I live somewhere that's relatively close to where they live in the wild. Plus they're pretty hardy plants compared to many orchids. A lot of orchids couldn't handle the conditions here, especially when it pushes above 100 degrees Fahrenheit in summer.

That being said, I think to some extent we baby plants just a little too much. Sure, some are very particular about what conditions they grow in, but some have a good amount of wiggle room as to what they can work with.

One orchid that's relevant is Neofinetia falcata. They've been grown for several hundreds of years in conditions from borderline freezing to smoldering hot, and in homes that were not at all like homes today. As long as they get the right humidity (minimum 40%), aren't in ridiculously bright light, aren't getting constantly attacked by pests, aren't soaking wet all year around and aren't being frozen in winter or burned by summer heat, they'll survive. It may not always be optimal, but they can probably manage with conditions that aren't exactly one-to-one with the Ryukyu Islands in Japan.

This obviously changes when you're trying to give optimal conditions to maximize growth, flowering and such. Which, obviously, who doesn't want to do that?

[Cach26]

Originally Posted by Cach26

Regarding the care of a plant in situ vs. at home, it is true that they require more care, after all, as has already been mentioned, "we grow them so that they do not die", and of course they are not robust plants like in nature.

About what the market wants vs. what can tolerate the most poor care. It is very true that the not so pretty plants are the ones that sell the least, for example: Phrag Longifolium (Tolerates cultivation in soil without repot for years!), compare that to a Kovachi...

While it is true that there are plants that produce "robust" genes, the vast majority are not sold...

---------- Post added at 01:26 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:16 PM ----------

About the symbiotic relationship with fungi, it makes me laugh that many Professional growers say "Don't apply such organic stuff, because it can increase biological activity"

My question then is: What do orchids grow in nature? In PVC pipes?

No, they grow in moss¡¡, leaf litter¡¡, humidity and compost all together¡¡

Biological activity everywhere

However, there is the "mycorrhizae" factor, which we do not have D:

Where I live I have seen Prostecheas growing in places with thick fog 365 days a year, they fall from the trees, animals step on them and I do not see fungal attacks ( -___-)

I was reading about immunity to Pathogens in Fruit and Vegetables, in general they infect them with weak strains, so that they develop "resistance"

But it seems that this resistance is NOT inherited, "the children" must develop it in the same way, but according to the book, they do it just as easily... Whether or not that applies to Orchids, I don't know... Any opinions ?

[Ray]

Water does not cause rot.

Unrestricted air to the roots.

Wild plants are not necessarily "more robust" than all those grown in captivity, but they will be more robust than those grown poorly. Many wild plants look like hell, as they are beaten up by storms.

You may live where it rains a lot. Other plants see more seasonal rainfall, and any slight glitch in that - which will probably happen more as the climate changes - can be ravaging.

Different plants have different degrees of resistance to pathogens. A lot of that depends upon secreted or contained chemicals while another portion is due to the population of microbes living in the plant and rhizosphere.

[Clawhammer]

Interesting conversation!

Just to be a bit of a devil's advocate.... My indoor plants look much better than almost any in-situ photo I've seen of the same orchid in nature. My indoor orchids do not endure the same degree of pests, weather, and drought. Everything is tightly controlled.

Our indoor plants do not get the perfect conditions they evolved into in our indoor environments, but they also are protected and consciously nurtured in a way they are not in nature.

Based on purely unscientific observation pathogen resistance is much more about how "happy" the plant is. A happy plant can become a weak / susceptible to pathogen plant if it endures a drought or an insect attack. Plants in an artificial environment can be very pathogen resistant if they are thriving, susceptible if they are not.

[Roberta]

To add to Clawhammer's comments... also in nature a lot of plants don't survive. (That drives evolution.) We, investing time, energy, and not a little money into each plant, would not be happy with a survival rate that occurs in nature.