Dom ----- depending on the growing environment (eg. what's in the water, and where the roots reach, and any insect activity in the pots etc), we sometimes find that it's possible for orchids to grow pretty much like in the wild ----- where nobody needs to touch them, or manually fertilise them. They can just do their own thing.
The attached images show Angraecum eburneum plants and a Dendrobium that have never once been manually watered or manually fertilised. The water they get is from the air and the rain and the automatic lawn-grass pop-up sprinklers. They do have insects growing inside the pots.
The potting medium is scoria, but the roots just run right out of their pot and onto the ground. These orchids just grow with no maintenance. They've never been repotted, and not going to repotted.
They can handle full and quite intense sun. Very occasionally getting leaves scorched during really intense days - but they get over it easily.
If particular orchids can get sun-hardened and they're big enough, then they can grow excellently. But it's still our job to monitor them - to ensure that they remain healthy.
The pics were taken about half-an-hour ago. Flower spikes are present now, and one of the spikes is starting to get some buds.
Last edited by SouthPark; 04-18-2020 at 10:58 PM..
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