Water Your Orchids!

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by Rhonda Svoboda

6) Always remember to never fertilize a dry plant- it will burn roots.
.

I mentioned in another thread, that two words will get you into trouble... "Always" and "Never" .... The only "always" that I can think of is "always sterilize tools" and the "never" is "never share water between plants" - the hygiene stuff.

I fertilize dry plants all the time... of course, fertilizer is very dilute so I'm watering at the same time. That's when they take up the fertilizer most efficiently. If you're burning roots it is 'way too strong. In fact, ideal fertilization for many if not most, especially the dominant epiphytes is every watering, even more dilute.

Also... some plants want to dry out between waterings, others need to stay damp. (If you routinely dry an Oncidium intergeneric, it will likely shrivel because they need to stay moist. If you keep a Cattleya damp all the time it will likely lose roots because they really do need to dry out.) So there is no "always" or "never" to make it easy... learn from each one.

Now, it seems overwhelming to remember at each watering who needs it, who doesn't. My solution is to adjust the medium so that in a given time interval I get the effect that I need. Needs to say damp? Small bark or sphagnum in a pot. Needs to dry out? Large bark or other very airy medium, in clay pot or basket or slotted plastic pot. In 3 days or so the first will still be damp and the second will be dry. Water them both...That way you make the decision every couple of years instead of having to think about it every day.

[DirtyCoconuts]

The last paragraph of Robertas post should be a granite tablet carved with that advice in every growers home

[WaterWitchin]

Agree... always and never have very little business in most settings, orchids included.

Originally Posted by DirtyCoconuts

Mount everything and hose daily!

Easy for you to say Florida boy!

[My Green Pets]

Ray's articles on water and nutrition have greatly added to my understanding of what makes happy orchid roots.

I repotted my Cattleyas in big chunks of granite in clay pots. They dry out in a couple of hours. Now I can water them as often as I want!

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by My Green Pets

I repotted my Cattleyas in big chunks of granite in clay pots. They dry out in a couple of hours. Now I can water them as often as I want!

True! I have 1 catt that has been growing for a few years in a plastic pot, which has also now got oxalis plants in there too ------- and the media is just pebbles and regular rocks. Not scoria.

Merely regular creek pebbles and garden rocks.

If watered appropriately ------ as in providing enough water for the orchid, an orchid will do just great.

For any forum member that would like to visit and see ------ the one catt I have that's growing in river pebbles and regular rocks (with the oxalis on the surface hehehe) can be seen in my first watering video:

Orchid watering video: SouthPark OrchidBoard, subtitles/closed-captions included. - YouTube

I have already inserted the time ------ exactly 15 minutes into the video.


I will patch through my cymbidium watering video too!

Click Here - Cymbidium watering with spray wand video

[Ray]

This is a repeat for many of you, but serves as an example.

A couple of decades ago, I acquired 300 each Oncidium Sharry Baby and Phalaenopsis Lemforde White Beauty, overgrown in flats. After getting them all established in 3.5” S/H pots, I split each population into two “equivalent” halves, judging visually. Each plant was weighed to form an overall aggregate weight for the groups.

Over the next six months, 150 of each were mostly watered 2-3 times per week, sometimes less, if the weather dictated. The other 300 plants were watered daily, no matter what. All were fed weekly @ 125 ppm N MSU RO.

At the end of that six month period, the “daily plants” were visually larger. The phals weighed about 20% more than those watered normally. The oncids were just shy of 30% heavier.

[Steve83]

Originally Posted by WaterWitchin

Under-airing, and under-draining. In a perfect relationship, all epiphytes would be mounted, watered copiously, and blow in the breeze.

Wanting to grow them, regardless of one's particular climate, and in a semi-similar environment, in a medium to be determined, involves a lot of ingenuity, a ton of practicing and experimenting. And the patience of....

This is exactly what I'm discovering in my grow tent. From the start, I've done better with mounts vs potted plants, which I attribute to air and being able to observe root health or active growth.

Merely adding a second 5 watt fan provided the ability to increase growth by allowing me to water multiple times a day if I choose to do so.

It has me thinking about putting them on my South facing balcony under shade cloth and with a misting system to feed every few hours.

my only concern with that idea is having to worry about pests, especially since I put out native flowers to feed my carnivorous collection. I'm on the 2nd floor, and a grasshopper found it's way up, and did some damage to a bromeliad and pitchers.

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[WaterWitchin]

Yep, that's the downside of outside. I've done the inside/outside thing for a couple of decades. For me, it was worth the tradeoff of chewed on leaves. It's sort of a decision you have to make as to how pristine you want orchids to look. Depending on the orchid, you might have to live with a chewed leaf for a looooong time.

[Steve83]

It's probably nor worth the riskunless I could move everything out there, and save on electricity for a few months.

My Drosera natalensis, which self pollinates, has been blooming the past week. I may try to germinate a tray or two to offset electricity cost.

[Leafmite]

I think one of my problems is that I haven't been watering as often as I should. I have started doing better since my orchids came inside. My orchids are in lava rock/basket pots so...I can water very frequently. It helps with the humidity, too, I have noticed. Thanks for the reminder!

---------- Post added at 04:54 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:48 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Steve83

my only concern with that idea is having to worry about pests, especially since I put out native flowers to feed my carnivorous collection. I'm on the 2nd floor, and a grasshopper found it's way up, and did some damage to a bromeliad and pitchers.

Bigger pitcher plants.....

I have been using food-grade diatomaceous earth on my plants since I brought them inside (something had been eating all the leaves of my Passiflora incarnata). The newest growth is, so far, unscathed. If I use it outside, I do not put any on flowers or flower buds to avoid harming pollinators.