How do I know when my warm growing cymbidium needs water

[Mercurianmad]

Hey guys. What strange roots cymbidiums have. They’re brown/tan. How do I know when They need water? The plants a tiny bit droopy right now and it’s got a yellow leaf. I figured that’s just transplant shock in the shock of moving from the nursery in Hawaii to my house. I would imagine that it will rebound in the next few months.

[Ray]

In my experience, they are water hogs, so I grew them in S/H culture and stropped worrying about it.

[SouthPark]

MM ------ I water my temperate-climate (cold climate) cyms every morning. I'm growing several temperate climate cyms ---- and two of them are growing in 15 mm average diameter scoria.

The other cyms I grow here are in a coarse bark type mix. Watered every morning too.

[Mercurianmad]

Oh wow! Every day? Even in a bark mix? I’ve been depriving this poor guy of water.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Mercurianmad

Oh wow! Every day? Even in a bark mix? I’ve been depriving this poor guy of water.

Absolutely MM. Every morning. I'll make a video later on this morning ----- showing how I water my temperate climate cymbidum plants.

[Mercurianmad]

I waited 7 days omg. It’s soaking now but jeez. I know it will recover with a proper schedule but darn it

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by Mercurianmad

I waited 7 days omg. It’s soaking now but jeez. I know it will recover with a proper schedule but darn it

Oh yeah! In the spring I'd suggest potting into a deeper pot - Cyms have long, fat roots. Unless the mix is broken down (mud) it's pretty hard to over-water a Cym. They also like fertilizer... again in the spring, when the growing cycle kicks in, a bit of time-release fertilizer can help a lot, since they want more than the typical epiphytic orchid. While they can grow epiphytically, they're mostly terrestrial.

Don't worry about dropping a few leaves - that's quite normal this time of year. The new growth on the plant looks good, that's what is important.

(The concept of "warm growing" is really "doesn't need cool to bloom"... most of these, except for some Asian species like ensifolium and sinense, are just as cold-tolerant as the standard Cym hybrids. So treat them the same.)

[Mercurianmad]

Now the slotted pots that I use only go up to 8”. This cymbidium is in a 6”. What do you use for well ventilated pots for the big orchids? Net pots?

[Roberta]

It really doesn't have to be that well ventilated, just well drained. I have managed to acquire some Asian Cymbidium pots, that are very narrow relative to their width and the Cyms love them. But a plain old generic 1-gallon plastic pot (which you can probably get at Home Depot, etc) would work fine. (I also use lots of those) It's not that much taller relative to width, but it does have room for that root system to grow. Don't do anything now... this is not a good time to be potting Cyms. But truly, you don't have to worry about air flow the way you would with the rest of your orchids. It doesn't want to dry out. I use seedling bark (not fancy) with some #2 perlite, straight bark is OK too. At this time of year I am watering every 2 days, but increase it when we have hot days (which we still will get on and off for the next month or so) I have never tried to grow them in semi-hydro (pure inorganic), others have had good success with it.

[SouthPark]

Back again! ------ I made a short youtube video today - watering some of the cyms here.

I have this youtube weblink (Click Here - Cymbidium watering with spray wand video).