Determining watering schedule with digital scale

[Antilope]

I'm a newbie to growing orchids. I have a lot of house plants that I've had for years, so I'm not new to growing house plants. I have a 10 year old 6-ft ficus that started out in a 4-inch pot.

I've been lurking here for about a month and really enjoy these forums.

I've had two Phalaenopsis orchids, in 4-inch clear plastic slotted pots. Their tags identify them as an
white and purple "Ever Spring King" and a pink "New-Cinderella".

I've had them for about a couple of months. One came from Trader Joe's supermarket and one from Home Depot.

I also have a Mtssa. Shelob 'Tolkien' in a 5 inch clay pot that I have had for about two years. It is also from Home Depot. It has bloomed twice since I've had it.

I live in northern California near Sacramento. The orchids are in an upstairs, east facing window.

I am trying to get the hang of watering them when they need it. I don't want to over-water or under-water if I can help it.

I started out picking up the potted orchids and trying to determining by weight if they needed water. This kind of works, but it's hard to tell how wet or dry they really are.

They are in a bark mixture and it's hard for me to tell by feel if the mixture is dry enough to need watering.

I have a small digital kitchen scale. I have started to use this digital scale to tell if the orchids need watering.

To get a base dry weight, after watering, I let the orchids go a week without watering and then weighed them to get a base, dry weight.

One Phalaenopsis weighed 420 grams and one weighed 275 grams. The Mtssa weighed 1080 grams in its clay pot.

After a 15-minute soak in a bucket of water and draining for about 5 minutes, the lighter Phalaenopsis had absorbed 70 gm of water and heavier Phalaenopsis absorbed 80 gm of water. The Mtssa had absorbed 140 gm of water.

After about 4 days, heavier Phalaenopsis was back to it's base dry weight. So was the Mtssa. The lighter Phalaenopsis still had about 15 gm of water. The lighter orchid returned to its base dry weight after about a week.

The heavier Phalaenopsis has two flower spikes and the lighter Phalaenopsis has a single flower spike. The Mtssa is not currently flowering.

So I have ended up watering the orchids once or twice a week, as needed (determined by weight). I am using a weak liquid orchid food with each of these waterings.

This method seems to be working for me. The roots look healthy through the sides of the clear pots and the
orchids continue to flower and new buds continue to open. The Mtssa is a healthy medium green and I hope it will start to flower again soon.

Has any one else tried this method of weighting their orchids to determine their watering needs? Or at
least done it until they get a feel for when the orchids need to be watered?

I am using a inexpensive ( $ 25.00) digital kitchen scale that I purchased from Amazon.com.

[KTorchid]

I've never used this method, but i know that there is an orchid watering meter that is on the market (never used but I know its out there) called the Momet meter. You stick it in the media and it will flash green if it is sufficiently moist, yellow if its intermediate, and red if it is dry. I think you can also set it differently depending on the type of media you are using. Maybe someone who has used the Momet Meter can give you a review?

[KTorchid]

OrchidWeb.com: Orchid Learning Center - MOMET? Orchid Moisture Meter Video

here ya go!

[nutgirl]

That is a good way to get the feel for watering your orchids. Combined with the clear pots and the overall look of your plants, you should be able to get a feel for watering.

I'm thinking that the weight of the plant will increase as it grows and the potting material breaks down so you may want to take that into consideration.

In my case, I found that the condensation on the inside of the clear pots was the best indication for watering.

Maureen

[Donald]

Insert wooden skewer into pot for 15 miinutes. Take it out. If it's dry water. If it's wet don't. Plain and simple. Happy Growing.

[Tropicgirl]

I like the skewer idea, too. Weighing is fine for 3 orchids but once you have 10+ that will be very time consuming for you. Plus, reweighing for your baseline as each orchid grows or when you repot. If you do use the skewer idea just be careful around the roots, don't want to stab them.

[Donald]

I've been "skewering" my plants for years. If you hit a root no big deal they'll let out a yelp.
Just kidding.

[Tropicgirl]

Too funny!

[Antilope]

Thanks, I'll try the skewer method and see how it works for me.

[nenella]

Hi, I too have skewers in most of my orchids. The one thing I would say is try to get the skewer to go through the middle of the pot (even if at an angle) as its the 'middle' that stays the wettest longer & that's where roots rot without you seeing them through the sides...