How dry to you let your orchids get before watering?

[RosieC]

A good beginners guide to not over watering the mass market Phals is to let them dry out between watering. However as you get more experienced you can grow then a little damper than that and they actually like enough water, they just like air at the roots as well. The simplest way to advise beginners to get the right balance is to say to let it dry between watering, but that's not the only way to grow them once you get a feel for what they need.

Other Genera and even species/hybids need different things and the medium also makes a difference. I'm not yet comfortable about judging watering for things like Oncidiums & Dens when they are in bark which is why I'm moving to other types of medium that make it easier for me to judge.