Question about watering with moss

[Brownthumb10]

Much of the advise I read regarding watering says to water until water comes out of the bottom of the pot. Is this true for bark and moss? What is the best technique for watering a mini phal planted in moss? Thanks!

[james mickelso]

Water until the moss is wetted. Same with bark based media. You aren't trying to grow the media. Just the orchid. The velamen on the phal's roots soak up water almost instantly when they mature. No need to drown the plant. My motto is "water the roots, not the media." As long as the roots absorb the water, that is all that need be done.

[Ray]

I think it's the mechanics of watering that differs with moss.

With most media, watering from the top wets it and the roots, and nothing else changes. With moss, on the other hand, top-watering - especially wit a heavy flow - can lead to the moss becoming compressed, which will suffocate the roots.

Plants in sphagnum around here get watered very lightly from the top, or stood in a tray to wick the moisture up from the bottom.

[RosieC]

As I've grown more and more with moss I've found the same as Ray.

Watering until water comes out the bottom with bark can actually not be enough, it can find a 'path' through that lets it come out the bottom before the rest is wet. If I'm watering from the top I usually water until well after it's coming out the bottom and move the pot around to different angles to try and get it all wet. Most of the time though I water by soaking from the bottom soaking with the water all the way up to the top.

Back to moss... watering from the top actually seems to me to be more effective at wetting all the medium than it does with bark... however as Ray says it has the effect of compressing the moss.

That being the case, with moss I like to water from the bottom. It wicks water up well so you don't need to fill to the top like you do with soaking when in bark. If you do water from the top have quite a gentle flow.

[NYCorchidman]

With bark and other "open" mix, you want to water copiously, or even soak.

With moss, you can either mist heavily until moss becomes just moist (and maintain that way for moisture loving plants like phals and paphs), or do the bottom up method. With the bottom up method, you want to wait until the moss gets quite dry (but not bone dry) until watering again.