watering questions - Page 3 - Orchid Board

justino222 · #21 10-22-2014, 06:36 PM

Yes! I would Definitely like to see it

isurus79 · #22 10-22-2014, 06:54 PM

Here's a link to Katrina's pics. I have nearly the same setup. Watering Set Up Fall2014 Photos by kat1266 | Photobucket

justino222 · #23 10-22-2014, 09:06 PM

Thats so neat! Think ill give it a try! What kind of trays etc?

isurus79 · #24 10-22-2014, 09:17 PM

Katrina uses these to catch the water and then puts eggcrate in the bottom Sites-Gardeners-Site

I have smaller racks, so I got this, which also have eggcrate in the bottom: Rubber Boot Tray | Ballard Designs

The metal racks you can buy at Home Depot: This is the one I have: Honey-Can-Do 4-Shelf 14 in. D x 36 in. W x 60 in. H Chrome Shelving Unit-SHF-01456 at The Home Depot

Katrina has a size larger.

justino222 · #25 10-22-2014, 10:09 PM

Thanks! Great help. Going to look into this

lotis146 · #26 10-22-2014, 11:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jocierk

I work full-time and I have about 45 orchids. I water them one at a time in the sink by letting water run through them for about 3-5 min each. I rotate the pots during this time so the whole thing gets soaked. I am usually doing other chores at the same time but it usually take about 4 hours to do all of them. I water once a week on sunday morning however I check them and mist with a water bottle every morning. If one is getting too dry to make it to sunday I will either give it a really good spraying with a water bottle or get up early and water just it (I have very little time on weekday mornings).

At first it was kind of annoying to water all of them this way but now I really like that it is reserved me time. My feet do get kinda tired by the end of it though

What kind of Orchids do you have Jocierk? I ask because I'm curious how your orchids are liking the daily mistings in addition to weekly watering? I underestimated just what you can do with misting and how great of a supplement it can be for, like you said, plants that need at least a bit more than weekly watering. Which makes it an even better idea to have some kind of tray, covering or dish under your pots as Justino is wondering. I have some plants in cache pots, some sit in little plastic dishes (can get for between $0.50 - $3 depending where you go and what size you looking for), and some others just sit on the plant shelf, I tip them on their side to drain excess before taking back.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mimigirl

My question is if you dunk, how do you keep the media from floating out of the pot?

I've run into this problem myself mostly with more fine bark mixes. Even if you fish/strain the bark out afterwards I think it's just a headache and would prefer not to dunk those!

Quote:

Originally Posted by isurus79

Wow, if I had to manually move all of my orchids to water them, I would have gotten out of the hobby loooooong ago!

There are some racks that you can buy to put your orchids on so they're all in the same spot. I've put plastic containers below my plants to catch the water, however Katrina (here on OB) showed my her method to collect the water and I switched over ASAP. She puts boot trays (check out Google for a visual) below her plants and puts a hole in the tray for drainage. Attach a PVC pipe and that excess water will collect in one, easy to move container.

---------- Post added at 11:59 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:57 AM ----------

I can post pics of my setup when I get home and maybe Katrina can chime in here as well. I can also post the pics she PM'd me if she misses this thread.

Quote:

Originally Posted by isurus79

Katrina uses these to catch the water and then puts eggcrate in the bottom Sites-Gardeners-Site

I have smaller racks, so I got this, which also have eggcrate in the bottom: Rubber Boot Tray | Ballard Designs

The metal racks you can buy at Home Depot: This is the one I have: Honey-Can-Do 4-Shelf 14 in. D x 36 in. W x 60 in. H Chrome Shelving Unit-SHF-01456 at The Home Depot

Katrina has a size larger.

I would like to do this as well because it would surely be more effective than what I am currently doing now that everyone is back indoors. Today I took just about everybody (60+ plants) about 15 at a time to the bathroom. Then I filled 4/gallon jugs with fertilizer/water solution and poured the mix over each pot as I held it individually. Take them back. Fill jugs again, repeat, until they're all done. All in all it took about 2 hours. And the only reason they didn't ALL get watered/fed is because I forgot about the mini Catts, will do tomorrow. They're on a 2' stand and I'm going to take the whole thing and put in shower and our water over using same method.

The only reason I'm not putting everyone in the tub and watering more liberally is because one of my Oncids came down with possible Brown Rot (though I'm still not sure that's actually what it is) and it got watered and soaked with a lot of others. That caused me to worry, treated them ALL with Physan 20 and now I'm just playing it safe. Was warned in the spring when I first got addicted, then got lazy.

So I can be long-winded Justino but wanted to share my experience with you. I second others in that you don't need to water daily, especially now that it's Fall/Winter. You start to learn what plants want more water but so far I know Phals & Catts can take it a bit more dry. Oncids, Paphs & Zygos are more thirsty with Paphs being the thirstiest - anyone disagree? I don't have other species than these.

Good luck!

Bill U. · #27 10-23-2014, 01:49 AM

I agree with the others in terms of it depends on what you are growing, how much humidity is going to be present in the little grow area, the temperature in which you grow, etc.

For example, I currently live in a tiny dorm room that I have *some* control over the temperature in my room, but I tend to be a around 70-75°F at night and 75+°F during the daytime in winter due to our dorm's heating system deciding to roast us all winter long. With the heating system running so much, I have to use a humidifier to keep it comfy for myself and then for my plants- orchids, other flowers, some veggies, etc. I just worry a bit if you have the plastic over your rack and there is not a lot of air flow within the growing environment, it can cause high moisture to accumulate and cause rotting and other nasties.

My total collection of plants is somewhere in the 30-40 range (haven't counted recently with my seedling veggies). So I understand that watering can take quite a while and you want to make it as easy as possible- I only have a bathroom sink in my room, not even a shower.

Something that has helped me with watering is switching some of my oncidium-types to S/H. I don't recommend this if your plants are at all weak, or are not pushing any new roots- it is an extremely different growing environment, but when you get the hang of it, they have been growing like weeds and it keeps my watering easy because I can see the amount of water in the reservoir and if I'm in a rush just "top off" until I have the time to give it a proper flush, but that way I know that I can see the water amount when they need it. For my soil and bark media-based plants, I prepare a large container to be my "run-off" and another one to be my water source container. I pick up the bark-based orchids and drench them over the "run-off" bucket. Once the orchids are watered, I will use some of the run-off to water the soil based plants (why waste water?). In between drenching, when the plants are approaching dryness, I might spray my cattleyas with a spray bottle until they start to drip- this is handy because you only need to take the trip to fill the bottle and is handy for the mini-catts that will dry out in 2 or 3 days or so and I don't want to lug out the super huge buckets just for the couple of mini's that I have.

Under many of my bigger plants that tend to make the most mess, I will use the plastic saucers or whatever type of saucer I can salvage from my recycling bin (with some ingenuity). I also grow on a bakers rack but something that I have recently done is gotten some of that plastic office matting that is designed to go under rolling office chairs- it has been amazing! That way it protects my carpet and makes the occasional spill super easy to clean up! I highly recommend it!

Final word is that it is always going to be something that is a labor of love to water, but that's part of growing any plants. You have to figure out what works best for you, but that boot tray drainage system seems pretty darn neat too!

justino222 · #28 10-23-2014, 01:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lotis146

What kind of Orchids do you have Jocierk? I ask because I'm curious how your orchids are liking the daily mistings in addition to weekly watering? I underestimated just what you can do with misting and how great of a supplement it can be for, like you said, plants that need at least a bit more than weekly watering. Which makes it an even better idea to have some kind of tray, covering or dish under your pots as Justino is wondering. I have some plants in cache pots, some sit in little plastic dishes (can get for between $0.50 - $3 depending where you go and what size you looking for), and some others just sit on the plant shelf, I tip them on their side to drain excess before taking back.

I've run into this problem myself mostly with more fine bark mixes. Even if you fish/strain the bark out afterwards I think it's just a headache and would prefer not to dunk those!

I would like to do this as well because it would surely be more effective than what I am currently doing now that everyone is back indoors. Today I took just about everybody (60+ plants) about 15 at a time to the bathroom. Then I filled 4/gallon jugs with fertilizer/water solution and poured the mix over each pot as I held it individually. Take them back. Fill jugs again, repeat, until they're all done. All in all it took about 2 hours. And the only reason they didn't ALL get watered/fed is because I forgot about the mini Catts, will do tomorrow. They're on a 2' stand and I'm going to take the whole thing and put in shower and our water over using same method.

The only reason I'm not putting everyone in the tub and watering more liberally is because one of my Oncids came down with possible Brown Rot (though I'm still not sure that's actually what it is) and it got watered and soaked with a lot of others. That caused me to worry, treated them ALL with Physan 20 and now I'm just playing it safe. Was warned in the spring when I first got addicted, then got lazy.

So I can be long-winded Justino but wanted to share my experience with you. I second others in that you don't need to water daily, especially now that it's Fall/Winter. You start to learn what plants want more water but so far I know Phals & Catts can take it a bit more dry. Oncids, Paphs & Zygos are more thirsty with Paphs being the thirstiest - anyone disagree? I don't have other species than these.

Good luck!

Haha no problemo

I enjoy hearing stories. I have a hobby or breeding finch. The ones I breed are african finches. So they need warm temps year round. So i thought it a good place to put my orchids when i brought them indoors. And i have a humidifier in there as well. Im thinking it will be perfect and hoping so as well lol. Really want to try this shelf water system as well.

lotis146 · #29 10-23-2014, 09:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by justino222

Haha no problemo

I enjoy hearing stories. I have a hobby or breeding finch. The ones I breed are african finches. So they need warm temps year round. So i thought it a good place to put my orchids when i brought them indoors. And i have a humidifier in there as well. Im thinking it will be perfect and hoping so as well lol. Really want to try this shelf water system as well.

Finches are so cute! How many do you have? Seems like keeping them in there would be a good idea. I wish I could keep some of mine in my bird room (has North-facing slider door & W-facing window) but I fear that has a VERY HIGH RISK for danger to my Orchids. Should my Cockatoo escape that's the first place he'd probably go...Maybe one day...

I want to try that shelf system too but my shelves are very tall so I'm brainstorming. The overall scheme though seems excellent.

Good luck whatever you do. Bill is right that in the end if you can't stand how much time it takes to water than keep your collection to a minimum!

Oh and Bill, 40 plants in a tiny dorm room sounds interesting, and tricky. Hope if you have a roommate they like plants. My BF doesn't say much about them until they're either in his way and he accidentally knocks one over (then feels bad) or the gnat population is growing!

Bill U. · #30 10-23-2014, 11:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lotis146

Oh and Bill, 40 plants in a tiny dorm room sounds interesting, and tricky. Hope if you have a roommate they like plants. My BF doesn't say much about them until they're either in his way and he accidentally knocks one over (then feels bad) or the gnat population is growing!

Oh having this many is definitely interesting and tricky at the same time. I am lucky enough to have my own private bedroom which is my grow space as well. If you're interested, PM me and I can send some pictures or start a thread for any of those who are growing in cramped spaces or just like to see some college ingenuity to some things haha.