watering orchids

[snowflake311]

You are never going to get a straight answer because everyone's growing conditions are different and people us different pots and so on.

The only thing you can do is use your best judgement and learn what works best for you and your plant. Try and let them dry out but not totally dry out. That's really it. I go around and feel all my pots do the touch test to if I need to water.

If your not sure you plant needs water don't water wait a day they will be ok better to under water then over water.

Using clear pots is the best you and see how wet the plant is. I make my pots out of clear food storage containers it works great. This way I can see and feel to know when I need to water.

[oscar freak]

i have some phals in clear plastic containers so that helps alot,the weight thing works sometimes so trying the stick thing now,hopefully the plants will survive while i learn.

[The Mutant]

One of the great things about this board; get reminded about good advice you've gotten in the past and forgotten about. Thanks for refreshing my memory guys!

Originally Posted by Raqsharqi

I think when they grow well, they do it in spite of us and not because of us. I have friends with orchids in the same sphag as they started out in...never repotted...and the flowers are huge and frequent. One grows hers in individual glass jars, and claims they are never out of bloom. I get good potting mix, watch over them, and stop just short of playing Mozart in the greenhouse, and if I get one good bloom and one half-hearted one, it's been a good year. I don't know what matters most: water, light, potting mix, humidity, or something I don't know about. I was watering all my phals at least once a week because the sphrag was totally dried out. Some grew great roots and leaves, and some just sat there listlessly. A few rotted. I have a long way to go before I understand them.

This is so true. I've always felt incompetent compared to my friend and her ability to grow Phals. The Phals come home to me and slowly shrink no matter what I do or don't. The Phals come home to her, she put them on a windowsill and after a couple of years they're trying to take over the world. This despite her keeping them in glass jars and other things you really shouldn't be able to get away with.

I have, after about 8 years, finally figured out the biggest reason why her Phals are doing so much better than mine. I bought two Phrags 1-2 years ago. These two orchids have really gotten bigger since I got them home. The Sunset Glow's new growth has at least doubled in size (I thought I had bought a relatively compact Phrag; it turned out after a year that I hadn't) and this flowering it seems it might go for 5 flowers compared to the 2 it got when I had just purchased it, and the flowers are bigger as well.

So, why do the Phrags love me and not my Phals? The answer is; temperatures. It was that easy, but I failed to see it. Phrags, the ones I have at least, like to have it colder than Phals do so it's no bloody wonder my Phals grow so badly for me; the average temperatures during the year are too low for them. My friend, however, lived in a very warm apartment earlier where the temperatures never dropped below 20ºC (68ºF). I honestly think the lowest temperatures were around 22ºC (71ºF)...

I just wish I had figured it out sooner. I have one Phal that has grown well for me, but that one has been kept in a warmer room (no thought behind that decision, I just couldn't fit it in with the rest), but it has only flowered once. I've now decided that I'll move my orchids between the two rooms as the seasons change, to make sure they at least have a chance to develop as they should.

Originally Posted by snowflake311

You are never going to get a straight answer because everyone's growing conditions are different and people us different pots and so on.

The only thing you can do is use your best judgement and learn what works best for you and your plant. Try and let them dry out but not totally dry out. That's really it. I go around and feel all my pots do the touch test to if I need to water.

If your not sure you plant needs water don't water wait a day they will be ok better to under water then over water.

Using clear pots is the best you and see how wet the plant is. I make my pots out of clear food storage containers it works great. This way I can see and feel to know when I need to water.

Thanks for reminding me about this one. I think I'll write it down on a post-it note and stick it on my forehead.

Originally Posted by oscar freak

i have some phals in clear plastic containers so that helps alot,the weight thing works sometimes so trying the stick thing now,hopefully the plants will survive while i learn.

I also hope they will so you don't end up an orchid serial killer like me! I'll keep my fingers crossed.

[Jenn4a]

I just learned something this morning while unpotting..
When you get a new orchid and you cannot see inside the pot, don't assume that the medium is the same all the way through. My Paph Ho Chi Minh was potted in 75-80% spag moss, but I couldn't see it. I thought it was mostly fine bark, but about two inches under the surface I found very wet spag...

LUCKILY I've been "neglectful" to Paph HCM. He arrived damp, so I waited a week to water and thought it dried out too much. This week I went a couple days before realizing that it's been over a week without water (which is too dry for just bark in my conditions.)
I got lucky by accident. I could have really rotted the roots. I have him sitting out, unpotted for now to "air out" a little.

[The Mutant]

Originally Posted by Jenn4a

I just learned something this morning while unpotting..
When you get a new orchid and you cannot see inside the pot, don't assume that the medium is the same all the way through. My Paph Ho Chi Minh was potted in 75-80% spag moss, but I couldn't see it. I thought it was mostly fine bark, but about two inches under the surface I found very wet spag...

LUCKILY I've been "neglectful" to Paph HCM. He arrived damp, so I waited a week to water and thought it dried out too much. This week I went a couple days before realizing that it's been over a week without water (which is too dry for just bark in my conditions.)
I got lucky by accident. I could have really rotted the roots. I have him sitting out, unpotted for now to "air out" a little.

Good thing you forgot to water it.

Yes, you usually never know what's hiding underneath the surface of the substrate... *cue Jaws theme*

After ordering orchids from different vendors these past 3 years I've learned to always check the roots, because 1) the plants are very often overpotted, 2) the substrate is too decomposed, 3) the substrate doesn't work well with my conditions or watering habits (too fine graded etc).

There's only one vendor I never have to bother to do this, but the other ones I must.

It's a good habit to have to check what's going on in the pots whenever you get new arrivals. I have two that I'm going to repot right now, for example. I hope the roots look good because the plants look very overpotted...

[Raqsharqi]

Interesting note about under potting. I,too,have ordered from a variety of vendors, and am surprised that the very under potted, under watered plants I got from one vendor are performing better than the ones that were potted the way I thought they should be! I guess they don't need to be tucked in tight like garden plants do!

[oscar freak]

i potted my oldest and dearest phal in coarse bark,its almost mounted i'd say,when i water the water gushes out,i added extra drainage holes as well and i must say its doing extremely well its my fastest grower and looks set to flower for the 3rd year straight.so if it can take such a medium and flourish how much more would an orchid which likes to be drier flourish?

[mtorchid]

Originally Posted by No-Pro-mwa

Ok seriously they really are tough plants. They do try and survive us.

Well put No-Pro-Mwa! Ideally we could all just tie them to trees and let nature do the watering for us. The main draw back to most container situations is that part of the media is still moist while other parts are dry, which doesn't happen in nature.

[bil]

Basically, if you give a plant the light, water etc that it has evolved to fit, then it will do well.

Epiphytes are evolved to live with the roots out in the fresh air, 'watered' with mist a rain frequently and sparsely. We put them in pots because it is easier for us and we don't have to dance attendance on them.

I was advised to put my phals in large pots with large bark and nothing else, and that's what they seem to like.