Please explain levels of watering needs

[vpsihop@hotmail.com]

Damp, moist, approaching dryness?

To me, moist is the day after I water and then a couple more days.

Once the top of my media dries, the stuff under the first 1/2" is damp.

How does everyone gauge their plants? Got my first zygopetalum, and I think it's supposed to be kept moist, but I'm not sure what that means.

[jkofferdahl]

I don't consider the media to be dry until the pot's weight is virtually nothing, and the media is, indeed, fully dry through and through, without a trace of moisture on the roots. Any trace of water more than that is, to me, damp. Moist, to me, is how the media feels the evening after watering - or a day or two later, while wet is just watered.

[AnonYMouse]

Use the skewer method.