Soaking can be beneficial to a badly dehydrated plant.
I would not want to continue to soak all the time as a watering method all the time for a Cattleya alliance plant. If you forget and soak too long, you can waterlog and damage the roots. It might work if you are the kind of person that would NEVER forget and let your plant soak too long.
I am growing a few plants by vase culture, and they are mostly watered by soaking.
I have read recently (can't recall where) that orchid roots take up most of the water they need in 25 minutes or less. Probably this varies a lot depending on the orchid you are watering.
If you soak, do so following the "no sharing bath water" rule, as you state. The soaking container should be cleaned in between plants; soak plant, drain. rinse the container, spray container with straight bleach (or trisodium phosphate, NEVER both of these at the same time); clean rinse. IMO kind of a pain, but it can be done. Sharing the container without cleaning in between is asking for trouble, again IMO.
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Hybrid Mode
