I live in a very humid and temperate climate, and even inside my house with the electric heating, the humidity and lack of airflow mean I have to be very careful about root rot. With my epiphytic orchids, I've mostly stopped using sphagnum moss all together, or if I use it, it is used minimally (less than 10% of the mix) and I take care to add LECA and perlite to air the mix out (and because they can help dry things out). For this reason, terrestrial orchids like jewel orchids are a bit tricky for me. I've only tried to grow Ludisia and Macodes jewels, so I can't speak about other genera, but as far as I can tell, Jewel orchids want to be watered frequently, but their roots are also very sensitive to root rot, even when they have good aeration.
A lot of internet guides I've read suggest they like 'consistent moisture'. I did see
one blog post that indicated the opposite might be true: the person who wrote the post had their jewels in a S/H setup, the jewels died, and concluded that jewel roots do not like constant moisture. Which of these is the case?
Do they want a very rapid wet-dry cycle, or would they rather be in constant, barely-moist conditions?
What kind of moisture conditions do jewel orchids want?
Linear Mode
