What did I change to have success? post for any ideas to help new growers.
 

I'd like those who consider themselves successful, or somewhat successful to submit an answer please. For myself, I pretty much gave up on orchids in around 2016 for various reasons. But I decided to come back in late 2021, and by February had bought a few plants mail order (not a good time for shipping, I know). At the same time, in January my state legalized recreational pot, and I thought I would give that a try as well. So, how did Cannibas Culture change my orchid culture? The light!!!
I bought a good cannabas overhead LED light. I ended up not growing much pot but I got several more orchids, and they are hogging the light.

I ended up deciding that I would try only certain orchids. I got Phrags because despite what the lectures and blogs tell you, phrags are so much more easy to care for than Phalenopsis. I got a paph aslo. It depends what you think of Phrags I guess.

I also ended up getting wet/hot dendrobiums-- and I got a "surprise box" with a few others-- some that I had never grown but which are doing awesome under the lights.

I ended up also going R0 water but only on the Phrags. The dendrobiums and random plants don't seem to suffer from tip burn like the phrags.

So, The plants are having between 2 and 8 new growths, they are developing flowers if they are old enough. To me, the Magic Key is lots of water, good drainage, and lots more light than you would think.

Caviat, I live in a hot arid environment so if you live in a place that is highly humid do not over water.

Excellent idea Op. I am a new grower and look forward to what the experts say!

The 'experts' do not disagree with the o.p. I commend the o.p. for saying what they have said so well. For the price of one blooming size orchid you can get an LED fixture that will keep a dozen orchids thriving.

Good light is the sine qua non of orchid culture. Most indoor growers do not (cannot) have light that is adequate for re-blooming of orchids. They live, they grow, but they do not (re) bloom. And mostly we want those blooms.

Interesting that. Lots of houseplants we grow can bloom. They never do as houseplants because the light indoors is usually so poor. But they do live, and mostly we are ok with that. With orchids, even though the plants themselves are quite interesting (to me anyway) it's those blooms we live for.

Maybe its the association with Cannabis culture, but I have found that mentioning artificial light to indoor growers is met with a fair amount of indifference and even push-back sometimes. That is a pity because, thanks to (stealth) Cannabis culture, things like LED lighting, Grow Tents, and misting/fogging systems have been brought to a high level of performance and sophistication and Orchid Keepers could benefit immensely from the work that has been done by the Weed growers.

Thanks for answering. I did forget to add that I bought the light and so on out of the challenge of growing cannabis. Before that I killed a lot of orchids. Adding the light and other tricks of indoor growers I now get 6 or more new growths per plant. Not all of course.
You are also So Right about the fact that most real growers would tell you that light is one of the most important aspects. But people are rather human-centered. Just because people can see inside a room, that dosent mean it is enough light for photosynthesis of most orchids. And photosynthesis is the most important thing that fules both growth and flowers.

LED lights are now fairly cheap. It is a good investment if you want to grow orchids in your living room.

Another thing that supplemental light provides for indoor growers - not just intensity, but duration. If you grow on a windowsill, for most houses you get a few hours of good light and then the sun shifts. I found 'way back in my early days of orchid growing (when I had a lot of hybrid Phals) that even with good window light, they were getting maybe 4-5 hours of good light. I added lights (at that time, fluorescents) for 12 hours a day, and went from almost no reblooming to nearly 80% reblooming. Tropical orchids in nature get about 12 hours per day of light all year around, and the closer you can get to that, the better. The LED lights that are available now are a lot more efficient, the concept is the same.

Before LEDs available lights also provided a lot of heat. Many people, even plant lovers, don't want an ugly light fixture in living areas.

An aesthetically appealing way to add plant lights without breaking the bank that I’ve had success with is putting a 32w LED grow bulb (the style with the heat dispersing fins) into a regular floor lamp with a downward facing bulb socket, and positioning it over a side table with plants on it.

The current distance from the bulb to the plants (2-2.5 feet) provides about 500fc and it’s on a timer for 10-12 hours a day. The table would otherwise receive roughly 100fc for about an hour each day and then less than 50fc for the rest of the day so I wouldn’t be able to have plants there without the light. A Phal. Little Gems is growing a leaf, tons of roots, and a spike, my jewel orchids bloomed happily over the winter, and my African Mask is throwing out new leaves now that I water it more frequently. It really doesn’t take much additional light to make a difference.

In the lobby of the office I ultimately retired from had a large Dracaena massangeana in the lobby. It was a good 20 feet from north-facing windows that were tinted black, so the "caretaker' added a 20 watt, incandescent lamp attached to the pot, shining up at the foliage. I'm pretty sure it was more for effect than anything, but the damned thing bloomed!

I hade several aglaonemas and a spathiphyllum at home for a decade or more. 6-8 weeks after I applied 2 doses of kelpak, they bloomed...

The vast majority of house plant growers never fertilize their plants, even if they remember to water them. Bagged potting soil is mostly sawdust ("forest products") with no nutrients. That's why so many house plants hardly grow.

Large numbers of people are completely blind to plants. I've walked into a home with a brown, withered, dead house plants sitting in a pot with shrunken potting mix that had an inch of space between it and the pot. I told the people the plant was dead because it wasn't watered. They told me it looked just like that when they bought it.

i've read some sad things in my life but this,I think, takes the biscuit ...

I second the "African Mask" post. I have a few alocasias like that, and if they are unfurling leaves, it is good enough light for Phrags to put out spikes. They are pretty inexpensive (some anyway) and they are good indicators for beginners whether they have good light or not. I also read something a while back about how much light living rooms have and it was fairly pathetic. The human eye is a pretty low light tool. We are simply poor judges of light.

The eye and brain function together. They are amazing. The eye collects data and the brain processes it. We're not aware of what is going on.

The image projected onto the retina at the back of the eye is upside-down and reversed right for left. The brain fixes it for our awareness.

The brain adjusts for outside brightness. When reading black print on white paper, in full sun compared to indoors under muted light, the amount of light reflected from the black print in full sun is higher than the amount of light reflected from white paper in muted light. Our brain interprets things in context, so the higher amount of reflected light is interpreted as black in context outside, and the lower amount of reflected light as white in context indoors.

I was talking about how badly people can judge indoor light for plants. Eventually they can be taught to do this. I am directing my comment to someone who buys a phalaenopsis at a grocery store and then puts it in the wrong place in the room and kills it.

Good thread Optimist. By the time I’m getting around to responding now and reading other comments, I may have misinterpreted the original post as everyone appears to be talking about light. But, I’ll respond with what I originally thought was the intent anyway…stuff that made me a better and more successful grower.

I started with an orchid here and there in mid 90's. Big box Phals, and a couple of Cattleya gifted to me, couple of dendrobiums I immediately killed. Around 2000 I became friends with an orchid breeder and grower. The orchid part of my plant hobby grew exponentially.

Light was never a big issue for me, as I’ve always grown a lot of plants both indoors and out so was already cognizant of the importance of paying attention to a plant’s light requirements. With orchids, about six months out of the year I grew outside. The other six, by around 2005, their number outgrew my south facing sunroom so they wintered in the Batcave (basement) under a mix of LED lights and aquarium lights I already had.

During the first ten years, I did my fair share of orchid killing. Learning how to recognize quickly and deal with scale was one game changer. Another came from learning to choose different genus based on my environment without having to tweak the environment a ton. I still occasionally get outside that zone, and still have more failures than successes.

About four or so years ago, my grow space changed again, mostly do to getting older and not having the ability to schlep 100 orchids in and out and up and down stairs every six months. [A side note: After about 15 years I learned that for me, it was necessary to limit myself to under 100 orchids or it became a chore instead of a fun engagement. Another step in the road to better growing, for me.]

After I made that move to growing in the same place year-round, I found that some genus that had grown well for me no longer performed as well. That goes back to environment, and not overly tweaking it. Examples: not growing cymbs anymore that required a big chill, as they were in the same space as ones that couldn’t tolerate the temp drop; orchids that used to come back inside earlier than others, who couldn’t tolerate the high 90s to 100 of our summer. The new grow space is inside, but on an upstairs sleeping porch which gets some serious heat in summer, no AC or heat vents. Just an open door into an AC room, and a space heater in winter.

Adding an automatic misting system was a game changer for me in growing some genus I didn’t fare well with before… but really wanted to grow. Tolumnia come to mind, as do several other I want mounted. Using RO water for some of the more picky genus, phrag for example, was another game changer.

or me, the biggest change to more successful growing was my choice of either growing mounted under misters, or in semi-hydro. No more bark mixes here. That isn’t because most can be grown either way. It was realizing that my style is to sit it and forget it. I’m not a real hands-on gardener, and want to quickly pass through, water everything at the same time, and move on. Finding ways that worked well for me, in my environment with little fuss, was the key step in becoming a better grower.

Sage advice!

I've never been criticised for this, but I put worm castings in my media mix. I consider that the millipedes and centipedes, the earthworms and other bugs would be active in or near the root areas of outdoor plants-- especially terrestrials. The kelp might provide auxins too, but it also acts as a "green tea." I am somewhat afraid of using random leaves to make green (compost) tea of--- but I have made it of yerba mata because there may be pesticides and things in the plants you would make green compost tea out of.

Smartest thing I ever did was I stopped trying to grow plants in an environment they wanted no part of!

Ditto to what Keysguy and a few others in this thread have mentioned. Learn what plants work in your particular growing environment, and stick with those. I've only been growing for about seven years now, so of course I'm still learning, but in that time, I have acquired new plants and then rehomed them when I realized I did not have the temperatures, humidity, or light they needed. I should note I grow only in my house, in one small space in one room. There are no other options for me, so I've learned to be content with the dozen or so Phals I am now down to. Along with my African violets, they grow happily on my dining room table which is next to a south-facing window.

Light was the other big lesson I learned. Even in that south-facing window, my plants were not getting the light they needed to thrive. They grew leaves and roots, but I was struggling to get them to rebloom reliably. My lighting system is probably a lot less than most of you have, but it has made a big difference. I have a decorative tall floor lamp (commonly called a pharmacy lamp) at either end of the table. These are a viable option for someone who does not want industrial-looking lights in your main living space and/or does not want to hang lights from the ceiling.

In my case, I did not want to use LED lights, for personal reasons that they hurt my eyes. If you're not bothered by them (and it sounds like most of you are not), consider yourself lucky, since they are ubiquitous everywhere these days, not just among plant-growers. So my lamps use full-spectrum fluorescent bulbs instead.

As I said, it's not a lot of light, but that small amount of additional lighting along with the increased duration of light has been enough to make a huge difference in reblooming.

I think I've told this story once or twice already on this board but it is so worth repeating whenever a thread like this surfaces where it is clear people may literally be afraid they are doing something unhelpful to an orchid or they are just unsure.

An orchid grower acquaintance of mine personally designed and built his own greenhouse which if memory serves me correct was roughly 60' x 100' and he had several thousand plants, many of which were magnificent specimens he had nurtured for years.

I was visiting one day and noticed he had a whole case of some nice 14" bulb pans which I had unsuccessfully been looking for commercially. I asked if he'd be willing to sell me a few and we went into his greenhouse "office/storage" area to write him a check. There on his desk were 2 large coffee cans (I'm talking old school Maxwell House 2 pounders) absolutely stuffed with used plant tags.

I inquired as to what they were for and he looked at me with an absolute deadpan face and said "To remind me of how smart I am. I've always believed if you haven't killed a few plants, you haven't learned a damn thing!"

True story. :rofl:

I stopped watching MissOrchidGirl on Youtube and started to have success when I followed culture notes from experienced, science-based growers.

:rofl::rofl:November 5, marked my 1 year growing anniversary. I feel very blessed to have come across this place where people are knowledgeable, patient and kind. Never have I wanted for advice and encouragement. I will go on the record saying the most important bit of information y’all have passed on is: No matter how much you feel like pulling out that Super Man cape and growing something that is completely outside your conditions....if you can’t tweak it, Don’t Do It! I have had my peanuts pulled out of the fire, twice by you sweet people. You know who you are lol.

Hi all,

I'm pretty new in my growing journey but the biggest change that lead to some success was warming up my growing locations. I live central NY and both my home and my office end to be cool and drafty, especially at night when most places turn the heat down a notch. The general information out there about Phals suggests they do fine between 60-80 degrees, "household" temperatures... but the truth for me is that they decline and suffer if kept at the low end of that range. Especially smaller phals. I've had much better growth since I created warm, sheltered spaces in my home and office for my warm-loving phals to live. I also now have some cooler-loving species that really do thrive at the temperature of my living spaces-- oncidiums and cool-intermediate paphiopediums.

My second early grower revelation is was to disregard all of the widely available misleading information about the watering of orchids. Watering is quite dependent on temperature, media and species, but dehydrated orchids are not happy orchids.

I have lots more to learn... I just bought a PH meter, can't way to play around with it.

Ditto!

---------- Post added at 06:43 AM ---------- Previous post was at 06:32 AM ----------

Okay, lights are a great way to adjust temp, too.

I was gift an Dendrobium before I left for college. I got a grow bulb and put it in a lamp and made a makeshift humidity tray. Our winters we have roughly 7 hours of daylight, but careful watering, fertilizer, and light, and it bloomed!

So, to your original question: another thing I have learned is observation/notes/study is key. With one Dendrobium, it was easy to keep track of info and plant health, watering, etc., but I have more orchids and a variety of species and hybrids. Knowing your plants and watching them routinely or daily inspecting can help you understand what makes your plants happy. True, many times nature works well on its own, but you’re taking a living thing that normally grows in a very specific environment and forcing it to grow in a non-native environment. That takes some patience and skill.

I can’t say I believe in green thumbs; I believe that care and careful thought and planning can lead to success.

To truly realize that orchids aren't cacti and I should water them much much more, that along with giving absolutely all the light they can take without burning.
(I've said this part several times), it was growing very small orchids (ie seedlings) that helped me correct my growing, because they react fast to changes. Adult orchids have a lot of resiliency which kinda confuses the issue, and it takes much longer for bad treatment to show it's effect.

I second this completely. I have some seedlings that seem fine yesterday and today I think they’re dead.

personally i have tried to be more open about plant culture and try new things other than the typical indoor plant routine / regime. trying s/h has opened a whole new path in our collection and breeding ideas. also, our most recent foray into pure moss culture for phals and some dendrobiums has been super fun. so, getting over the fear of trying something new and sticking with it has been good for me and the plants.

for my partner, i thing her coming to terms with my craziness has helped a lot

:roll:

and yeah, we also learned the temp thing is important. with the energy costs right now we haven’t been running the heaters, and this year our “cold room” got way too cold (like less than 10 C) for many nights recently. so, thankfully we didn’t lose any seedlings, but we did lose a lot of room in our main living area “warm” grow space cause we had to shift all those little guys outta there :(

For me, two things stand out and they are somewhat related.

One, don't believe most of what you see about orchid care on YouTube. Yes, there are some good people there but also a lot of bad advice.

Two, I am/was an underwater er. I saw and read about root rot and I feared it so did not water my orchids enough.
Now I have a calendar on the wall that each time I water/fertilize I note the orchid so I can see my patterns. This isn't so hard with only 25 orchids.
Since I have increased watering, sometime twice as often, there are new bright shiny roots and new growths.

With similar sentiment with everyone, I am very blessed to find this place. I dont get to talk to anyone about orchid as much as I get to anywhere else (I am in a lot of social media for that matter.) I didn't think I get to go back using a forum in year 2022 for that matter, such an odd sense of nostalgia.
Since my wealth of wisdom in orchid is merely a fraction of our legacy members here, the best advice I could muster is to make sure to make a folder dedicated to holding hotlink to sites that offer you helpful advice like this thread here.
I like these for example https://staugorchidsociety.org/PDF/Light-KeikiClub.pdf
Light level requirements for Orchids