Just add ice??
 

I'm sure everyone else has noticed the Phalaenopsis in every store- from Walmart to the local flower shop. All sporting tags that read "Just add ice!". Are ice cubes left to melt onto the potting medium (not actually touching the plant of course), a viable method of watering orchids (instead of soaking them) or just a marketing myth?

Marketing ploy. Myth.

This short cut strategy of watering your orchids will get you in trouble for many of the tropical orchids in the hobby.

Save it for the cooler growing temperate orchids.

Many people have said that they have had success with this method. I would not do it.

Many folks over-water their plants to death. This may be a strategy to trick people into keep them on the drier side. "Just don't overwater" doesn't sound quite as snappy. I just wish they were LABELED!

As mentioned, some growers do water with ice but personally, I would never put ice on a tropical plant.

It is not a viable method to water - you should never use ice to water an orchid. Doing so will likely make the plant go into shock, lose its roots, and die. As king said, it's only thinkable when dealing with cold-loving orchids, which are not generally available to most of the public to begin with.

I just think it's a way to be lazy. If people can't spare orchids the time and care they need, they're better off not growing them. I hate seeing sickly plants that are on the half-off counter because nobody took proper care of them. :twocents:

I don't understand why doing this all the time would be easier than watering them once a week. In my view, cold and wet roots means dead roots

How would you fertilise them as well?

Listen, I'm not lazy and this watering method has worked for me and my just add ice orchid for over a year now and it's sending up new flower spikes. These orchid forums are all the same...why not actually try this watering method with these just add ice orchids and see if it works before blindly saying to newbies that it doesn't and they will likely die...explain how mine is fine and flourishing?! So newbies out there who are like me...3 ice cubes a week works perfectly fine! We don't always have to give plants the most optimal conditions for them to flourish...I water my impatiens in the summer with ice cold water from my hose and it doesn't seem to affect them too much and those are definitely tropical plants!

Even though you're responding to someone else's post, I'd like to say my piece.

Just adding ice can be dangerous for people who are growing tropical orchids that don't appreciate the cold, and if those people are from cooler areas of the world.

Perhaps this is a better explanation.

Adding ice may not have a strong effect if you're from Florida.

Adding ice in places like Southern California, or even worse, places like Nebraska is very dangerous to your plants.

Perhaps the "lazy" statement needs explanation too...

I was about to type that in myself, but I talked myself out of it.

The reason being is that I realize there are people out there who are not "lazy". They're simply looking for short cuts, either because they have busy lives or have other priorities. These busy people like orchids too, so if there's a short cut, why not, right?

Look...

I'm in the same boat. I try and look for short cuts too. In my experience, some short cuts work, and others don't. Same goes for anything else in life you do.

But be forewarned sometimes certain types of these short cuts, depending on the context of the situation will backfire. Not all the time, and not for every person or situation, but occasionally for quite a few people they will.

This particular practice of adding ice should ideally not be practiced. But if it works for you then go for it, I guess.

I think it may be a good method to prevent over-watering, especially as the 'just add ice' orchids are potted in packed sphag usually. I have wondered myself about fertilizing with this method - tho I read one member post he made ice cubes with fertilizer!

I think mostly - 'just add ice' prevents the quick death most chain store orchids probably experience. Keeps the plant alive long enough to at least finish blooming. And for that - it still was a better buy than cut flowers ;)

Oh...

And I did a little reading (not extensive) about Impatiens.

You're being too general about these group of plants.

If your impatiens are hybrids. I'm sure the parentage is very diverse. I wouldn't be surprised if there are some cooler growing species lineage and some warm growing species lineage mixed in there that give you a very temperature tolerant plant.

They may be from the tropics. But the tropics is very diverse. There are actually cooler areas in the tropics. Especially up in the high mountains.

"Evergreen" Phalaenopsis are for the most part low to mid-elevation tropical plants and are usually found growing as an epiphyte growing on trees in swamp forests or on trees growing near rivers or streams. They don't experience ice cold conditions. They do experience cooler seasonal temperatures that don't go below 55 F.

If you're going to make the argument that I or people like me are fanatics and go to the extremes of boiling or heating the water we use to water our tropical plants, I strongly suggest you not go this route. I guarantee you that I or people like me don't do such a thing.

However...

I could easily say that Masdevallia selenites is a tropical plant as well, but...

It is also a tropical plant from roughly 3,000 meters somewhere up in the high Andes Mountais. It is actually pretty cold up there. The temperature never really gets above 75 F to 80 F all year round!

For Masdevallia selenites, I'm willing to bet you can go the "just add ice" route, just make sure the water used for making the ice is purified water.

Unless you're specific with your claim to success with your Impatiens using ice cold water from a hose, I don't buy this as a viable argument.

You must come up with a stronger one.

I'm game for whatever you have to say. Just don't take things personally and don't make it personal.