How dry to you let your orchids get before watering?

[judith_arquette]

Thanks everyone, yes, my Phals have seen their last ice cubes! I'm so appreciative of all the help and support <3

[Bud]

Very good, Judith=when I was a newbie, someone advised me to water as needed. Feed the plants. Unless you freeze fertilizer then the ice cubes alone cannot sustain the plants....also, these are tropical orchids growing near the equator so they will not like ice cold water melting into their roots=they are not used to ice....whoever came up with the idea of ice for orchids are lazy; it just takes as much energy to spray orchids with room temperature water than to get ice from the freezer and place it on the pot.

[hagfish]

My experience is Phals dislike dry roots which is why some are planted in long fiber sphagnum. If the fleshy leaves get limp this is a sign to water immediately. I use fine fir bark for my P. schilleriana. Cats love coarse bark, especially the big ones. This is also true of their relatives the Laelias and Brassavolas. I water once a week but the best thing to observe is the pseudobulbs. They ought to be plump and if not, the plant needs more water. Epidendrums are relatives of cattleyas but tend to be much smaller. My guess is they would like finer bark and more even moisture. Dendrobiums are a very diverse group, but the hardware store kinds seem to appreciate Cattleya culture. Oncidiums are even more diverse. Tiny kinds can be mounted on bark and the bark then thrown into a tub of demineralized water every other day. Larger sorts can be potted in fir bark, but I use a small grained sort. Their fine root system also allows most of them to be mounted. O. jonesianum can get quite massive, but grows best mounted. Again, the mount can simply be dunked in water to hydrate the plant, very much like a tillandsia.

[james mickelso]

You are watering just fine. Catts like to be drenched, and then allowed to dry out. Oncids and phals like to be drenched and then allowed to "almost" dry out. Dens like to be kept just damp. Taylor your potting media with this in mind. Use a good quality water with low TDS and water with warm water. I let my phals get bone dry and they flower just fine. But that's just me. If they are planted in sphagnum moss that is firmly packed around the roots, the center will stay wet/damp while the outside/top will be dry. You will get root rot. Repot into a more loosely packed sphagnum moss where the entire mass will dry out within a week. Catts like a very loose bark. The larger the better. The larger the more often you can water. The more often you can fertilize. High light/feed more. Low light/feed less. Higher temps/feed more. Lower temps/feed less. Remember that phals can be mounted (that's the way they grow naturally) so they don't need to be kept wet nor potted in a small sized media.

[Foogoo]

If that's the case, would oncidiums be better off in fine bark? I thought I had made a newbie mistake potting them in fine bark, so I quickly moved them to medium bark in net pots a few months ago. They look great, but dry quickly.

Same with the phals, I thought I had doomed them with fine bark so most of them are now in medium bark.

On a vaguely related note, I started a new job this week and today, noticed two large phals in potting soil and a leafless dendrobium, all looking sad. I have no idea who's they are...

[james mickelso]

Grab them quickly. Probably someone who will throw them away soon anyway. Fine bark is ok but remember that as any media ages it becomes more and more absorbent and retains moisture longer. That can be a good thing and a bad thing. As media breaks down it loses the air spaces and becomes stale. Rot can set in while we think all is ok. I prefer a more coarse media so I can water more often.

[Dub3]

I would suggest that the ice cube watering came from people using soilless mixes and the difficulty in wetting the mix after it has dried. If you have ever watered a dry plant and observed the water running through the pot and not wetting the medium you know what I mean. Only after numerous waterings over several minutes does the medium take up water. Ice cubes supply water over a longer period of several minutes and allows the medium to absorb the water. For the grower that does not have the patience to be sure the medium is wet before moving on - ice cubes work. They are better then watering once and then moving on leaving the plant as dry as before watering.

I'm not sure if I water the best way but using Orchiata bark only I will water once to point of water running through the pot, come back in an hour or so and do the same thing again then come back a third time after a hour for the final watering. I find the pots are much heavier and the plants don't need watering again for much longer. Have not encountered root rot yet.

Any of you pros suggestions would be welcome.

[tarev]

For my phal indoors, I have to adjust the intervals of watering depending on the season. When it is warmer, I can see they like my once a week watering. But when it is cooler temps, they can take a longer interval, like every 2 weeks. Regardless of the season, I make sure after watering, they get good air circulation, either through an open window or if weather does not permit it, our ceiling fan runs.

For those growing outdoors in my growcamp, frequency of watering is more, they have better air circulation and exposure to the heat and sun, especially during warm days and extremely hot days. I try to do the watering early part of the day, then if it is forecast that we will have triple digit heat, then they will get a 2nd shower in the afternoon.

Come winter time, lesser watering, their growth slows down, but they still get some water, at times once a month, if I keep them in their growcamp location. But if I move them indoors, then temperature is more stable and warm, I can water them every two weeks.

Oncidiums take more water..real water hogs.

[RosieC]

A good beginners guide to not over watering the mass market Phals is to let them dry out between watering. However as you get more experienced you can grow then a little damper than that and they actually like enough water, they just like air at the roots as well. The simplest way to advise beginners to get the right balance is to say to let it dry between watering, but that's not the only way to grow them once you get a feel for what they need.

Other Genera and even species/hybids need different things and the medium also makes a difference. I'm not yet comfortable about judging watering for things like Oncidiums & Dens when they are in bark which is why I'm moving to other types of medium that make it easier for me to judge.

[NYCorchidman]

Originally Posted by Foogoo

If that's the case, would oncidiums be better off in fine bark? I thought I had made a newbie mistake potting them in fine bark, so I quickly moved them to medium bark in net pots a few months ago. They look great, but dry quickly.

Same with the phals, I thought I had doomed them with fine bark so most of them are now in medium bark.

On a vaguely related note, I started a new job this week and today, noticed two large phals in potting soil and a leafless dendrobium, all looking sad. I have no idea who's they are...

Bark mix is not good for oncidium unless they are small grade and mixed with something else.
Try something that retains moisture (not staying dripping wet but moist) well at the same time excellent drainage.
Oncidiums really drink and drying is not good.

I have had great success with oncidiums using either straight moss, chc based mix ( you have to water often and a lot with this), or promix ( this is that peat based mix with lots of perlite that almost all oncidiums and many other mass produced orchids are grown in. great drainage and great moisture retaining mix).