Watering moisture loving paphs

[dbarron]

Ok, being 3 days new at these, I'm wondering if I should water again (watered when received as they were dry). Local conditions have been cloudy and rainy since they arrived, today is going to be 70F and sunny though.
Two of my three are in opaque containers, so I can see the moisture on the small pieces of fine bark touching the sides of the pot. Would it be safe to assume as long as I can see that moisture, withhold further watering ? I know they don't like to dry out...but I also don't want to overwater!
Mottled leaf paphs with delenatii, bellatulum, micranthum, and concolor in their background (if that helps)

[MrHappyRotter]

How big are plants and pots? What kind of potting mix are they in? How much wind/air flow are they getting?

Honestly, watering is a bit of an art. It takes some time to figure out what works for your conditions and what your plants need, and if you're in a temperate climate, the ideal routine changes seasonally (sometimes more).

Anyway, for me personally, I water the paphs in 6 inch pots or smaller twice a week, except in winter where I watch closely and sometimes only water once a week.

For plants in bigger pots, I water heavily once a week, and sometimes splash a bit of "top off" water on there in between. In summer, when it's bright and warm, I may sometimes go for twice a week watering.

The transparent pots are a wonderful tool for learning and for keeping an eye on root health. If you see active, growing root tips (they'll be cream/white/yellowish), then watering every 3 - 4 days is probably appropriate. There should still be some faint amount of dew/moisture build up, but the potting mix should be mostly dry. If the mix is clearly wet, and you can see water in the pot, then you should wait.

[dbarron]

They're several years old and about 10 inches from leaftip to leaftip, they're in a fine bark based media (I said that) in 2.5 inch pots in a east window in my bedroom. Airflow is basically when the heating system kicks in and stirs air, otherwise, it's relatively still.
I think I'd be watering today for sure (if not before), if it hadn't been rainy and 60% humidity in the house last two days. I'll wait and see what today's sunshine does....
Thanks for the vindication of looking in the pot walls.

Vendor suggested repotting of one of them, but the media looks ok to me, and I'm going to wait till warmer sunnier times to do so. The growth is strong, but I am not seeing roots through the pot walls (so not rootbound I'd say).

Edit: Ok, amazing what sunlight lets you see and cloudy dull weather doesn't. I *can* see roots and they look good but still not in rootbound state.

---------- Post added at 10:20 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:03 AM ----------

You know...now seeing the roots I do see where the vendor was talking about that I would want to consider repotting one of those before too long into the next size pot. In fact, I think two of them are repotting due soon. I think the smallest that was potted in July is probably ok for a few more months at least.

[WhiteRabbit]

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...ad.php?t=81484

[My Green Pets]

I have one delenatii cross which is in very loose, open mix which needs to be watered a couple times a week.

My Maudiae cross, on the other hand, is in sphagnum and medium sized bark pieces. It gets watered as little as once every two weeks. The sphagnum says quite moist for a long time.

My suggestion, keep the medium moist. Lift up the pot and touch the drain holes. Feel moisture? Is it damp? Probably could stand to wait a bit before next watering. If it's only just barely damp, you should likely water within the next couple of days.

Moist, not wet. That's the Paph mantra.