Orchid never seems damp enough?
Hello all! I neglected to update on our orchid, Greg’s Orchid. 🤣
A while ago there was an unfortunate incident with an air fryer that basically burned the flower stems off…. (No husbands were harmed. Just glared at a little…..)
But luckily that was the extent of the damage lol. I cut the stems back and the orchid did the rest and just said heck with the rest of both these stems!
☘️TL;DR: How do you water your orchids, and why does it seem like it doesn’t like this pot that is designed specifically for orchids lol 🙃
Anyway… it’s in this plastic orchid pot with orchid bark now. there’s always water in the bottom, and I even ‘charged’ the orchid bark so it stays damper longer. (Some orchid guy on YouTube told me people forget that so lots of orchid bark goes dry too fast unless you soak it in hot water for a day or two first?)
But, I still feel like it’s not doing much! It seems “ok”, it actually has a new leaf growing. Yay!
But going off the color and look of the roots, they are green for like one day or two and go back to being silver and dry. The leaves are a bit wilty looking too, not plump and shiny.
I just get the feeling it’s not quite getting the humidity it wants. Or something. I haven’t fertilized it yet either? I just want it to thrive and give me more flowers! 😤
☘️I was also told when not flowering, it’s in a ‘growing phase’ and wants lots of sun, so it’s in my S facing kitchen window.
Are the orchid chunks just too big?? So moisture escapes too much? Is there something else I should do? How do you guys like to water your orchids anyway?
Sorry, Igot caffinated and have lots of questions. 🤣 ☕️🌼 #NewGrowth #OrchidLovers #help #ADHDPLANTLOVERS
#PlantsMakePeopleHappy #PhalaenopsisOrchid #Orchids
A while ago there was an unfortunate incident with an air fryer that basically burned the flower stems off…. (No husbands were harmed. Just glared at a little…..)
But luckily that was the extent of the damage lol. I cut the stems back and the orchid did the rest and just said heck with the rest of both these stems!
☘️TL;DR: How do you water your orchids, and why does it seem like it doesn’t like this pot that is designed specifically for orchids lol 🙃
Anyway… it’s in this plastic orchid pot with orchid bark now. there’s always water in the bottom, and I even ‘charged’ the orchid bark so it stays damper longer. (Some orchid guy on YouTube told me people forget that so lots of orchid bark goes dry too fast unless you soak it in hot water for a day or two first?)
But, I still feel like it’s not doing much! It seems “ok”, it actually has a new leaf growing. Yay!
But going off the color and look of the roots, they are green for like one day or two and go back to being silver and dry. The leaves are a bit wilty looking too, not plump and shiny.
I just get the feeling it’s not quite getting the humidity it wants. Or something. I haven’t fertilized it yet either? I just want it to thrive and give me more flowers! 😤
☘️I was also told when not flowering, it’s in a ‘growing phase’ and wants lots of sun, so it’s in my S facing kitchen window.
Are the orchid chunks just too big?? So moisture escapes too much? Is there something else I should do? How do you guys like to water your orchids anyway?
Sorry, Igot caffinated and have lots of questions. 🤣 ☕️🌼 #NewGrowth #OrchidLovers #help #ADHDPLANTLOVERS
#PlantsMakePeopleHappy #PhalaenopsisOrchid #Orchids
2” pot with drainage
Last watered 3 days ago
17
Hi! I painfully learned that the less water the better, and your orchid looks well watered! The roots look green and thick, which is good. The discoloration looks more related to lack of some vitamins or too much light. I’m not sure. I know about a youtube video about discoloration of leaves and its meaning, let me check. 😄
@Zanellachan yeah, it could possibly be too much light I’m wondering! Or both. 😂 I wish the app would fix the sideways picture problem so it’s easier to see 🥲
@Zanellachan also when you water it, are you soaking the whole pot in like another pot for a while like an air plant or just having the water run over the orchid bark and roots?
Your roots look green so it doesn’t seem like the plant is thirsty. I put my orchid in a plastic Tupperware container and pour water over the roots and bark until it looks saturated and then let it sit in the water for ten minutes. I fertilize them by spraying the leaves and roots with orchid fertilizer. Just make sure it’s somewhere with good ventilation or dry the crown out with a paper towel. I have mine closer to a north west facing window and about 10 feet back from a south facing window. My orchid grow flower spikes twice a year usually.
@Zanellachan I thought the same thing. If they’re getting direct sunlight from a south facing window they’ll definitely yellow
Thanks @Zanellachan and @TRose ! I ordered some orchid fertilizer, and when it comes I’ll use that soaking method with some fertilizer in it. I might order some of those decorative sticky window things too to diffuse a bit of the light. 💕
I’m just so paranoid because every time I bought a store bought orchid (from Trader Joe’s in particular lol) they always died. But, I know a lot more about plants now than I did back when I first bought one of those 😂
I’m just so paranoid because every time I bought a store bought orchid (from Trader Joe’s in particular lol) they always died. But, I know a lot more about plants now than I did back when I first bought one of those 😂
My favorite way to grow orchids is in glass with no drainage holes. I just create a drainage layer at the bottom (usually lava rock and/or akadama), generally put a little bark on top of that, and cover it with loose 5A premium NZ sphagnum. Excess water drains into the bottom of the container but the drainage layer keeps the sphagnum from getting overly saturated, then it slowly evaporates over a few days to a week, hydrating the roots and the sphagnum. Keeping the sphagnum loose allows for enough airflow to keep them healthy, plus my pots have springtails keep fungi in check (I didn’t buy them, they came on my plants).
Because it’s so humid, the roots get thick and hairy; the left (yellow/pink bloom) plant has been in that setup for a year and you can see it has juicy/hairy bright green roots (root with dark spot in background is an old root that came with the plant and has never gotten worse), and the right was potted in glass around a month ago and you can see about an inch of new growth at that root tip that is thicker and hairier than the older parts of the root.
Once in a while the roots will grow down into the drainage layer / touch the bottom of the pot, and when that happens I just gently lift the plant up to pull the bottom of the roots higher and then resettle it. The glass also makes each plant look like its own statement piece while letting me visually monitor root health and water levels without any effort.
I get these borosilicate glass containers from Kinto (large glass storage containers) but they’re like $30 each, you can likely find something cheaper if you hunt around.
Because it’s so humid, the roots get thick and hairy; the left (yellow/pink bloom) plant has been in that setup for a year and you can see it has juicy/hairy bright green roots (root with dark spot in background is an old root that came with the plant and has never gotten worse), and the right was potted in glass around a month ago and you can see about an inch of new growth at that root tip that is thicker and hairier than the older parts of the root.
Once in a while the roots will grow down into the drainage layer / touch the bottom of the pot, and when that happens I just gently lift the plant up to pull the bottom of the roots higher and then resettle it. The glass also makes each plant look like its own statement piece while letting me visually monitor root health and water levels without any effort.
I get these borosilicate glass containers from Kinto (large glass storage containers) but they’re like $30 each, you can likely find something cheaper if you hunt around.
@Zanellachan “the less water the better” it depends (though it is definitely better to underwater than overwater when you’re learning what your plant needs).
Orchids generally love water, but because the ones we have in our homes are typically epiphytic they cannot tolerate staying wet or sitting in water for long periods of time. Their roots are designed to quickly trap rainwater or to pull water from ambient humidity, so sitting in standing water that will not quickly evaporate is what rots them (think of soldiers getting trench foot from from staying in wet boots for a long time).
An orchid in tightly packed moss (the way they typically come from sellers) needs very little water because the moss will absorb/trap all of that water and you only want enough to moisten the moss but not make it wet; an orchid in large bark with a lot of drainage in a low-humidity environment may need a lot more water because it’s going to evaporate from the pot much more quickly.
Orchids generally love water, but because the ones we have in our homes are typically epiphytic they cannot tolerate staying wet or sitting in water for long periods of time. Their roots are designed to quickly trap rainwater or to pull water from ambient humidity, so sitting in standing water that will not quickly evaporate is what rots them (think of soldiers getting trench foot from from staying in wet boots for a long time).
An orchid in tightly packed moss (the way they typically come from sellers) needs very little water because the moss will absorb/trap all of that water and you only want enough to moisten the moss but not make it wet; an orchid in large bark with a lot of drainage in a low-humidity environment may need a lot more water because it’s going to evaporate from the pot much more quickly.
Also re: the comments on the color of your leaves, it looks more to me like your plant is light-stressed and is producing a lot of anthocyanin pigments to protect itself from burning. You’ll likely see the coloration improve if you pull it back from the window a bit (plus it should take longer to dry out if it’s not in direct window sunlight — the inconsistent thickness of the roots tells you that the water and humidity around the roots has not been consistent); be aware that it may want to drop a leaf after changing the lighting conditions to focus on growing a new leaf that is more attuned to the changed lighting conditions.
@smushface thank you, very informative!! Yeah, I’m quite confident the darkening leaves is sun stress as well. I’ll be moving it over to a slightly different spot once I get myself to repot another plant and make more room 🤣
I also have to be careful with humidity as my area of the PNW has a high mold count, I already had to chop rotted roots when it was jam packed in all the moss from the store. But so far so good! I might experiment with a very light layer of sphagnum moss.
Your setup with the glass is absolutely beautiful! 😭
It’s interesting, I think I remember someone here that has them semi-hydroponic (bottoms of roots touching water always in a glass) and seem to do really well that way too! I think? Maybe it was @DreamMachine ?
I also have to be careful with humidity as my area of the PNW has a high mold count, I already had to chop rotted roots when it was jam packed in all the moss from the store. But so far so good! I might experiment with a very light layer of sphagnum moss.
Your setup with the glass is absolutely beautiful! 😭
It’s interesting, I think I remember someone here that has them semi-hydroponic (bottoms of roots touching water always in a glass) and seem to do really well that way too! I think? Maybe it was @DreamMachine ?
@Stephazar I do! I think it’s called semi-water culture officially ? 🤔 But I don’t actively do the periods of soaking and drying the roots. That’s way too fussy for me, I just have the roots in a jar with the bottom 1/3-1/4 touching the water, and when the water runs out, I fill it back up again. 🤷♀️ I’ve only been doing this for 6 months or so, on one phal, but she’s already bloomed twice, and the second time the most profusely of any phal I’ve had. I think it works well because the roots can photosynthesis too. She had 20 blooms on her at her peak, then started pushing out a new leaf and a new flower spike 😲. I trimmed the spike off because girl can’t be go go go all the time.
But I think I’m going to try @smushface Aly’s method with another phal of mine. The jar of water is nice and all, but when your cat knocks it over…🙃
Edit: dang it I forgot to do the screenshot-y thing
But I think I’m going to try @smushface Aly’s method with another phal of mine. The jar of water is nice and all, but when your cat knocks it over…🙃
Edit: dang it I forgot to do the screenshot-y thing
@Stephazar I have around 20 of my orchids in glass at this point and none of them have any issues with rot (though most of them have springtails cleaning up any dead tissue so the things that thrive in rot have a harder time proliferating). The root tip on one started to turn translucent pale brown when I left it touching the bottom for too long in fertilizer water but it recovered (turned back to bright green) within maybe a month of it being pulled higher in the pot.
As long as your moss is loose the roots will have plenty of air around them… the key thing is the height of the container and lack of holes create/sustain a humid microclimate around the roots — orchid roots are very adept at pulling water from ambient humidity (I left a NOID phal that hates light in a pot in my bathroom with no added water and almost no natural light for 6 weeks and never saw any decline — the humidity of my shower, water in drains, and being in a ceramic pot without ventilation let it trap the water it needed). The moss also provides ecological support (especially as it re-alives / turns green, which it doesn’t really do without sustained humidity); moss keeps things slightly acidic, it wicks up excess water around the roots, it is inhospitable to the kinds of things that attack the orchid’s roots, and it’s hospitable to the kinds of friendly little organisms inside and on an orchid’s roots that help it absorb nutrients.
Some of my older orchids have more moss, but this one (from right photo before) and another I potted with it also have large open gaps because I didn’t feel like grabbing and rehydrating more moss at the time and I wanted to monitor the roots more closely since it was a newer plant that had been going too dry for too long in a ventilated temporary pot while I was quarantining it.
If you have a giant glass vase that is about 6in taller than your standing plant you could even rest it on top of some moss in there, then just water the moss and the orchid should be able to pull water from the moss it’s touching and the ambient humidity evaporating from the moss (it’s a common technique for rehabbing rootless or near-rootless orchids).
Ultimately you need to find out what works for you, this is just the best way I’ve found to trick my temperamental species orchids into thinking they live in much more humid conditions than they do AND get to be lazy about my watering schedule. Around half of them are also on heating mats, but the ones that aren’t are still growing well and just need much less water because the rate of evaporation from a pot at room temp is much slower than one that is sitting on an 80-100 degree mat.
As long as your moss is loose the roots will have plenty of air around them… the key thing is the height of the container and lack of holes create/sustain a humid microclimate around the roots — orchid roots are very adept at pulling water from ambient humidity (I left a NOID phal that hates light in a pot in my bathroom with no added water and almost no natural light for 6 weeks and never saw any decline — the humidity of my shower, water in drains, and being in a ceramic pot without ventilation let it trap the water it needed). The moss also provides ecological support (especially as it re-alives / turns green, which it doesn’t really do without sustained humidity); moss keeps things slightly acidic, it wicks up excess water around the roots, it is inhospitable to the kinds of things that attack the orchid’s roots, and it’s hospitable to the kinds of friendly little organisms inside and on an orchid’s roots that help it absorb nutrients.
Some of my older orchids have more moss, but this one (from right photo before) and another I potted with it also have large open gaps because I didn’t feel like grabbing and rehydrating more moss at the time and I wanted to monitor the roots more closely since it was a newer plant that had been going too dry for too long in a ventilated temporary pot while I was quarantining it.
If you have a giant glass vase that is about 6in taller than your standing plant you could even rest it on top of some moss in there, then just water the moss and the orchid should be able to pull water from the moss it’s touching and the ambient humidity evaporating from the moss (it’s a common technique for rehabbing rootless or near-rootless orchids).
Ultimately you need to find out what works for you, this is just the best way I’ve found to trick my temperamental species orchids into thinking they live in much more humid conditions than they do AND get to be lazy about my watering schedule. Around half of them are also on heating mats, but the ones that aren’t are still growing well and just need much less water because the rate of evaporation from a pot at room temp is much slower than one that is sitting on an 80-100 degree mat.
