Has anyone used rice water on their orchids?
Hi! I was just wondering if anyone has ever used rice water as a natural fertilizer for their orchids? If so, does it work? I am trying it today.I will update in a few weeks. #PhalaenopsisOrchid #neworchidmom Any answers or suggestions would be appreciated!!
0ft to light, indirect
4” pot with drainage
Last watered 1 year ago
8
@TryCorncob13 I was hoping to get to you in time. Since it's done, just check on it daily if you notice anything abnormal just take it out of the potting mix. Wash out the potting median and the roots and pot thoroughly if that happens.
But be sure to keep a close eye on her because the mold you will see, the bacteria you will not and if she start growing any I want you to catch it early! ❤️🤞
But be sure to keep a close eye on her because the mold you will see, the bacteria you will not and if she start growing any I want you to catch it early! ❤️🤞
@SuperbRaspfern I am so glad to read this. I was wondering what I could do to encourage growth for my orchids that I got last year for Mothers Day & Grandparents Day. They aren’t flowering at all. They aren’t growing stems. They both do grow new leaves though. One orchid sprouted a root. There’s some root outside of the pot. I’ve no idea what I’m doing wrong if anything. BTW, there are 5 names of yours on IG. Which one’s yours, please
@freespirited.30 @sunflowershannons
Shannon Powell
How much light is yours getting and what is she planted in.
Usually for my orchids the process will go like this
2 new leaves
Flowers
2 new leaves
Flowers
Plenty of light is important, mine get 12 hours a day under grow lights. Fine tuning the water is also important, you never want them in wet moss.
For mine I use long fiber sphangnum and a lot or small orchid bark about 60% bark.
You can also use miracle grow orchid bloom booster every now and then to mist with. Not all the time but occasionally. Be sure to feed yours a good liquid fertilizer every time you water. Preferably liquid, they can absorb it easier and get an immediate boost of nutrients.
I use Super Thrive Foilage Pro liquid fertilizer on mine and they bloom like clockwork! Instead of the miracle grow bloom boost you can also take a bit of your liquid fertilizer diluted with water and mist the leaves occasionally. By occasionally I wouldn't do more than once every 2 weeks.
I say occasionally, because I'm not a big advocate on misting. In fact I NEVER do it because I believe that is the leading cause of fungal infections in plants! I'm anti-mist, they do fine without it. But I know some people do that so perhaps you could.
Hopefully, soon you will get some blooms! ❤️
Shannon Powell
How much light is yours getting and what is she planted in.
Usually for my orchids the process will go like this
2 new leaves
Flowers
2 new leaves
Flowers
Plenty of light is important, mine get 12 hours a day under grow lights. Fine tuning the water is also important, you never want them in wet moss.
For mine I use long fiber sphangnum and a lot or small orchid bark about 60% bark.
You can also use miracle grow orchid bloom booster every now and then to mist with. Not all the time but occasionally. Be sure to feed yours a good liquid fertilizer every time you water. Preferably liquid, they can absorb it easier and get an immediate boost of nutrients.
I use Super Thrive Foilage Pro liquid fertilizer on mine and they bloom like clockwork! Instead of the miracle grow bloom boost you can also take a bit of your liquid fertilizer diluted with water and mist the leaves occasionally. By occasionally I wouldn't do more than once every 2 weeks.
I say occasionally, because I'm not a big advocate on misting. In fact I NEVER do it because I believe that is the leading cause of fungal infections in plants! I'm anti-mist, they do fine without it. But I know some people do that so perhaps you could.
Hopefully, soon you will get some blooms! ❤️
@freespirited.30
Hey. I agree with @SuperbRaspfern. No experiments (why would we, when the world is full of great products that have been developed and finetuned for expressly that purpose). I also am not a big fan of misting (and foliar feeding). Especially on phalaenopses. The amount of stem rot and crown rot I've seen on this app alone is tragic. We always take care to prevent water on the leaves when watering in our homes. To purposefully spray water on them, then seems counterintuitive to me.
Very often, as Shannon stated, too much light is the culprit. You said it's still growing, so I wouldn't worry about any real issues. But with too little light (or a bit too much stress, e.g., from too irregular watering schedules, widely fluctuating humidity, etc), the orchid still forgoes blooming. Since they are often marketed as lowlight plants, some people just place them in spots that are a tad too dark. (However, don't overdo it. They burn easily. Bright indirect light is where it's at).
What I found is maybe even more often the cause for non-blooming phals, especially in the US, is that they are placed in very temperature controlled environments. Meaning they don't get the very small drop in temperature that almost all "normal" store bought phals need to initiate new blooms. Just a few degrees will do the trick. Even just placing it in a slightly cooler room for a few weeks or somewhere where it cools down slightly over night. For some hybrids in some areas, it's even enough to place it a bit closer to the window pane so that they experience that drop over night.
However, all that getting said: you said you got it last year for mothers Day. That's not very long. Truth being told, they are very slow growers and (unless we trick them) usually bloom only once a year (basically, after they received that "temperature signal" in autumn, they start growing a new spike. And that alone takes ages). They bloom for a very long time and are definitely worth it. Yours sound healthy enough. I'm sure you will get some new blooms soon.
Hey. I agree with @SuperbRaspfern. No experiments (why would we, when the world is full of great products that have been developed and finetuned for expressly that purpose). I also am not a big fan of misting (and foliar feeding). Especially on phalaenopses. The amount of stem rot and crown rot I've seen on this app alone is tragic. We always take care to prevent water on the leaves when watering in our homes. To purposefully spray water on them, then seems counterintuitive to me.
Very often, as Shannon stated, too much light is the culprit. You said it's still growing, so I wouldn't worry about any real issues. But with too little light (or a bit too much stress, e.g., from too irregular watering schedules, widely fluctuating humidity, etc), the orchid still forgoes blooming. Since they are often marketed as lowlight plants, some people just place them in spots that are a tad too dark. (However, don't overdo it. They burn easily. Bright indirect light is where it's at).
What I found is maybe even more often the cause for non-blooming phals, especially in the US, is that they are placed in very temperature controlled environments. Meaning they don't get the very small drop in temperature that almost all "normal" store bought phals need to initiate new blooms. Just a few degrees will do the trick. Even just placing it in a slightly cooler room for a few weeks or somewhere where it cools down slightly over night. For some hybrids in some areas, it's even enough to place it a bit closer to the window pane so that they experience that drop over night.
However, all that getting said: you said you got it last year for mothers Day. That's not very long. Truth being told, they are very slow growers and (unless we trick them) usually bloom only once a year (basically, after they received that "temperature signal" in autumn, they start growing a new spike. And that alone takes ages). They bloom for a very long time and are definitely worth it. Yours sound healthy enough. I'm sure you will get some new blooms soon.
When you wash rice, what you're doing is removing anything that maybe harmful to eat, insecticides, dirt whatsoever. Rice is grown in paddies after all, and mud particles can congregate on shells. Processing rice grains might also introduce lots of chemicals.
With this, rice water is generally a nono for sensitive plants. I'd rather use tap water than any other forms of water that's not pure [ie. well water, pool water, drainage water, aquarium water is fine]. Besides, washing rice gets rid of weevils that, if you're not careful, might end up in your plants. God knows what they might do
With this, rice water is generally a nono for sensitive plants. I'd rather use tap water than any other forms of water that's not pure [ie. well water, pool water, drainage water, aquarium water is fine]. Besides, washing rice gets rid of weevils that, if you're not careful, might end up in your plants. God knows what they might do