Orchid care
Is it time to repot/upsize? They are two separate gals.
How do ya'll water yours? I follow Greg's suggested schedule and found some root rot in two other dudettes.
#orchidlovers
How do ya'll water yours? I follow Greg's suggested schedule and found some root rot in two other dudettes.
#orchidlovers
19
Do some research on your particular plant’s water needs. In my experience , the app tells you to water way too often for most plants. I use the schedule as a reminder to check my plants, and if they’re wet, I snooze the notification. Eventually, it will get a little better at telling you when to water. For orchids, I like to have mine in pure orchid bark, and I soak them around once a week/every ten days in a container of water and then drain really well.
I think the pot size is fine for now, especially if you are figuring out the best watering schedule. Orchids can tolerate being root bound and I wouldn't say it's to that point yet anyway.
I used to water my Orchids once a month. I would soak the whole plant (other than flowers) for 30 minimum or so and they did great. I talked to someone who does the same but once a week and their Orchids do great. Just don't let the plant remain in water let it sit in water for a while then take it out. In the wild they are basically air plants. That's why the orchid bark soil because it's super airy and the bark absorbs water and slowly releases it without flooding the plant.
Idk the schedule Greg gives for the Orchids but I think the 1 time a week let sit for a while in water then take out is good and easy to remember.
Even if you water on Greg's schedule make sure the plant isn't sitting in water when you are done.
Another thing with Orchids, the roots. Bright green sre healthy roots that don't need watered. They will shrivle a little and get kinda silver then they need watered.
What I can see from the photos, looks like a couple healthy Orchids. You cut out all the root rot you found correct?
I used to water my Orchids once a month. I would soak the whole plant (other than flowers) for 30 minimum or so and they did great. I talked to someone who does the same but once a week and their Orchids do great. Just don't let the plant remain in water let it sit in water for a while then take it out. In the wild they are basically air plants. That's why the orchid bark soil because it's super airy and the bark absorbs water and slowly releases it without flooding the plant.
Idk the schedule Greg gives for the Orchids but I think the 1 time a week let sit for a while in water then take out is good and easy to remember.
Even if you water on Greg's schedule make sure the plant isn't sitting in water when you are done.
Another thing with Orchids, the roots. Bright green sre healthy roots that don't need watered. They will shrivle a little and get kinda silver then they need watered.
What I can see from the photos, looks like a couple healthy Orchids. You cut out all the root rot you found correct?
@ITalk2Plants I haven't touched them just yet. Was waiting for feedback. Which, thank you for providing!
They were unfortunately sitting in a smidge of water.
They were unfortunately sitting in a smidge of water.
@WandrngDudette it's easy to do. Mine are in the planter I bought them in. I fill it up with water and let it soak, then I pull out the clear nesting pot, dump water out of the outer pot, and let the orchid sit for just a minute or 2 to let excess water drain before putting back in the outer pot. It's a different mind set from most plants but once you get it down they are pretty easy to care for.
Never do the ice cube thing a lot of orchid cards tell you to do. In the jungle it doesn't rain ice water so the cold can shock the plant. I get WHY companies started doing that (help keep people from overwatering). But it shocks the plant and can effect how it grows.
Never do the ice cube thing a lot of orchid cards tell you to do. In the jungle it doesn't rain ice water so the cold can shock the plant. I get WHY companies started doing that (help keep people from overwatering). But it shocks the plant and can effect how it grows.
@ITalk2Plants thank you!! 😊 I'm surprised I haven't killed them to be honest. I'm glad they all have new growth in the form of leaves too.
Hey there! A helpful thing I do with most my plants is look up their natural environment and how they grow in it. A lil example for orchids: they like clinging to rocks, trees, etc., so they don't really grow straight up and don't need soil. So I wrapped the roots in moss, turned the plant sideways and stuck it to the wall 🤣
I would do some root cleanup because some of those are looking pretty sad (snip out the stuff that is dead or rotting using sterilized scissors) but repot it in that same pot.
It does look overwatered; a lot of this app’s AI suggestions are bad, but if you water your plant the right amount for a while and log it consistently the app will adjust adjust its recommendations for your plant and start giving more accurate watering reminders for that plant. Usually a good cadence for watering a lot of orchids is about once a week or so (but this does depend on the pot/medium/airflow/drainage/moisture requirements of the orchid).
You should let the roots dry out enough to go white between waterings and the medium should no longer look wet (so dry or mostly dry). Visually monitoring the roots and medium through the clear container will serve you better than a moisture meter here.
Your orchid will thrive more on neglect than care. If you underwater usually the only impact is smaller leaves, so it’s always safer to underwater until you better understand what makes it happy than to overwater and potentially rot it.
It does look overwatered; a lot of this app’s AI suggestions are bad, but if you water your plant the right amount for a while and log it consistently the app will adjust adjust its recommendations for your plant and start giving more accurate watering reminders for that plant. Usually a good cadence for watering a lot of orchids is about once a week or so (but this does depend on the pot/medium/airflow/drainage/moisture requirements of the orchid).
You should let the roots dry out enough to go white between waterings and the medium should no longer look wet (so dry or mostly dry). Visually monitoring the roots and medium through the clear container will serve you better than a moisture meter here.
Your orchid will thrive more on neglect than care. If you underwater usually the only impact is smaller leaves, so it’s always safer to underwater until you better understand what makes it happy than to overwater and potentially rot it.
@ITalk2Plants the ice damaging orchids thing is a myth. While I don’t water my orchids with ice, I definitely have done so when the water quality of the ice was better than the water I had available (though I wouldn’t put ice directly on roots). I often water my orchids (including tropical species like phal bellina that prefer temps in the 80s) with water from a filter pitcher in my refrigerator (which means the water has a temperature between 33-38 degrees).
It can hail in tropical regions, and because rain comes from the atmosphere it is virtually always hitting the ground at a much colder temperature than the air on the ground. If you actually measure the air less than a half inch away from a melting ice cube, it only drops the air temp by around 5-7 degrees… and only if you are right up next to the ice cube. An ice cube melts in drips, and — much like the air around the ice cube — a few cold drops of water are going to come up to room temperature very quickly because that’s how thermodynamic physics works.
The reason those mass companies recommend ice is because that is the easiest way to keep an orchid alive when your customer base is otherwise very likely to overwater the plants to death… an ice cube reliably contains around 2 Tbsp of water, so it is the easiest way to get their customers to limit water to the 1/4-1/3c that the orchid actually needs (your average customer is not going to measure, so you have to give instructions that are easy for your dumbest customer to follow). I don’t think this post said anything about watering with ice, but there is nothing wrong with watering using ice (as long as it isn’t coming into direct contact with plant leaves/roots) if that is what gets a person to keep caring for an orchid instead of tossing it after it finishes blooming.
It can hail in tropical regions, and because rain comes from the atmosphere it is virtually always hitting the ground at a much colder temperature than the air on the ground. If you actually measure the air less than a half inch away from a melting ice cube, it only drops the air temp by around 5-7 degrees… and only if you are right up next to the ice cube. An ice cube melts in drips, and — much like the air around the ice cube — a few cold drops of water are going to come up to room temperature very quickly because that’s how thermodynamic physics works.
The reason those mass companies recommend ice is because that is the easiest way to keep an orchid alive when your customer base is otherwise very likely to overwater the plants to death… an ice cube reliably contains around 2 Tbsp of water, so it is the easiest way to get their customers to limit water to the 1/4-1/3c that the orchid actually needs (your average customer is not going to measure, so you have to give instructions that are easy for your dumbest customer to follow). I don’t think this post said anything about watering with ice, but there is nothing wrong with watering using ice (as long as it isn’t coming into direct contact with plant leaves/roots) if that is what gets a person to keep caring for an orchid instead of tossing it after it finishes blooming.
@smushface , @SolidGold was comment on my post. I made a comment about the ice cube directions on orchids. I'm fully aware of hail. But most commercial orchids are tropical and don't experience freezing temperatures. It's a debate in the orchid community with some saying it can stress the plant possible slow growth (that's what I believe), some believe it will kill your plant (my grandma used ice cubes while her plants didn't really grow it didn't kill them), and some say it does nothing at all.
@SolidGold to be fair, hail is extremely rare in a tropical rainforest and even more rare for it to actually make it to the canopy at all.
@ITalk2Plants people’s opinions don’t change the physical laws of thermodynamics or the actual horticultural research that has been done on this.
@smushface no I haven’t what is it?