Quote:
Originally Posted by Don Ro
Yours are beautiful!!!
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I hear they're a difficult plant. I bought mine at Home de Pot and it bloomed constantly for several months...grew and grew and bloomed and bloomed.
When I watered my other plants I'd give the Orchid only a slight drink...
and sometimes some weak fish emulsion. I noticed the other day that there is Orchid food by Miracle Grow.
It's now w/o blossoms and still alive.
I need to Google about them and learn.
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My Sun Room Orchid. Hope this is right side up:
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Yes, most folks think they are delicate and hard to grow. What I'm hearing/reading on the various orchid boards is that they (most) aren't delicate or hard to grow. I think the deal is that they are so different to grow from most other plants, but people treat them like other plants.
If you want to learn more about them:
This seems to be the PelicanParts of Orchids.
Orchid Board - Most Complete Orchid Forum on the web !
Another decent Orchid forum
OrchidTalk Orchid Forum
And this guy (who posts to both forums) has 40 years orchid experience, used to have an orchid based business, and is or at least was an engineer of some sort, so he tackles stuff from a how and why does it work perspective. He also gives talks on Orchids. He's got lots of good stuff in the "Free Information" section of his website.
Treat Your Plants Right! - First Rays LLC
Also, this girl has a very well done youtube channel with good, well thought out information. She's got lots of videos of various orchid based subject matter.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC84mfcCFGDPeeBhKbG8dijQ
Quote:
Originally Posted by greglepore
Low soil moisture high relative humidity. They love sink windows and very little water
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
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Yeah, that's mostly true.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wdfifteen
Mrs WD has multiple orchids growing all the the time.
I'll ask her the secret.
OK
nighttime temps no less than 45 f
bright, but diffused sunlight
humid air
roots would rather be under watered than over watered
she waters them buy dropping an ice cube in the pot every 4 days
They need a very light growing medium, you can buy soil just for orchids
biggest problem is root rot, from the roots being too wet.
Expect them to bloom about twice a year blossoms will last months.
cut the stem off when the bloom is done
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Very nice. She's doing very well.
I've read that there are something like 25,000-35,000 species of orchids and another 65,000 hybrids. As you can imagine, that means that the range of environments and growth habits can vary a lot. But yeah, that seems to be a pretty good summary for most.
FYI, if you visit any orchid forums, you'll find that everyone says the ice cube thing is a very bad idea. Most orchids are tropical, so the cold temps can be bad for them. I think the key may be to not put the ice right on any part of the orchid. Obviously, it's working well for the missus, so I'm not suggesting that she change anything.
Just one more tidbit. Some orchids will grow a baby (called keiki) on the stems after they bloom. Some will also grow another branch of flowers on a stem that all of the flowers have fallen from so if she doesn't cut them, she may get a surprise. Most of the folks on the forums recommend waiting until the stalk turns brown to cut it off. Again, if she's getting good results the way she's been doing it, she probably doesn't need to change anything.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Scott Douglas
Our neighbors invariably give us one for Christmas. We try to replant them outside but I don't think they've done so well.
I use them as photo subjects. They pose well and don't move either.
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Great shot. I love it in black and white.
Most orchids are epiphytic, they grow stuck to the outside of a tree (some are lithophytic and grow stuck to rocks) so the roots like to get lots of air. Those types of orchids can/probably will have their roots die if they are grown in regular potting soil, earth or the ground. The common media to grow orchids in is bark chips, kind of like the stuff that you'd buy to use as mulch. My mom who lives in coastal FL on a pond just straps them to a tree behind her house.
Most are not going to do well if the temps get below 50 or 55° although some can do OK with cooler temps since some grow at high elevations in the mountains. Of course, those don't usually do very well with high temps.
They usually also like
very low levels of fertilizer. Especially when you consider that they don't get nutrients from the trees or rocks that they grow on and they only get rain water which is fairly pure. They generally get very little "food".
There are some terrestrial orchids that are grown in soil or more ordinary potting mix stuff, but those are certainly not as common in stores as the epiphytic types.
This is how many of them grow in the wild.
I took these pics in the Amazon in Brazil.
A lot of folks mount then when growing at home. They need to be watered more frequently this way, probably once or twice a day.
I'd like to do something like that some day, but I'm thinking more about a fern stick or the kind of thing that you'd let a pothos Ivy climb in a pot.