How to grow orchids? An introduction to Xijinqiao's orchid-growing experience

    Actually, when it comes to growing orchids, I am still just a rookie. Although I have been around orchids for ten years, it is only in the past two or three years, after my hardware facilities improved, that the orchids I grow have shown a little improvement. This year's Song Mei and Xishen are what I consider my proudest achievements, so I posted them online to show them off, hoping to win a little applause, but the praise from fellow orchid growers was completely beyond my expectations and left me deeply humbled. As for being called "China's number one orchid grower," I truly do not dare to accept such a title. The Guolan website is full of hidden talents and masters as numerous as clouds; asking me to share my experience really seems like showing off my axe skills before Lu Ban. But since my fellow orchid growers are so kind and insistent, I will briefly say a few words. If there is anything improper, please criticize and correct it, and let us all discuss it together, treating this as tossing out a brick to attract jade.

       1. Producing more flower buds: For orchid plants to produce more flower buds, the prerequisite is to grow the roots well and keep multiple shoots connected as one body. To grow the roots well, first, according to the growth habits of orchids, simulate the orchid's wild growing environment (it is best to go up the mountain in person to observe its growing environment). The four key elements of temperature, humidity, ventilation, and light should be adjusted in a timely way throughout the orchid plant's entire growing process (during high temperatures, mainly cultivate in shade). Second, for beginners growing orchids, the potting medium should be light and plain. My medium ratio is: 20% Xiantu, 10% expanded clay pellets, 70% Zhijinshi, with a few grains of Magic Fertilizer applied on the pot surface. Other fertilizers (especially foliar fertilizers) should be used as little as possible. Third, because every orchid grower's cultivation environment is different, watering cannot be the same for everyone. Remember one point: orchid plants like moisture. As for watering time, a sentence from a book by Yuyao orchid-growing senior Wang Shuping: "After watering orchids, cultivate them in shade for one day." This gave me great inspiration. So when the temperature is above 10°C, I choose to water at night. After watering, dry the leaf surfaces as quickly as possible. Once the roots are well grown, you can use as little medicine as possible, or even none at all. Generally, using it two or three times a year for prevention is enough. In the bud-setting season every July and August, widen the day-night temperature difference and control water once or twice, but it must not get too dry.

       2. Management after buds form: After orchid plants form buds, attention should be paid to cultivating them in proper shade, maintaining humidity at around 80%, keeping the temperature from getting too high, and keeping the potting soil from getting too wet. In winter, the temperature should be kept below 20°C as much as possible, and then undergo sufficient vernalization, otherwise the flower stems will not grow tall the following year.

       3. Flowering: The best flowering temperature for Cymbidium goeringii is 10°C-18°C, and for Cymbidium faberi it is 16°C-24°C. Before the flower buds begin to stretch the stems, cultivate dry; after the stems begin to stretch, cultivate moist; after the flower buds open, choose dry or moist cultivation depending on the variety. To make the flowering direction uniform, first make as much use as possible of the plant's phototropism so that the flower buds face the same direction, then a few days before the flower buds open, depending on the condition of the pot surface, manually adjust and fix the flower buds whose direction does not match what you want (one or two days is enough). As for how to fix them, fellow orchid growers can use their own creativity.