Four Taboos Every Orchid Growing Beginner Must Know

    These four mistakes do considerable harm to orchids, yet they are exactly what beginners love to do: using a large pot, watering too much, applying heavy fertilizer, and planting too deep. Do all of these together and every plant will die without a doubt. Such ideas all stem from an eager love for orchids, but they are acts of "misguided love," and beginners must forbid and avoid them.

1. Never use a large pot for a small plant

You may think that a larger pot holds more medium, so there will be more nutrients - wrong! If the pot is too large, you need to use much more growing medium. Water it a little and the outer part is wet while the inner part stays dry; water it a lot and it can all be wet, but once the outer part dries and you do not know the inner part has not dried, you water again. As a result, the center of the interior stays damp for a long time, the roots cannot take it, and the medium easily rots, doing even more damage to the roots.

To judge the right pot size, place the plant inside the pot and compare. If it looks a little small to you (if it looks too small, that is not good), then it is just right.

2. Do not overwater

Beginners love their flowers so much that they want to water as soon as they see them, and when watering they always want to give a little extra, which leads to overwatering. Overwatering inevitably brings many harms. Our advice: it is better to water too little and be wrong than to water too much and be wrong. Too little water only causes a loss of vitality and can be nursed back, but too much water will certainly rot the plant to death.

3. Do not use fertilizer in excess

Fertilizer can promote plant growth, make plants stronger, and encourage flowering and fruiting. But do not think that once you spread fertilizer, the orchid will grow taller and bloom just as you wish. Especially when a pot of orchids will not bloom, the first thing you think of is: maybe there is not enough fertilizer? Let me add some! For fertilizer to take effect, it must be used in moderation and matched with other conditions, such as sunlight and humidity. Plant growth and flowering likewise require other conditions to work together. A plant's absorption of nutrients also has a certain limit; it will not absorb however much you give it.

Excess fertilizer, whether the concentration is too high or the frequency is too dense, is harmful to orchid plants; using diluted fertilizer will never be wrong.

4. Do not plant too deep

Planting flowers too deep is also a common problem among beginners, who think that only by burying the crown in the growing medium can it absorb nutrients. (Some also plant deeper to keep the plant standing steady when it is unstable.) Both are wrong. The crown of an orchid plant should be exposed at the pot surface to prevent stuffiness and rot as well as the wet rot of new shoots. When first potting an orchid plant that will not stand steady, fix it with string or a support.

Excerpted from "The Orchid Compendium"