How to Grow Orchids Best? A Detailed Guide to Care Methods
The orchid is a flower that combines the three beauties of flower, fragrance, and leaves. Together with the chrysanthemum, narcissus, and acorus, it is known as one of the four elegant flowers and plants, and is one of China's top ten famous flowers. In ancient times, good writing was called "orchid prose," and close, deeply affectionate friends were called "orchid friends," or "orchid friendship." Thus the orchid became a symbol of all that is beautiful in the world. Here, the editor shares with you how exactly to grow orchids best.
Growing Environment
Orchids generally grow mostly in high-mountain dense forests and among shrubs and weeds, and are also found in wild woods and bamboo forests. An orchid-growing saying goes, "love the morning sun, avoid the setting sun, enjoy southern warmth, fear northern cold," and orchids are afraid of smoke and dust.
1. Growing medium
Wild orchids grow on shady, ventilated mountain slopes that do not hold standing water, so the growing medium must be: airy, loose and soft, well-draining, and slightly acidic. The most commonly used medium for outdoor cultivation is mud flower soil.
Orchid mud refers to the soil attached to depressions in rocks on mountains, formed from plant leaves that have rotted through wind, rain, and sun. The soil is loose and soft, airy, and slightly acidic. In the Jiangnan region of China, it is customary to dig orchid mud from places such as Kuaiji Mountain in Shaoxing, Yanwo Ridge in Yuyao, Shiniu Mountain in Fuyang, Baoshan in Hangzhou, Tongguan Mountain in Yixing, Junshan in Nantong, and Yushan in Changshu. Before liberation, there was a saying of "one load of flower mud for one load of rice."
Weathered mountain rock gravel soil can also be used as a growing base. Farmers in Cangyan Town, Shengzhou, use the gravel soil of the local Cangyan Mountain as a growing medium; Cangyan Su has been cultivated with this soil for more than a hundred years. Some people also use red soil brick gravel and red soil mountain mud as a growing base, and some use soil with clumps of weeds that has been roasted over fire into crushed roasted soil as a medium. Both of the above conform to the characteristics of being airy, permeable, and slightly acidic, and are rich in phosphorus and potassium fertilizer, so they can be used as orchid growing media, but nitrogen fertilizer must be supplemented appropriately.
In recent years, with the introduction of orchid growing from Hong Kong, China, Taiwan, China, and abroad, indoor orchid growing has been greatly promoted. Therefore, the use of sphagnum moss, perlite, volcanic ejecta stone, granular brick pieces, granular xiantu, granular peat, and the like has become an ideal medium. Their greatest advantage is that they make water management easy.
2. Temperature and humidity
The optimal growing temperature for Jiangsu-Zhejiang orchids is 18--30°C. Below 5°C and above 35°C they grow slowly. The reproductive growth period is 5--18°C.
Orchids grow well when the relative air humidity is 60--70%. Too dry or too wet can easily trigger orchid diseases. Therefore, outdoor cultivation must create a gradual humidity microclimate suitable for orchid growth, and indoors, sprayers and hygrometers should be installed.
3. Light control
Wild orchids grow beneath dense forests and tall bamboo, where the thicket blocks intense sunlight. This makes orchids prefer shade and fear direct sun. Sunlight is essential for plant photosynthesis and is the energy source for producing nutrients. Orchids like morning sunlight. When the morning sun first rises, the sunlight angle is low, so the orchid receives light over a large area. Also, because the morning sunlight is blocked by morning mist, the light is relatively soft, and direct exposure will not burn orchid leaves. After orchids accumulate nutrients overnight, their photosynthetic capacity is strongest in the morning. Therefore, in summer, before seven o'clock, orchid leaves can be exposed to direct sunlight; after seven o'clock, use a 50%--90% shade net to block the sunlight.
Around Qingming, orchids can be given more sun to encourage root development and more leaf buds. After Bailu, when the weather turns cool and most new plants have grown, they can also be given more sunlight to promote full flower buds, allowing the orchid plant to store more nutrients for the next year's growth. The length of sunlight exposure directly affects orchid growth. With more sunlight, orchid leaves are more yellow, orchid roots are more developed, and flowers are healthier. Conversely, orchid leaves are dark green, the root system is less developed, and flowering is not easy. With long sunlight exposure, petals are thick in texture; conversely, petals are thin in texture. But if exposed to sunlight excessively, it may burn orchid leaves and even cause dehydration and death.
4. Water requirements
Controlling water is the most fundamental condition for growing orchids well. Orchid leaves are relatively thick in texture, with a cuticle on the surface for protection, so orchid leaves do not consume large amounts of water. The orchid's pseudobulbs and fleshy roots can store a certain amount of nutrients and water, so they are relatively drought-tolerant. Apart from the root-developing and sprouting stages and the rapid growth period, when more water is needed, at other times they consume less water.
If there is too much water, it causes waterlogging in the soil, blocks root respiration, and easily causes root rot. Too much water also causes orchid leaf cell walls to become water-filled, opening the stomata on the leaf surface, resulting in diluted contained nutrients, and further causing weak tissues, poor growth, and disease. Orchids like rain but fear flooding, like moisture but fear wetness. Because air humidity differs in spring, summer, autumn, and winter, and orchid growth rates differ, their water requirements also differ. Accordingly, there is a saying that whether one can grow orchids mainly depends on whether one can water them.
5. Air control
Orchids like circulating, unpolluted air. Orchid-growing sites should be far from coal gas and cooking fumes, and far from places with flying dust. Cooking fumes and dust adhering to the leaf surface will block leaf respiration and affect photosynthesis. Poor air circulation will cause bacteria and viruses to adhere to the leaf surface, harming orchid growth.
6. Fertilizer requirements
Orchids like a light diet, so fertilize lightly rather than heavily. Like other plants, nitrogen can promote lush stem and leaf growth. Phosphorus can promote well-developed orchid roots, promote robust development of reproductive organs, and spreading of stems and leaves. Magnesium, sulfur, iron, and other trace elements can make leaves green and flowers strong.
During the vigorous growth period, orchids should be fertilized more; during the dormant period or weak growth period, they may not be fertilized. If over-fertilized, it will burn roots and leaves, causing irreparable losses.
"Three parts planting, seven parts care" - this is the ancients' experience in growing orchids. The quality of care determines whether orchids flourish and whether they can bloom, so it makes sense that predecessors attached great importance to this. Below is a specific introduction to methods for caring for and managing orchids.