How to identify orchids by looking at their roots?

Look at orchid roots, identify the plants

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In traditional Chinese medicine there are the four diagnostic methods: observation, listening, inquiry and palpation. When introducingorchid plants, one of my experiences is: look at the orchid roots, identifythe orchid plants。

(here it is mainly about distinguishing what kind of medium they were grown in, and their acclimatization after introduction.)

1. Plants grown in a medium imitating the original ecological environment

Orchid plants, in their original ecological state, grow in humus-rich, slightly acidic shallow soil, and their characteristic is that the medium is very fine and not heavily fertilized.

If a medium like the above is used, the roots of the grown orchid plants have the following characteristics: the roots are perfectly round with no uneven surfaces, and are clean white.

This traditional cultivation method is mainly concentrated in Sichuan and the Jiangsu-Zhejiang region.

Introducing such plants is generally very easy for them to regain vigor and bloom again. But you must pay attention: after introduction, when changing the medium (from fine to coarse), you should adopt a gradual approach, and by no means go straight from fine medium to coarse medium in one step. As for the reason behind this, figure it out for yourself.

Of course, there are also those grown in fine medium that turn out: perfectly round but blackened. Such plants are generally caused by a medium that is too rich in fertilizer. But the plants are healthy.

Then there are those whose roots are perfectly round but yellowish. Such plants generally mean the grower used too many chemicals. For such plants, I hold reservations, that is, they carry hidden pathogens.

Earlier, I talked about the roots that may appear in orchid plants grown in a medium imitating the natural state. Among them, I hold reservations about yellowish roots. However, in actual practice,

as long as the roots are only yellow tinged within white, such plants are still relatively healthy. Because nowadaysorchid growers, only a very few people do not use chemical drugs and chemical fertilizers.

How can one use fewer chemical drugs and chemical fertilizers? Actually, for ordinary people whose number of orchid plants is not large-scale, there are many very simple and eco-friendly methods.

Here I will only introduce the method I have always used: water the orchid plants once a month with the leachate of plant ash, and every 10 days use fruit peel leachate to supplement fertilizer and increase

the nutrition of the orchid plants. Making the plant ash leachate is very simple: take a piece of gauze, wrap up the plant ash, then put it in a water container for about one hour, then

take the water in the container and dilute it appropriately. As for making the fruit peel leachate, it is also simple: put the peels, cores and other waste left from eating fruit into a transparent

container, add a small amount of water, cover it, and place it in a sunny spot; in summer one week, in other seasons about half a month. Take its liquid, dilute it and set aside for use.

I use the above method to grow orchid plants; apart from using APC once every half a year, I use no other chemical things at all.

Now for the second part, the characteristics of roots grown in coarse medium:

Generally speaking, roots grown in coarse medium have a flat feel, and in some places are like human skin after aging, with many wrinkles. This is the overall impression. However, because the coarse medium used is of

different types, the visual effect it gives also differs in some points.

1. Main material is gravel: the roots are white, thin and long, commonly known as water roots.

This planting method is mainly adopted in the southern region. Since the main material is gravel, the moisture condition of the medium can be imagined.

The remedy is to increase the number of daily waterings. At the same time, since the medium has almost no fertilizer content, one relies on supplementing from outside the root system. This method is what industry people call

the external circulation of the orchid plant's root system.

At the same time, those who adopt this cultivation method are mostly sellers. Because ordinaryorchidenthusiasts cannot spend all day just watching over their few pots or up to a hundred pots of orchid plants.

considering their moisture and so on.

However, many orchid plants grown by this method are healthy. So when introducing such plants, just grasp: the medium in the early stage should be coarse, and watering should be frequent. Then gradually increase

the proportion of fine medium, and reduce the frequency of watering. At the same time, fertilizer should also be emphasized in the first 1-2 years. If you do not grasp this point, the introduced plants will die of

starvation. At the same time, absolutely no base fertilizer should be applied in the medium in the early stage, because their root system has not restored all its functions.

Of course, adopting this kind of medium for planting, together with a heated greenhouse, is fatal for ordinary orchid enthusiasts. Because this kind of plant produced contrary to the wild state of orchid plants

is just a flower of the greenhouse. (As for greenhouse plants, I will not discuss it in detail here)

If, when growing with the above medium, some roots are thin, long, yellowish, and the roots are hard (some are blackened near the pseudobulbs). This is mostly due to re-exported stock, having been grown locally

for a short time and supplemented with high-frequency application of chemical drugs and hormones. Toward such plants, one must be extremely cautious. Unless you are just aiming to learn how to treat a dead horse as a live horse

, then I will also stay silent.