Orchids won't bloom for 3 years? The expert teaches you 1 trick, and in 1 month you can grow a top-quality plant

Potting Soil

"Keep fish by keeping the water, keep orchids by keeping the soil." This shows the importance of soil to orchid growth, and it is also the issue orchid growers care about most. Huahua will introduce several secret potting soil recipes to make sure your orchids bloom more and more.

1. Leaf mold + rice husks + honeycomb coal cinders

Mix leaf mold, decomposed rice husks, and honeycomb coal cinders in a 2:1:1 ratio. Crush the honeycomb coal, rinse it with water, and after mixing, spread it out to dry for 2 days. This soil is not prone to compaction, has good fertility, and helps orchids develop thick, strong roots.

2. Coconut coir + coal cinders

Mix coconut coir and coal cinders in a 1:1 ratio. Choose coarser, fermented and fully decomposed coconut coir, and rinse the coal cinders with water. This soil has good air permeability and is suitable for orchids with weaker roots.

Watering

As the saying goes, understanding how to plant orchids takes one tip, but watering takes three years of skill. Watering is an often-repeated topic, but whether you water correctly determines success or failure in growing orchids.

1. Early flowering stage

In spring, when the temperature is around 20-25 degrees, before the orchid blooms you can spray water once every 2-3 days and give a deep watering once a week. Too much water will make the orchid plant grow leggy and make it hard for flower buds to form. Lack of water makes orchids prone to bud blast.

2. Flowering period

If you want orchids to bloom more beautifully, you must control water during the flowering period. When the orchid's flower stalk elongates and the flower buds are about to shed their bracts, give the orchid one thorough watering. Orchids that bloom this way have a beautiful appearance and a long flowering period.

3. Daily care

Follow the principle of not watering until dry, and watering thoroughly when you do. You can insert a bamboo stick into the soil for 10 minutes, then pull it out. If the surface of the bamboo stick is dry, it needs watering. Water thoroughly in one go until water flows out from the bottom of the pot.

Light and Temperature

Light determines whether the orchid's flowers are beautiful in color and whether the leaves are glossy and healthy.

1. Increase the temperature difference

To promote orchid flowering, you need to increase the day-night temperature difference. The most suitable range is 18-21 degrees during the day and 7-10 degrees at night, which makes it easy to produce more flowers.

If the nighttime temperature is too high, orchid leaves tend to soften and flower buds drop. If the temperature is too low, the leaves tend to develop spots.

2. Light

Generally, orchids need 2 to 3 hours of light. Under normal conditions, if the orchid leaves are glossy and firm, they are fine; if they are dark green and soft, it means more light is needed; if the leaves are pale yellow, it means light should be reduced.

Red and yellow orchid varieties: during the flower bud formation stage, place the orchid on a brightly lit balcony or by a window, and the flowers will be deeper in color.

Green and white orchid varieties: reduce light intensity when the buds first appear, then increase light after flowering is finished. This helps the flowers bloom more delicately and elegantly.

Fertilizing

Whether orchids can develop extensive roots, grow strong plants, and produce many beautiful flowers is related to many factors, but fertilizing is the most critical step.

1. Growth period

You can apply fully decomposed, thin cake fertilizer water at about 15%, or 0.1% urea fertilizer water plus 0.2% monopotassium phosphate fertilizer water, once every 15-20 days.

2. Flower bud differentiation stage

During the flower bud differentiation stage, apply phosphorus and potassium fertilizer, such as monopotassium phosphate, once every half month, 2-3 times in total.

3. Flowering period

During the flowering period, spray the leaves 2-3 times with a 0.2% monopotassium phosphate solution to promote the development of roots, stems, and flowers.

Potting

Potting can be said to be the step flower lovers hate most, as it is both troublesome and easy to damage the seedling roots. Today, Huahua will explain in detail to flower lovers how to pot orchids correctly.

1. Root trimming

Before potting, first trim the orchid roots. Cut off roots that are too long or too short, hollow roots, black roots, and broken roots. Keep only 3-4 healthy roots per seedling.

2. Soaking in carbendazim

After trimming the roots, soak the entire orchid root system in a carbendazim solution.

3. Make a ventilation cover from a plastic bottle

Poke holes in a leftover drink bottle, and use scissors to cut a few small triangular notches along the lower bottom edge of the bottle.

Place it at the bottom of the flower pot. It can retain water while also preventing water accumulation. Use plastic foam blocks to secure the drink bottle.

4. Putting the orchid into the pot

Place the orchid seedling in an appropriate position in the pot, with the pseudobulb (lu tou) about 1 cm above the flower pot, and add the growing medium evenly by hand.

5. Tapping the flower pot

Shake the flower pot or gently tap it so the orchid roots and growing medium fit together more closely and avoid creating large empty spaces.

That is all for today's little orchid care tips.

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