The Importance of Ventilation in the Orchid Room During Orchid Cultivation

Domesticcultivationmanagers incultivationFor sites where Chinese orchids are cultivated, due to legal restrictions and to protect Chinese orchids from the effects of natural climate, most are grown inside enclosed greenhouse structures to benefit orchid plant growth. However, such enclosed greenhouses often have insufficient building height or span, and in addition,cultivationto increase the utilization rate of cultivation volume, managers usually adopt dense planting methods, resulting in poor ventilation between orchid plants, inability of air circulation and convection within the orchid room, and reduced ability of fresh air to enter the medium pores for gas exchange. Leaf transpiration is reduced due to low air circulation and convection rates, the orchid plant's ability to regulate its body temperature is hindered, and harmful substances in the air accumulate beyond the critical point for orchid plant growth, producing toxic effects. Orchid roots lack sufficient oxygen for respiratory assimilation and nutrient storage, and stems and leaves lack sufficient carbon dioxide for photosynthesis and fixation reactions to produce high-energy carbohydrates. This causes obstacles in the orchid plant's photosynthesis, respiration, transpiration, absorption, assimilation product transport capacity, and so on. Orchid plant growth gradually weakens, metabolic reactions in the plant body become abnormal, the original functions of orchid roots are gradually lost, and they rapidly age and die. In addition, poor ventilation in the orchid room causes temperature to rise, organic matter decomposition speeds up, harmful substance production increases, and facultative anaerobic pathogens, which thrive in this high-temperature, high-humidity, poorly ventilated environment, multiply in large numbers, harming the root system and orchid plants. Orchid root elongation and stem and leaf development are affected by this environment, their life functions are restricted, they gradually lose vital functions, and root rot or leaf disease symptoms appear. During the growth process, Chinese orchids require not only light, water, and temperature, but air is also essential for their survival. In natural air, there is about 70 percent or more nitrogen and 16 percent oxygen, along with a small amount of carbon dioxide and other gases. If Chinese orchids do not have sufficient oxygen and carbon dioxide for growth, the orchid plants cannot carry out respiration and photosynthesis, and the amount of newly produced organic matter will decrease. Chinese orchid cultivation generally uses enclosed orchid rooms. If the ventilation equipment installed cannot achieve circulation and convection and cannot provide ventilation and air exchange at appropriate times, so that the air in the orchid room is renewed in a timely manner, the orchid plants will easily become stuffy and develop diseases due to poor ventilation. Root growth will consume large amounts of oxygen through respiration and accumulate large amounts of carbon dioxide and harmful gases that directly poison the root system, causing obstacles to root growth. During ordinary cultivation management, we often find that the root system of Chinese orchid plants develops brown ring-shaped disease spots, new roots stop growing as soon as they emerge, root tips turn black, and sometimes an entire root rots. This situation is especially severe in roots close to the stem base. The cause of this situation is poor physical properties of the medium, water filling all the medium pores, poor ventilation and drainage, and the planting material being somewhat acidic, which worsens the root system's living environment. Over time, root growth is easily restricted. Generally, the stronger the wind speed in the orchid room, the greater the transpiration of orchid plants and the evaporation from the medium surface, and the faster water is lost. Therefore, when cultivating Chinese orchids, cultivation managers should pay more attention to and consider whether the air in the orchid room has circulation and convection, whether the wind speed is appropriate, whether the fan positions installed under the orchid bench are suitable, and whether hot air guidance is correct. Fresh cold air from under the orchid bench should be helped by fans to provide the orchid roots in the pots with fresh oxygen and evaporate excess surface water, so that orchid roots can obtain sufficient fresh oxygen during respiration and carry out gas exchange. The carbon dioxide released by orchid roots and microorganisms during respiration should be transported by wind to supply the carbon dioxide needed for leaf respiration, helping orchid leaf photosynthesis and promoting ventilation between orchid plants. Hot air and harmful substances should be discharged outside the orchid room by fans above. In this way, orchid plants grow in an environment with the best ventilation, their root system life functions are enhanced, stems and leaves grow vigorously, and the rate of pathogen damage is reduced. Whether in quality or yield, satisfactory results can be obtained. Chinese orchids grow in natural environments and are constantly greatly affected by the external environment. Among all agricultural cultivation industries, Chinese orchid cultivation is a high-investment-cost industry. If cultivation managers want to cultivate good quality, high yield, rapid investment recovery, and reduced investment cost burden, in addition to grasping the current Chinese orchid market dynamics, always paying attention to market trends, and analyzing and understanding them, they basically need to start with how to grow orchid plants well. To grow ideal Chinese orchids, one must first start with growing orchid roots well. To grow ideal Chinese orchids, cultivation management must first involve knowledge of Chinese orchid cultivation, such as the physiological characteristics of various Chinese orchid varieties, environmental factors, fertilizer use, pesticide control, medium types and characteristics, and other related information. In addition, cultivation managers should ordinarily listen more, observe more, and ask others more about how to grow ideal Chinese orchids, integrate the knowledge and practical observation and other information they have absorbed, judge and analyze it, and then combine it with the cultivation manager's own careful, loving, and patient care and experience accumulated through actual cultivation, constantly reviewing and observing, and gradually improving all causes affecting or related to Chinese orchid growth. Do not think that during the growth process of Chinese orchids in the natural environment, as long as light, medium, water, fertilizer are supplied anddisease and pestcontrol and other unchanging management patterns are carried out regularly, Chinese orchids will grow very well and thereby achieve one's ideals. Predecessors once said: "There is no such thing as a free lunch" and "A minute of hard work brings a minute of harvest." This means that if cultivation managers want to grow satisfactory results, they must constantly seek various information related to Chinese orchid growth and the experience of others, constantly conduct actual experiments and observations, obtain and accumulate experience through failures, constantly adjust themselves, and spur themselves to make improvements. Review why others can do it while you cannot, and where the reason others can do it lies is most important. When the orchid roots grown by a cultivation manager become fewer and fewer, the orchid plants become smaller and smaller, and the results become worse and worse, the cultivation manager must thoroughly review himself and look back at whether his management methods are correct, so as to fully and balancedly supply what the orchid plants need. The quality of orchid plants is exchanged for the cultivation manager's ordinary hard work and effort, and cultivation management is controlled by oneself. The experience and suggestions of others can only provide cultivation managers with a general-principle management model. To grow orchid plants well, cultivation managers still need to frequently observe the growth status of orchid plants, make adjustments and improvements according to the growth conditions of the orchid plants, and thoroughly review and personally and truly carry them out. Review whether previous management methods were correct, whether medium selection met the requirements for orchid root growth, whether control of environmental factors was appropriate, whether fertilizer application could fully supply growth needs, whetherdisease and pestcontrol work was suited to the problem, whether pesticide application methods were correct, and so on. Ordinarily, cultivation managers must pay more attention and do their utmost to eliminate factors sufficient to affect and restrict growth. If one can take all of these into account one by one, I believe one will certainly be able to grow good Chinese orchid plants. (Author's note: At present, the four-in-one planting materials produced by Taiwan, China's Longfeng Materials Company and the mainland's Sichuan Orchid World Company can both adapt to Chinese orchid planting.)