How to tell if potting soil is dry or wet? The glass slide method makes it clear at a glance

Orchid growersall know that checking the degree of moisture in the potting soil is the basis for deciding whether to water. If the surface layer of the potting soil turns white, you can water theorchid. This is the general common sense and experience for wateringorchids.Orchidwatering, whether done well or poorly, directly relates to the success or failure of growing and cultivating orchids, and has always been valued byorchid growers. As the saying goes: "Growing orchids is easy to understand at one point, but watering takes three years of skill." This shows that wateringorchidsis not an easy task, but it is by no means difficult either. As long asorchid growersscientifically master the watering time, watering method, and watering principles, and water the orchids appropriately, water can truly become the water of life for orchids. As is well known, wateringorchidsmust be determined based on many factors. On this point, Mr. Guan Qingping of Sichuan, in the article "Orchid Miscellany (3)" in the 3rd issue of 2004 of "Orchid World," already gave a scientific and detailed exposition on wateringorchids: "The number of times to water various orchids and how much water they need must be determined according to the orchid's growth conditions and environment, such as orchid variety, number of orchid plants, light intensity, height at which the orchid pot is placed, temperature, seasonal changes, ventilation conditions, coarseness of the growing medium, orientation of the pot, pot size, and so on. All these complex factors must be taken into consideration before making a watering decision. This is the knowledge and principle of watering." The topic I am discussing today is only about observing the dry and wet condition of the potting soil, and does not involve knowledge about watering orchids. For this reason, this year I used a quick and simple glass slide see-through method, directly seeing the degree of moisture of the potting soil medium, which has achieved good results for watering orchids. The glass slide see-through method came to me when I went fishing at a reservoir with a few fishing friends. At the time, we were fishing at the reservoir and had waited a long time without seeing any change in the float in the water, and had not caught even a single small fish. Then one fishing friend sighed, as if talking to himself, and also as if saying to me: "Ah! If only we could see the fish in the water and cast the hook and bait directly into the school of fish, we would surely catch a lot of fish and definitely would not go home empty-handed." The speaker did not mean anything by it, but the listener took it to heart. My mind suddenly connected this to watering orchids. If only I could directly see the degree of moisture of the upper, middle, and lower layers of the potting soil medium, how wonderful that would be! After that, I kept thinking about this problem, thinking and thinking, and finally came up with the method of using a glass slide to see through the moisture of the potting soil. The method is: use 1 round plastic pot, cut a 4 cm wide rectangle vertically at the neck and bottom of the pot, then at the corner points of the rectangle, use an electric soldering iron to burn 1 cm long openings, then use a steel saw to saw along the rectangular lines through the pot wall inside the rectangle, and then insert 1 rectangular glass slide 5 cm wide from inside the pot directly down to the bottom of the pot. In this way, through the glass slide, one can directly and clearly see the degree of moisture of the upper, middle, and lower layers of the potting soil medium, and at the same time, can also clearly see the direction and amount of water flow when watering. Through practice, I can observe and grasp the degree of moisture of the potting soil at any time, and can then water the orchids at the appropriate time, so as to keep the potting soil medium "moist but not wet," and at the same time, it also effectively solves the phenomenon of watering that only appears to penetrate but does not. Although this method is clumsy and may make expert orchid friends laugh, it is practical. For beginners learning to grow orchids, it is undoubtedly beneficial, and it provides a convenient and accurate basis for watering for beginners who have not yet mastered orchid watering techniques. Finally, let me say one more thing: if orchids arecultivatedon a balcony, and the orchid pots are all the same size and the potting soil medium is the same, then only 1 orchid pot needs to be modified in this way; there is no need to do this to all the orchid pots. Orchid lovers might as well give this little creative idea I have introduced a try, and in practice they will know whether it is good or not. Author: Deng Zhongfu, Sichuan Address: Industrial and Commercial Bureau, Dazhu County, Dazhou, Sichuan Postal code: 635100