Orchid care has many particulars, but they come down to just these 3 points

Growing orchids involves quite a few particulars - air humidity, light, fertilizing and pruning are all indispensable. Today Huahua will share some orchid care methods you may not have thought of before, such as mountain base soil, the half-shade half-sun method, the use of organic fertilizer, and so on.

Mountain base soil

For growing orchids, it is best to use forest humus soil, that is, mountain base soil, because this kind of soil is not only rich in nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, but also contains a lot of humus, trace elements and so on. Of course, ordinary nutrient soil will also do, but you need to add some powdered cow dung to the soil; the ratio of humus soil to cow dung is 1:4. Besides cow dung, you should also add an appropriate amount of river sand, sawdust and so on.

Promoting rooting

If an orchid has very few roots and you want it to quickly adapt to the pot and take root, you can wrap the orchid's roots with sphagnum moss. This not only keeps the root system clean, but also protects it from pathogens and promotes rooting in the orchid, because sphagnum moss has strong water retention - once it absorbs enough water, it can stay moist for a long time. To ensure sufficient nutrition, you can dilute organic nutrient solution with water at 500 times and spray it onto the plant's root system, which helps the orchid absorb it.

Light

Orchids like a half-shade half-sun environment, and this condition must be met, otherwise the orchid's vitality will be halved. This is because orchids on the mountain are basically under trees, where the leaves block part of the light and also scatter some light down, but it is not strong light. Strong light easily causes orchids to scorch and develop problems.

Since we cannot expose orchids to strong light, we need to artificially create a half-shade half-sun environment for them. When light is too strong, orchid leaves turn yellow and the leaf surface becomes rough; when there is too little light, the leaves lose their luster and easily become dull in color.

Different orchid varieties also take in light differently. For example, Chunlan (Cymbidium goeringii) and Jianlan (Cymbidium ensifolium) need more light, while Xiahui and Qiusu need less light, so they cannot be discussed in general terms.

Generally, it is more suitable to sun them in the morning and evening - 3 hours in the morning and 3 hours in the evening - and a shade period of about 70% is better.