Common Misconceptions About Hollow Orchid Roots: Get the Facts Straight to Grow Healthy Orchid Roots

What causes hollow orchid roots? This claim is actually wrong, and you may have been misled all along

To grow orchids, you must first grow good roots; when the roots are healthy, the orchid will survive, send up new shoots, and bloom. Orchid roots are fleshy roots and aerial roots, which is something orchid growers all know well. How can you grow healthy orchid roots? What actually causes hollow orchid roots?

There is a claim that hollow orchid roots are caused by the roots not being in close contact with the potting medium, so the orchid roots cannot absorb water and become hollow. At a glance it seems to make some sense, and beginner orchid growers will basically believe it. Is that really the case? In fact, this claim is very wrong.

So-called aerial roots have one condition: they need to contact air. If orchid roots are in close contact with the potting medium, they lose the space to breathe fresh air. This is also why Hao She Nong Fu has always said that orchid potting medium must be breathable. Only when the medium is breathable enough can orchid roots contact more air and then grow healthily.

Hao She Nong Fu likes to explain with facts. I have used pure pine bark to grow orchids. Although it has no fertility, orchid roots grow very well in pure pine bark. Everyone knows pine bark: there are many gaps between the bark pieces, so it is impossible for orchid roots to be in close contact with the medium. On the contrary, many orchid roots are suspended in the gaps without any medium.

But some orchid growers, having heard the earlier claim that orchid roots must be in close contact with the potting medium to avoid hollow roots, keep making the medium finer and finer and press it down again and again when potting. In fact, this goes against the principles of orchid growth. Such orchids may not develop hollow roots, but more often they will develop root rot.

Hollow orchid roots are actually just this: when the potting soil is too dry, the orchid roots cannot absorb enough water, but the orchid plant cannot go without water as it grows.

So the orchid plant can only absorb water from its fleshy roots. At this time, if watering is not kept up, the orchid roots will keep supplying water, and this kind of dehydration cannot be seen from the leaves, because the leaves have not yet lost water. So orchid growers often think it is not yet time to water, and the longer they delay, the drier it gets, until the water in the orchid roots is completely drawn out, and this is what causes hollow orchid roots.

Friends, have you ever encountered hollow roots when growing orchids? Check against this right away.