Don't Rush to Use Chemicals When Your Orchid Gets Sick, Check These 5 Points First

Growing orchids, the biggest fear is disease. Once orchid growers discover their orchids are sick, most of them hurriedly search everywhere for medicine, soaking roots and pouring root drenches with no method left untried. Yet sometimes things go contrary to one's wishes, and doing so doesn't produce any good results. Why?

Haoshe Nongfu came across a Cymbidium goeringii (spring orchid) on the mountain, a broad-leaved spring orchid with a very beautiful leaf shape. This year it put out two new shoots, and one of them had contracted brown spot disease, caused by a fungus similar to anthracnose. Although one new shoot of this orchid was diseased, the other leaves (including the other new shoot) were all very clean, without a single disease spot.

Wild orchids actually get sick just the same, but we rarely see disease in wild orchids spread to the whole plant; often after a period of time they heal on their own. Yet once our home-grown orchids get sick, it's very likely to spread until the whole pot dies. Why is that?

Wild orchids can heal themselves without any application of chemicals, and Haoshe Nongfu believes this is inseparable from two basic conditions. This orchid's growing environment was under a forest where oak and pine trees grow mixed together; even sitting here in summer it is very cool, and beside it there was thick moss. Haoshe Nongfu went up the mountain at a little past 8 in the morning, and at that time there was still a layer of dew on the moss; the humidity of this micro-environment was very good. Here there are three good environmental conditions: ventilated and cool, humid environment, under tree shade.

The position of this orchid was on a steep slope, with a gradient of about 50 degrees or more, so the soil around the orchid roots was very dry and crisp. The soil was humus formed from rotted oak leaves, pine needles and earth mixed together. Here there are another two factors: steep slope, growing medium.

After searching the mountain for some similar wild orchids, Haoshe Nongfu felt that the reason wild orchids can heal themselves when sick lies precisely in these few favorable conditions. Yet once our home-grown orchids get sick, orchid growers never consider these points, but instead single-mindedly look for a miracle cure. In fact, every medicine has some toxicity, and using too much medicine does no good for orchids.

Ventilated and cool, humid environment, under tree shade, steep slope, growing medium - these 5 points are the true path of growing orchids. Of course, many of us orchid growers cannot achieve these in our growing environments, but we can use them as a reference and try our best to create such an environment. Trust me, if an orchid gets sick, you can first consider these points rather than hurriedly going to look for medicine.