New to growing orchids and can't understand the textbooks? Common problems easily solved

As orchids enter more and more ordinary homes, the demand for orchid-growing knowledge keeps growing, but most orchid-growing knowledge online is monotonous and repetitive, cobbled together by authors who copy from here and there. If they themselves don't understand what they're writing, how can readers understand it?

Besides this useless knowledge, there is also some more professional orchid-growing knowledge that leaves novice orchid growers completely bewildered. Although most of this professional knowledge is correct, its terminology is too specialized and not suited to the digestive capacity of ordinary orchid growers. Today Haoshe Nongfu will focus on explaining some of this knowledge, the things you often encounter but find hard to understand.

1. Potting medium. Professional orchid-growing textbooks describe in great detail the ratio of each material and how to mix them, but sometimes being too precise only confuses orchid growers. In fact, for orchid potting medium just pay attention to these points: drains water, breathes, doesn't heat up, and has fertility - that's enough. As for a tiny error in the ratio, it won't affect the growth of the orchid at all.

2. Orchid diseases - fungal, viral, bacterial, and so on - make novice orchid growers dizzy. Actually it's not that complicated. Almost all orchid diseases (except those brought in with introduced orchid seedlings) are caused by the environment. A humid, enclosed, high-temperature environment easily leads to disease, so the first thing to solve is the environmental problem. As for medication, no matter what fungus or virus it is, we don't need to learn to analyze the chemical properties of the drugs; we just need to know a few common drugs for dealing with fungi and bacteria. If you really can't figure it out, just apply them together.

3. Don't get bogged down in deep botanical research - that's not our job. Growing orchids is for cultivating character and nature, not for studying botany. When to water an orchid - no one should understand that better than you yourself, so you don't need to ask others at all. Remember one saying: "Too wet rots the roots, too dry empties the roots." If you still can't get it right, take two of your cheaper orchids and use them for experiments. At worst you lose two orchids, but what you gain will be experience you could never learn from a book.

4. Pests. Don't bother distinguishing what kind of bug it is. In agricultural cultivation, the types and habits of pests may be more than we could learn in a lifetime. If you insist on learning which bug needs which pesticide, then you'll have no time left to grow orchids. Remember that all pests are afraid of pesticides. If you really find bugs, whatever they are, go to the agricultural supply store, buy a bottle of pesticide and spray it, or drench the roots - it's easily solved.

Learn from nature, sum up experience, and handle things with ease. Only then can you enjoy the fun in the process of growing orchids.