How do you grow orchids? An orchid farmer sums up seven growing tips
New gardening friends often ask how to grow orchids. It just so happens that a gardening friend often gets the chance to meet some orchid farmers, so they often shamelessly ask them about their orchid-growing experience, and even more shamelessly wheedle a few of their prized pots out of them. In short, every time after visiting the amiable old orchid farmer, they come home fully loaded, wahaha... He really is so easygoing, it feels like they bully the poor old man terribly. They tried these tips at home too, and they really worked well, so here they are to share with everyone:
1. Keeping orchids from rotting their roots is not hard at all, so do not use all those fancy potting media
When I was still a rookie at growing orchids, I also got a huge headache over what potting medium to use when repotting. I flipped through many books, read quite a few forums, and gathered a whole series of so-called potting media, mixing this and that, stirring this and that... but in the end, no matter what ratio or formula, the orchid roots rotted just the same, and in the end, with that water, it was neither right to water nor not to water. Once I visited a friend who was in the orchid business, and he took me to meet an orchid farmer. I seized the chance and pestered him relentlessly to let me into his orchid house, really just to see what these experts actually used as potting medium! It turned out that in his orchid house, which was bigger than a large warehouse, all the orchids used and only used one kind of potting medium, and I was dumbfounded - bark, he only used bark.
After going home, I pulled out all those half-dead orchids at home, emptied out the potting medium inside, put a layer of stones at the bottom of the pots, and then planted them using large chunks of bark. A week later, green and tender new roots sprouted out, and from that time on, I had confidence in orchids. Later I even tried, when dividing plants, disinfecting the newly divided plants, wrapping them with a little sphagnum moss, then tying them to wood, and placing them in a shaded orchid shed. The roots grew like crazy, roaring away.
The old orchid farmer explained why you should not use so many fancy potting media. Because we rookies are all afraid the orchid does not get enough water, we water heavily, but in fact, compared with dryness, what orchids fear more is being too wet. Although everyone knows orchids should not be watered when not dry, for beginners, what exactly counts as dry? Presumably it is hard to grasp without several years of experience, because it is impossible every time you water to dig open the potting medium and see whether it has dried through, and potting media dry from the outside inward. Many times, when we see the outer potting medium is terribly dry, the potting medium in the center is actually still moist, especially when sphagnum moss is used. If you water at this point, it would be strange if the roots inside did not rot.
So, honestly, learn from the old man and just use bark.
2. When orchids do not bloom, it mostly has nothing to do with fertilizer
In these years of growing orchids, the most troublesome has been Phalaenopsis. At first it was a difficult problem, and once I conquered it, there was no challenge left at all, so now there is not a single Phalaenopsis among the orchids I keep at home. Many people must be like me: their first contact with orchids was through Phalaenopsis, and they must all have felt to varying degrees that Phalaenopsis is hard to grow, because it just never blooms and never blooms. One habitual way of thinking is that if a plant does not bloom, it is because there is not enough fertilizer. Then comes fertilizing of all kinds, and after that root burn of all kinds, yellow leaves, and plant death. In fact, orchids are not plants that need heavy fertilizer. Think about their native state, on rocks, on tree branches; orchids rarely grow on the ground, so where would they get so much fertilizer? In fact, an important factor determining whether orchids send out flower spikes is the temperature difference. The climate in tropical rainforest areas is muggy, hot, and rainy, and the temperature difference between night and day is large. This is what prompts orchids to send out flower spikes.
Fertilizing orchids also has many finer points. Honestly, I have never seen the orchid farmers here apply root fertilizer to orchids. Their fertilizer is all mixed with water and then sprayed regularly in the orchid house, truly weak fertilizer applied frequently. When fertilizing at home, it is best to do the same: mix compound fertilizer for spraying on leaf surfaces with water, dilute it as much as possible, and do not be afraid it is too dilute. Since it is weak fertilizer, it must not be concentrated. Then spray it on the leaf surfaces for the orchids to absorb, preferably in the early morning or at dusk, not at noon when the sun is strongest. Before fertilizing, water the plants first, and once the plants are no longer dripping, you can fertilize. Do not pour leftover fertilizer solution into the pots; it should be discarded to avoid burning the roots.
3. If you want orchids to grow well, do not dote on them too much
I understand how much many orchid lovers adore their beloved orchids. I also love them terribly, so much so that at the beginning I could not put them down, touching the leaves for a while and looking at the flowers for a while, wishing I could carry them with me. The result was great: that Phalaenopsis I once loved most was so frightened by me that it did not bloom for three years. Finally, it fell out of favor, and I put it in a corner of the orchid house, almost forgotten. Then one day I suddenly walked into the orchid house, and a flower spike had emerged from the heart of the orchid. Judging by how thick and strong it was, it was sure to be a string of stunning large flowers, and sure enough it was exactly as expected. So here I advise orchid fans who love orchids as if they were their lives: do not keep moving orchids around. Although orchids are not demanding about their environment, they are extremely sensitive to environmental change. Even a tiny change can make them nervous. As long as an orchid has been frightened, it is very likely to refuse to bloom. Think about it: even if you made a person rush around the whole world every day, they could not stand it either.
4. Should you really have an orchid house or an orchid shed?
When I first started growing orchids, I did not know how to create a good environment for them, and I often hung them under trees in the garden. As a result, as the sun moved west, some orchids were always sunburned to death. Finally I spent a large sum of money and built an orchid house. At first it was quite good, and the flowers grew happily, but before long the nightmare began. The orchids started getting sick, with all kinds of pathogens and pests. During that period I was almost feeding them medicine every day, but still I was powerless to turn things around. Later I went to pester the old man again. As soon as he heard about my orchid house situation, he started scolding. It turned out it was all caused by poor ventilation.
In fact, understanding how to provide orchids with a good environment is right, but too good an environment only backfires. Although an orchid house is expensive and professional equipment for tropical orchids, for people just growing orchids for fun it is really unnecessary. But without shading it also would not do. In the end, I simply removed the plastic from the orchid shed and replaced it with black shade cloth. Unexpectedly, the effect was excellent, the orchids grew happily, and there were very few diseases.
5. What orchids need is not lots of water, but moisture
Here I want to talk about the issue of watering orchids. Many people understand the basic principle of watering orchids - do not water when not dry. But there is no absolute standard for the degree of dryness. Most people, when buying flowers, ask the seller one question: "How many days until I water once?" Here I want to say, do not completely believe what the seller says. Sellers are just sellers; most of them are not flower growers, and the answers they give are only a reference. Even if they are flower growers, because the environment at home is certainly not as good as the greenhouse environment, the frequency of watering will certainly be different.
For newly purchased orchids, if the potting medium is still wet, do not water for now. When a new orchid enters the home, place it in a cool corner for two or three days, let it calm down, and then water it. When watering, do not pour from a high place and soak the whole plant thoroughly. From a relatively low height, use a relatively gentle stream of water to water the orchid thoroughly. The so-called thorough watering does not mean watering until water leaks from the bottom of the pot. As long as the orchid's potting medium is not soil, water will quickly leak from the bottom of the pot, but this is not thorough watering. Let the orchid plant stay under the water stream for two to three minutes. After stopping the water, let the water in the orchid pot drain, and once it is no longer dripping, you can put it back in place. Never, just to save trouble, sit the orchid pot in a water tray; the roots will certainly rot.
When you have nothing else to do, you can spray water on the orchid plant several times a day. Just do not spray water when the sun is strong, and try not to leave water droplets on the leaves and flowers, so as to avoid burns, especially on white flowers, which are very prone to it.
Spraying water is to increase air humidity. In fact, compared with frequent watering, frequent humidifying is more reliable. The orchids will be very grateful for your efforts.
6. If an orchid unfortunately gets infected with pathogens, do not be reluctant to part with it - kill it
Having a beloved orchid infected by pathogens is a very sad thing, because the chance of saving it is basically not great, and even if it is saved, the orchid plant will be badly weakened. What is even more frightening is that pathogen infection is contagious, especially among orchids of the same genus, which are the easiest to infect.
All right, if you want to treat it, it really will be a lot of trouble, so at this point you must wield the sword of wisdom and cut off what you love. Gather the diseased plants together - burn them!
7. Do not wait until the flowers fade to cut them
Finally, the orchid has bloomed, beautifully, truly pleasing to look at. All right, under normal circumstances, the flowering period of an orchid can last more than two weeks, but do you know that because of these few weeks of flowering, the orchid will be badly weakened, and in serious cases it may not bloom the following year. To keep the orchid plant strong, flower farmers actually cut off the flowers at the very beginning of blooming. Still, doing that is really unreasonable for us, but we do not need to wait until the flowers fade to cut off the withered flower centers. When the flowers are at the middle stage of blooming, we can cut them off as cut flowers, put them in a bottle, and they will look just as beautiful. Just do not cut all the way down in one snip; leave a section of flower spike for the orchid plant to slowly recover nutrients from, so as not to shock the orchid plant.
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