Orchids require different water care depending on their potting media. It’s essential that owners know the proper way to do it if they want their orchid to stay healthy and bloom beautiful flowers. Choosing the right water care doesn’t have to be hard, especially when orchids are typically low-maintenance by nature. We prepared an easy-care guide that will you grow your orchids by debunking myths and showing you the right care.
Water Care: Orchids Grown in Bark The goal will be to put much moisture on the bark pieces and not the orchid’s roots. The water used should be room temperature, and it must not stay in areas where the stems connect to the leaves of the plant as it may promote rot. For optimal results, place the entire pot in a bowl then pour water over the bark and stop when the water is as deep as the bark line. Let it soak for 10 to 15 minutes and lift it allowing excess water to drain and put it somewhere with bright, indirect light. Don’t place the water in the bowl before the pot because the pressure might push the bark away from the orchid container.
Terra-cotta pots absorb moisture, so they work best in giving humidity to the orchid when its bark dries out. Water Care: Orchids Grown in Sphagnum Moss When orchids are grown in sphagnum moss, they can be watered from the top like how you usually would with other plants. Insert your finger up to the first knuckle inside the moss to know if it’s dry before you water it. Sphagnum moss is known to hold water efficiently, so you have to be careful with it. Too much moisture leads to root rot and displaces the air that the orchid’s roots need to grow.
Water Care: How Frequent Should Orchids Be Watered? Watering should be influenced by many factors like the light the orchid gets, how warm it is, the species of orchid, the potting medium and the pot that it is growing in. A piece of general advice would be to water them once a week for drought-tolerant kinds like oncidiums, cattleyas, and dendrobiums. Other types like Phalaenopsis should be watered once every four to five days. When watering your plants, make sure that your orchid mixes are thoroughly moistened then dried before giving water again.
Misting Orchids Misting is something that we do to raise the humidity. It consumes so much time when done by hand, so a more efficient way of doing it is by placing orchid pots on top of rocks that are sitting in water. Doing so will humidify the plant through the process of evaporation. That or you can get a humidifier and run it in the room where they are located.
Adding Fertilizer to Water Orchids bloom even without fertilizer, but if you want to speed things up a little, you can use liquid fertilizers at half strength every time you water. Stop fertilizing on dormant seasons, which is most likely winter. Orchids prefer a well-balanced fertilizer formula of 10-10-10. There are even fertilizers created to inspire blooms that have 11-35-15. Water-soluble fertilizers have better efficacy than its stick or granular counterparts as they get washed out before they make contact with the orchid’s roots.