Orchid Growing Tips

Orchid Growing Tips

Watering: Growing in a home, you need to water more frequently than orchid books may suggest. Don't allow your orchid to sit in water, but look for the following signs: white roots with bright green tips are happy roots. Wrinkled leaves or shriveled pseudobulbs are signs that a plant needs more water. At least once a month let the water run through the plant for a couple of minutes, to flush any accumulated mineral salts. Use warm water, not cold in the winter. When your plant is blooming or in bud, water only the roots, not the flowers.

Light: Light in the summer is 4 times as strong as light in the winter. Afternoon light is also much stronger than morning light. Move plants further away from the window, or move plants from the southwest windows in the winter to east windows in the summer to prevent burning the leaves. When increasing light, give the plants time to adjust by gradually adding an hour or two a day over 10 days or so. 14 hours a day is the maximum amount of light a plant needs, if growing under lights do not leave them on 24 hours a day. Many 35 millimeter cameras have a light meter built in which you can use to measure a general light level.

Insects and other pests: Range from mealy bugs, scale, snails, slugs and fungus gnats. The first two can be combated by application of rubbing alcohol on a q-tip, and spraying of a mixture of 1 tablespoon vegetable oil, 1 squirt dishwashing (not dishwasher) soap, in a spray bottled filled with the balance in warm water. Make sure you spray the entire plant, especially under the leaves and into crevices. If the problem persists, repot the plant, discarding all old medium, and spray clean before repotting. Fungus gnats are fairly harmless little flying bugs, set sticky traps of fly paper around your plants to eliminate them. I've also used Windex on the surface of terrestrial plants to kill the larvae, but have never done this with orchids, which are epiphytes growing in bark, sphagnum, or other substances.

I had an outbreak of scale in my orchid collection and as a newbie, I didn't identify it fast enough and it spread to all my orchids. All of my orchids were covered with it! I combined the advise I got in this NG with some research to come up with a solution. I didn't want to use any chemical unless it was a last resort.

First I washed each plant down with rubbing alcohol on a cotton swab. I was careful to remove all signs of the scale. Then I sprayed the plants with a mixture of 1 liter water, 2 tbsp oil and 2 tbsp insecticide soap. I did this one Saturday, but I knew that I had not gotten rid of the problem completely as scale can be in the potting medium and would return soon. So a week later I prepared a bucket of water(slightly warmer than room temperature) and put a lot of insecticide soap in it. One by one, I dipped each plant (pot and all) in the water/soap and made sure that all of the leaves and stems were dipped.