I am newbie to the addiction of orchids. In the past an occasional one from Trader Joe’s, doing nothing but watering it until it died. Now I have more orchids than I have room for. The photo is one that arrived via mail on Thursday and bloomed the very next day!
I have a book on orchids, have been perusing aos.com and have been watching videos of Miss Orchid Girl. I have bought the potting mixture from repotme.com to repot them. I live in a quite small apartment with a tiny kitchen. My first watering day with my 4 new orchids will be tomorrow and it’ll be a pain to take all of my orchids to the sink and water them by soaking for 5 minutes. Also, soon somebody will be installing an orchid shelf for me and I worry about getting them down from up high to water them.
My question (finally) is: yesterday in one of Miss Orchid Girl’s videos, she said she repots her orchids with a mixture of bark and sphagnum moss. Then she waters each one sparingly from a watering can. Does anyone else water their orchids this way? This was the first time I’ve seen this but it would be the way to go for me. I’ve already ordered some sphagnum moss. Thanks for any advice.
by Kaposia
1 Comment
medium is usually dependent on watering tendencies, climate, and growing conditions – all subjective and variable. finding the following things about your growing area like:
– relative humidity
– available lighting
– temperature
– air flowing
– and more
every orchid is different, with this being a zygo hybrid – it wants to be watered very generously while it’s growing or blooming, on top of fertilizer. depending on zygopetalum parentage – there may be a dry season that they prefer or no dry season at all, with heavy watering year round. with that being said, consider researching the specific orchids name – hybrid or species – on orchidroots.com
miss orchid girl is a good source, but her conditions likely aren’t the same as your conditions. take her advice with a grain of salt, cause she does have a lot of experience growing – though she knows what works best for her because of experience in her growing environment. sphagnum moss (depending on the quality) is a great medium to use. the down side is that it tends to rot/break down faster than most mediums available; this usually means more frequent repots. there’s TONS of medium to use, anything from charcoal, bark, perlite, coconut chips, LECA pearls, mounting on wood slabs/orchid baskets, etc etc.
consider trying out multiple types of medium, not just one or two. orchid mixes from better grow are great start to different types of medium, you can find them at lowe’s depending on your location.
if you have time – also watch RickLorchids on youtube – he has some of the most amazing videos and advice on orchids, especially with orchid newbies. ninja orchids, hillbilly orchids, and nature nel are some great honorable mentions too.