My mom’s been trying to grow these orchid plants for years but not much progress. We don’t really have green fingers so I thought to ask this subreddit for help. I don’t really know what her watering routine for the plants are or what care she gives them, but they’ve been looking like this for a couple years. I think I’ve seen her use milk to clean the leaves? It says online that milk can dissolve mineral deposits or something. The leaves look like they’ve been growing longer and outwards. Maybe there’s been some small growth of new leaves but that’s it. What should we do to help the orchids grow and bloom flowers?
by Different_Pen_9229
3 Comments
Also, my mom usually leaves the plants next to a window where the sun shines at an angle, so throughout the day the plants are sometimes in direct sunlight and sometimes in the shade. We also don’t know what specific orchid species they are.
This would probably be worth cross posting to r/orchids, the people there are pretty knowledgeable and generally happy to help with orchid questions and are more experienced than I am.
Missorchidgirl on YouTube also has a ton of great videos on orchid care and how to address various problems.
Has she been fertilizing these at all? If not that could be why they’re not blooming, they need fertilizer to optimally grow and especially to bloom because it’s very energy intensive. Just keeping them watered is probably enough to keep them alive but not thriving.
The general rule of thumb is the use water with fertilizer in it for 3 waterings and then use water without fertilizer for the 4th. I use msu orchid fertilizer from repotme for my orchids
The leaves look pretty healthy, and the fact that new leaves are growing is encouraging. These are phalaenopsis orchids and they typically need a minimum of 3 mature/healthy leaves (counting from the top) in order to bloom/make flowers. They typically start growing flowers in the fall/early winter when the temperature drops. If your mom is keeping them in a house where the temp never really changes it could be a reason they aren’t producing flowers. In the fall/early winter they usually need a few weeks of temps in the mid to low 60’s at night in order to bloom.