Ahhh -- The Tricky Orchids

By Edith Isidoro-Mills -- We see them blooming in the floral section of grocery stores, home improvement centers, and anywhere houseplants are sold.  Their big beautiful blooms last a long time, but for some reason it is difficult to get them to last beyond the blooms or bloom again.  A friend of mine recently posted an article about how to water orchids, saying you may need to ignore the advice on some care labels that accompany these lovely orchids. I have never seen this in the care instructions, but apparently, some people have purchased orchids with labels saying to water them with ice cubes.  Ignore these instructions.  Orchids are tropical plants that have no experience with freezing temperatures or ice. Growers of orchids water their orchids from the bottom using “ebb and flow” systems that consists of pots set in trays.  Room temperature water enters these trays for a set period of time of up to an hour.  After that period of time the water is drained from these trays and the orchids with moist soil media sits in an empty tray with water draining out of their pots.  The soil media is very coarse; usually bark chips with a little sand mixed in to allow lots of air to reach the roots. Orchids usually are sold with two pots. The plant with the loose soil media is in a translucent pot with lots of perforations.  This is the grow pot.  The grow pot is set in another pot with no holes or drainage of any sort.  This second pot is a “cachepot” meant to catch and hold the water draining off the wet media.    To water your orchid remove the grow pot from the cachepot and put it in a bucket of water or a plugged sink with several inches of water in it.  Let the grow pot sit in the water for 30 minutes to an hour soaking up water.  After this time period, remove the grow pot from the water and put it back in the cache pot that is set in ideal light conditions for orchid growth.  This process should be repeated weekly or whenever the media appears dry. Since our climate is exceptionally dry, I like to mist my orchids daily with a misting bottle.  This puts droplets of water around the plant that will evaporate throughout the day.  In addition I set the cachepots on top of an ice cube tray filled with water (no ice).  The water from the tray also increases the humidity around the plant as the water evaporates.  Change this water every time you water the plant so that it doesn’t get a buildup of algae. Now that I have figured out how to keep my orchid, alive with proper watering, I just have to figure out how to get it to bloom again. Stay tuned. Read more Garden of Edith Columns here: Garden of Edith Plant Notes Read the rest of The Fallon Post here: Go to the Home Page