# Orchid Feeding and Watering.



## GHNelson (15 Feb 2010)

Hi Aquatic planters,
I thought i would try and get some information on keeping this species at its best.
I bought a orchid for the partner on Friday.
I know there is some members on here that keep them.
Can anyone point me in the right direction on keeping the above alive,i here they like rain water and very little is this correct.
Should i make up a batch of nutrients? I have a RO unit and dose EI in my aquariums.
The local area water is very hard and high in MgSo4.
Nitrate is about 50ppm.
Thanks to all who reply.
hoggie


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## Ed Seeley (15 Feb 2010)

What type of orchid is it?  Different genera need different care.


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## Garuf (15 Feb 2010)

I've grown quiet a few now and the easiest thing is just to mist them regularly and make sure that any water used is about a week old (I think chlorine affects them). Philaeadrons are the easiest by far. I found they reacted badly to too much nutrients.


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## GHNelson (15 Feb 2010)

Hi Ed
Sorry its taken so long to get back to you, been in the aquarium.
It doesn't say got it from M/S.Label says (mini-orchid).
This the 2 post don't no what happened to the first reply.
hoggie


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## Garuf (15 Feb 2010)

Most likely a phaeladron then. They're becoming much more common since growers have introduced cell culturing. 

If you've got ro water, make a mix of half normal water and half ro. Then mist it, never water into the substrate.
keeping them in a glass vase so the roots are able to photosynthasise and with a layer of damp gravel at the bottom and regular (twice a day seems to work best for me) misting you should find it incredibly easy.
In the wild they grow off the ground anchored to ariel tree growth so that they're shletered from the heaviest rain and out of direct sunlight preffering dappled shade, they don't like cold draughts so keep in a warm room with bright but not direct sunglight, since they only receive water via rain droplets and mist I'd imagine the water to be similar to our rainwater, soft and acidic but you'll have that covered if you've got the RO. 

The RHS had a very good article in their magazine, "the garden" recently, If I can find my copy I'll scan it for you.


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## GHNelson (15 Feb 2010)

Thanks Garuf,
That's some good information,i think I've got a glass pot somewhere.
So no nutrients are needed.
I will make up some soft water probably 3/1 ratio would be better.
Tap water is PH 7.6 and very hard.
hoggie


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## Garuf (15 Feb 2010)

Some will be but normally only what's provided from the water. Orchid food mixes are normally high in traces but very low in everything else.


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## GHNelson (15 Feb 2010)

Thanks again,
Will add some trace to the feed water.
hoggie


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## Ed Seeley (15 Feb 2010)

Orchids can be very sensitive to certain fertilisers so to be honest I'd just buy a small tub of special orchid food - it's not that expensive and will last for ages.  I just used old tank water for mine and they loved it, never used any ferts, and they flowered their socks off.

If it is a Moth orchid (Phalaenopsis sp.) (Philodendrons are climbing house plants) then they are best in very coarse bark and given almost no ferts.  There's a guide to their care here, http://www.orchid.org.uk/phalcult.htm

Personally mine were always potted in the small glass vases from IKEA and every week or so I'd fill the vases with old tank water, leave for an hour and then tip the water away.  This soaked the bark and roots with water nicely.  I never bothered with any misting though it can't hurt.  If your house is very dry then place them on a wide dish filled with Clay granules and keep that filled with water - it will evaporate and increase the humidity around the plant.

If only I hadn't bought mealy bug into my house on cheap house plant I'd still have them all flowering away.


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## Lisa_Perry75 (17 Feb 2010)

I do the same as Ed. When the flowers die off I cut the stem at the bottom and continue with watering as usual and eventually you will get a new stem with new flowers.


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## dw1305 (18 Feb 2010)

Hi all, 





> When the flowers die off I cut the stem at the bottom and continue with watering as usual and eventually you will get a new stem with new flowers.


If it is a _Phalaenopsis_ (Moth Orchid), the flowering scape will re-flower, meaning that you should only cut the dead flowers of to the node ("ring with a bud" below the flowers) as this bud will grow out and produce a new flowering scape. If it is happy it should flower almost continually.

If any-one is keen on Orchids I have some spare _Cymbidium, Dendrobium kingianum_ (probably x _delicatum_)  and _Coelogyne cristata_ pseudobulbs, they are all easy house plants. 

http://www.biopix.com/Photo.asp?PhotoId=73735&Photo=Dendrobium-kingianum
http://www.biopix.com/Photo.asp?PhotoId=67250&Photo=Coelogyne-cristata

I'll swap for anything "interesting", aquatic or terrestrial.

cheers Darrel


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## GHNelson (18 Feb 2010)

Hi 
Thanks to that replied to this topic,this gives me a better understanding on how to keep this plant in good health.
hoggie


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## Iliveinazoo (18 Feb 2010)

I use my incredibly hard tap water (about 1 litre every 2-3 weeks) and the orchid feeder pippets. My orchid is the only houseplant that's survived for more than a few weks, it's about 2 years old now!


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## Lisa_Perry75 (19 Feb 2010)

Ooh those orchids are gorgeous Darrel! Yep mine are all moth orchids. I used to leave the flowers to fall off themselves and I've never seen a flower come from the same 'hole', sometimes they send out new bits of stem but it ends up looking quite leggy.


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## dw1305 (19 Feb 2010)

Hi all, 





> sometimes they send out new bits of stem but it ends up looking quite leggy


 that is the new flowering scape, yes it doesn't tend to look quite as pristine as the first flowering, and you can eventually end up with a long scape with several "dog-legs".

This is my "dining room" _Coelogyne_ in Feb. 2009, it had got a bit big and I didn't have room for a bigger pan (it's standing on an inverted 5" pot as the stems had grown out of the pot), so I hacked it into 10 bits after it had flowered. The 1/10 I kept at home now has 3 flower racemes (Feb 2010), and has grown really well. 





It is a great very low maintenance plant for a N. or E. window. The original plant had grown from  couple of pseudobulbs and has been in the dining room for about 6 years without re-potting, but with a very occasional feed. I re-potted it into the same clay pan in 50:50 medium grade growbark and  oak leaf mould, and a sprinkle of "Vitax Q4" (slow release Osmocote would have been better).

Paulo (LondonDragon) has some pseudobulbs but I don't know how he got on with them.

cheers Darrel


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## Garuf (26 Jun 2010)

Bit of a bump, but when I moved house in february the flower spikes on my moth orchid got snapped while moving and since it's been getting slowly more tatty, though the number of leaves have increased they keep splitting and the roots have gone a tan brown. This is the first time I've known the plant to do this and it normally put up a new spike after 2-4 weeks after trimming off the old spikes. Any ideas on where I'm going wrong? Is it due repotting do you think or is it that the damage from having the flower spikes snapped off has damaged the plant/allowed for possible infection?


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## dw1305 (27 Jun 2010)

Hi all,
Garuf it sounds like it is a humidity problem, does it still have at least 4 leaves? and are there new roots coming from the orchids "rhizome" (the little silvery bumps)? If there are the plant is fine. Try misting it more regularly, and if you can stand it on a tray/saucer of hydroleca (or bark). I plunge mine in a bucket one a week in the summer (just leave the plant to drain afterwards).

If it is in a translucent orchid pot, the roots inside the pot are probably still in good order. If it is in an opaque plastic pot re-pot it into an orchid pot, because the roots need to be able to photosynthesise, and the plant will be reliant on the roots outside of the pot, and if these have all gone brown? you have a problem. The best medium for these is fairly coarse orchid bark, and they just need a very occasional dilute liquid feed.

Rain water is best for them (I use the re-cycled tank water), if you only hard tap, they will need a more regular re-pot (probably annual).

cheers Darrel


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## Garuf (27 Jun 2010)

Yup it's still got loads of leaves, I mist it three times a day already. I also soak the plant once a week in a bucket of tepid water over night. 

I think it could well be that I changed over pots after speaking with a grower at a show who recommended a clay orchid dish with a vat of water in the base to keep things humid in the summer. The roots outside the pot initially died back to about half thier origininal length after the leak spike damage they,re now "budding" and forming new bright pink roots. Some of the older roots are now entirely hollow and are just a paper like tube. I guess I'll repot the plant and see if keeping it out of the pot does much difference to bring it back as it went from flourishing to a total shadow in a short few weeks.


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## dw1305 (28 Jun 2010)

Hi all,
Garuf wrote: 





> Yup it's still got loads of leaves, I mist it three times a day already. I also soak the plant once a week in a bucket of tepid water over night."


 lovely job. 





> The roots outside the pot initially died back to about half thier origininal length after the leak spike damage they,re now "budding" and forming new bright pink roots. Some of the older roots are now entirely hollow and are just a paper like tube. I guess I'll repot the plant and see if keeping it out of the pot does much difference to bring it back as it went from flourishing to a total shadow in a short few weeks.


 Yes I'm sure it will be fine, it was probably the change in pot, there is nothing intrinsically wrong with the specialist clay Orchid pot, in fact the combination of the reservoir and the clay gives you lots of cooling by evaporation without the worry of the pot drying out.  It was almost certainly the loss of the photosynthetic roots inside the new pot that caused the problem, once it has new "aerial" aerial roots it will be fine in its new pot. Just trim the old hollow roots off. Because they are very slow growing the symptoms you see now relate to what happened to the plant a while ago.

cheers Darrel


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## zoon (30 Jul 2010)

I was asking someone else about orchids the other day as I have just bought one.  My orchid is in a translucent pot, but I've put that in a nice ceramic pot so good job I read this!  Will take it out and put it in something glass!

Once again, you guys have given great advice.  I've only been on here a week and already changed loads about my tanks, ferts and now my orchid!


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## mlgt (30 Jul 2010)

Interesting. I will also put my wifes orchids in a glass pot instead of a clay pot. I mist and also reuse my EI infused tank water which after the recent heatwave has given it a new lease of life.


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## Garuf (3 Sep 2010)

Still no luck with the orchid coaxing it back into flowering so I decided to see what's cracking off inside the pot, opened it up to find about 200 mealy bug like creatures inside the hollow shells of the roots. So there's the issue! So now after trimming back 90% of the dead roots off I'm left with a very, very sorry looking thing, d'ya think it'll make it through?


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## dw1305 (4 Sep 2010)

Hi all,
Garuf they may be mealy bugs, but from the description they sound like they might also be root aphis (Mealy bug look like they are covered with cotton wool and root aphis are also pale, but it is much more like big green fly that have been coated with wax). Doesn't really matter which they are, they will both sap the plant's vitality. You've done the right thing, all the dead roots need to be cut off, and unfortunately you will need to dispose of the compost as well (unless it is bark? if it is you can microwave it.). For most plants you could re-pot in a compost containing imidacloprid or thiacloprid (the anti-vine weevil systemic insecticide "Provado") or use it as a drench, but I'm not sure how Orchids react to it.

The pot just needs a really good clean. Whether your orchid survives or not will depend on how weakened it is, the new roots will need to grow from the caudex (towards the growing point), and this can be a long process, but there is nothing you can do to speed this up. I'd keep misting the plant, and if the remaining leaves remain firm and green a weak foliar liquid feed may help.

cheers Darrel


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## Garuf (27 Jan 2011)

Hey Darrel, calling on you again, what's the best way of keeping Dendrobium sp? I got given one and I haven't a clue where to start, all my books skirt over dendro's. 

Thanks in advance. 
Gareth.


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## dw1305 (28 Jan 2011)

Hi all,
Gareth depends a little bit which type they are. I've not had much luck with the larger flowered hybrids as house-plants, they never really thrive and over time become more moribund and end up as a series of bare canes. They aren't actually dead, they just aren't growing. They also seem to end up with either Thrips or Red spider mite, this may be because they like more sunlight than most orchids. My suspicion is that it is a humidity issue, and that if I put them in a case or similar they would start back into growth. 

I've been more successful with the evergreen, small flowered, "hard cane" _Dendrobium kingianum_ and _D. x delicatum_, you see a small bright purple one of these quite a bit for sale now. These are both drought and cold tolerant. To get them to flower I give them a cool, dry rest from November until Christmas, and then water them fairly normally. Mine are just coming into flower now.

Have a look at this post: <http://www.orchidgeeks.com/forum/orchid-care-cultivation/2228-dendrobium-culture-notes.html>

cheers Darrel


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## Garuf (1 Feb 2011)

Cheers Darrel. This is the plant: http://www.easyorchids.co.uk/shop/Dendr ... y-Oda.html
It's very nice, I've got it on a inverted dish sitting in a bowl of old AS acting as a wick to raise the humidity. Mines in full flower with some 9 odd spikes. Should I still soak them over night and mist daily or should I back off? 

Will read that thread now and see if I can see my plant.


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## dw1305 (2 Feb 2011)

Hi all,
Garuf, good news this is a "hard cane" _D. kingianum_ cultivar or hybrid <http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/orchids/msg051537071453.html>. They need reasonable light (E. or N. facing window sill would be ideal).  They are very drought tolerant, so you can grow them in a very free draining compost, and they don't really need misting unless the atmosphere is very dry. I just water mine when they look dust dry in the winter, and in the summer I water them along with everything else.  

It might need a cool dry rest to flower, but it might still flower with higher winter temperatures.

cheers Darrel


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