Care tips for your orchid

[O My Garden]

Orchid is a wonderful and mysterious plant for me. Its flower is more beautiful and charming than other flower. However, you must take care of it very carefully such as temperature, watering, fertilizer, humidity, light. Otherwise your orchid will not grow up or die finally.

So I summarize some advises to take of the orchid as for your guide.

WATERING YOUR ORCHID

Always water early in the day so that your orchids dry out by nighttime. The proper frequency of watering will depend on the climatic conditions where you live. In general, water once a week during the winter and twice a week when the weather turns warm and dry. The size of your orchid container also helps determine how often you need to water, regardless of climate conditions. Typically, a 6- inch pot needs water every 7 days and a 4-inch pot needs water every 5 to 6 days.

The type of potting medium being used can also affect your plant's water requirements. Bark has a tendency to dry out more rapidly than sphagnum moss, for instance. It is important to remember, however, that even when the surface of your pot is dry, the root area may remain moist. Poke your finger or a regular wooden pencil an inch into the pot; if it feels moist to the touch or if the pencil looks moist, do not add additional water. The potting medium should always be damp, but not soggy.

The quality of water used, whether for spraying or watering, is of great importance. Since tap water has often been chemically treated, generally with chlorine, it should be used with caution. The best water for orchids is undoubtedly rainwater. Rainwater, as it passes through the air, dissolves and absorbs many substances such as dust, pollen and other organic matter.

THINGS TO CONSIDER: The temperature of the water is also important. If the water temperature and the surrounding air temperature are equal, no harm will result, and slight differences either way can be tolerated by healthy plants. Fatal or long-term damage, not easily discernible at first, can result from using water that is too cold.

Please click the link to read article about Light, Humidity, Feeding and Tempature :

for your orchid.htm

[symplastless]

I know very little about orchids. What kind of food do you feed a orchid? Do they store their food? In what form and where? I thought they were autotrophs. Shows how much I know. BTW the ghost flower is a heterotroph.

[Johnny Borborigmi]

You can use regular miracle or any 10-10-10 food. No "special" ferti;izer is needed.

[Jangchub]

Orchids need more phosporous in order to flower than the fertilizer you describe. People mostly use synthetic salt based fertilizers. I think proper maintenance is more important than fertilization. Misting the plants daily and keeping them in clean conditions with as much humidity as possible is optimum.

[Johnny Borborigmi]

Misting does nothing unless you're going to do it every 5-10 minutes 24 hours a day. A good humidifier is more important.

I stand by my other post.

[Jangchub]

What part of my post which clearly said to keep them in as much humidity as possible did I not make clear? I stand by my post too. Balanced fertilizer if not the proper ratio of NPK for orchids. You are not correct.

[symplastless]

Oh, so you really are not feeding the plant. Just applying N-P-K. BTW there are 14 other essential elements. Some more important than others in different amounts for different plants. 14 From the soil. They are C; H; N; O; P; K; S; Mg; Ni; Fe; Ca; Zn; Mo; Mn; B; Cl; Cu I guess that the orchid must be an autotroph. Autotrophs manufacture their own food and we do not feed them. That is the case for most plants. I say most because of exceptions like Ghost Flowers. They have no chlorophyll to trap sunlight energy and manufacture food. They are more like a heterotroph. Humans are heterotrophs. The chemical companies trick you to believing their product is food. Food is a substance that provides and energy source, mostly. Nutrient is a substance that provides an energy source, elements, and other substances essential for life, in types and amounts that can provide a healthy life. Fertilizer is a substance that provides elements, as salts mostly, or in bonded forms, that require microorganisms to alter to forms that can be absorbed or taken in by plants. They are not absorbing in the sense of a Bounty paper towel.

[symplastless]

That makes sense!

[symplastless]

I am more incline to listen to people who do not claim that fertilizer, elements alone, are food for autotrophs!

[Jangchub]

I am not familiar with the term autotrophs, but I do know orchids (with the exception of some) are epiphytes and take nutrients from air and water which collects between the roots or hold tights and the bark of the tree the plant has adhered to.

I fertilize plants indoors using simple liquid seaweed and so far, so good. I've had the same house plants for over a decade and made many plants from their offshoots.

I also ran very large greenhouse operations and was a grower. But what do I know. Rhetorical of course.

[Don Staples]

One heck of a lot more than a so called tree biologist.

[Billy]

Remind me Don. What was your last post that addressed a plant problem? It seems your whole "raison d'etre" for being in gardening groups is to attack John. It would be a great improvement if you could just throw in a few tid-bits that are on topic. Consider starting a new NG called rec.kill.john.kill, then you could rant to your hearts content and still be on topic.

[symplastless]

Autotrophs

Very good question. People of course may disagree with my definition. That is fine. I will provide you with my definition so you will understand what I mean. If somebody else uses the word, you may want to ask them to define so you understand what they mean.

Autotrophs make their own food. Heterotrophs have to have it made for them.

Not the last word on the topic. Most trees and plants are autotrophs. E.g., An oak tree. An oak tree absorbs (not like a Bounty paper towel though - that was just pointed out to me) essential elements dissolved in water with non-woody roots and the help of organs, for example, mycorrhizae and root hairs.

Mycorrhizae are composite organs consisting of tree tissue and fungi.

Root hairs are the extension of a single cell.

A root hair is the extension of a single epidermal cell, epidermal, which means skin.

Oak trees with the water, essential elements and trapped sun light energy manufacture their food with the process called photosynthesis. Generally speaking, after many processes glucose (tree food) is manufactured. One reaction is the glucose is transformed into starch and stored in living parenchyma. Trees only store starch in living cells. They load, store and then use - water, elements and glucose as it is manufactured. The collection of living cells is called the symplast. Most of these words are in my dictionary. I call this type of organism a autotroph.

Even though the bag in the store says tree food, it is not tree food.

Elements are very important. That's why we call them essential elements.

Elements can be found here.

The most recognized essential elements for trees are -

C; H; N; O; P; K; S; Mg; Ni; Fe; Ca; Zn; Mo; Mn; B; Cl; Cu

Different species of plants require different amounts of the latter. E.g., legumes such as black locust, coffee tree have a unique requirement for cobalt. I think it is pertaining to nitrogen fixation. A new topic to me, i.e., the requirement of cobalt for legumes.

Now, there are, as always in nature, exceptions. E.g., The Ghost Flower.

is a plant with no chlorophyll. It cannot photosynthesis and manufacture its own food or nutrients. It gets its required food, nutrients etc., by way of the bicarbohydrate transfer of plants. It then would fall under the heterotroph category. We cannot provide food for the ghost flower. It is manufactured by other plants and then transferred. What would you call the host to an autotroph?

Animals such as humans are heterotrophs, us, like the Ghost Flower, have to have something or someone else manufacture our food for us. We cannot photosynthesis to manufacture our required food.

Glucose is the international biological currency. I require it, you require it, other animals and plants require it. "All" is not a term that can be used often. I am thinking, just a thought, that all living organisms living on Earth require glucose. Without it we would not be here.

[Don Staples]

Bug off, billy, when a tree question comes up, I will, till then fighting deadwood is a reason to be here. Kind of like asking a back country chemist how to raise pine trees.

[symplastless]

here is 2 tree questions. You say "fighting deadwood" Very loose terms and not lucid. I never heard of such a thing. Please explain what you are saying.

Define "dead" = Define "wood" = See, wood is not static so it may be hard to define like humic acids. Its constantly going through ecological stages.

[symplastless]

Ok, let me break out the "S" word - Stupid. In the USA people have the right to be stupid. They can say and write stupid things. E.g., Fertilizer is food, elements are nutrients, plants absorb nutrients, we have feeder roots, wood is dead, heartrot explains trees response to wounding, wound dressing stops rot, plant trees deep, put mulch on the trunk of trees and good and deep, tree wrap prevents sunscald and frost cracks, stake trees with wire in a hose, wood is dead. Heartrot explains decay. Flush cuts are correct. Wound dressings stop rot. Nature is balanced. Fertilizer is food. Wetwood is bad. Planting deeply is good. Rot is a major cause of failure. Water causes decay. Insects and diseases are the major causes of tree problems. There are at least a hundred more.

Myself, I am studying Advanced Tree Biology. In Advanced Tree Biology we reframe from loose, sloppy terms. Why, for a better understanding how the system works. If I see a fellow is so far off tract to call fertilizer plant food, I have enough care, concern, time and passion to help that person better understand plants. Again, some people fight to be stupid and spread it to others. Mostly product pushers are to blame for the continued confussion.

I am very thankful that someone took the time to explain to me things like fertilizers are not tree food.

Sorry for caring!

[symplastless]

I forgot one for Don Staples whuile I am at it.. Wood, e.g., cellulose, is bad for a forest so logging must be done in the name of forest health. How much more absurd can you possibly be?

[someone]

please list them all for us but this time, for clarity, don't use any spaces or punctuation.

thank you.

[Billy]

So much for world peace. Keep beating those plowshares into swords Om. Looks like a long winter.

Time for happy hour;-)

[symplastless]

I will work on it.