watering
 

I received a phalaenopsis last May as a gift. It is my first orchid. It
was rooted in moss and it bloomed all summer. When all the blooms were
done, I cut back the spikes and repotted the orchid in bark. When the
orchid was rooted in moss, it was fairly easy to determine the mosture
content, but bark is another story. Any advice on how to determine when I
should water? Thanks for any help.

watering
 

On Mon, 24 Oct 2005 15:07:42 GMT, "Walter Whidden"
wrote:

I received a phalaenopsis last May as a gift. It is my first orchid. It
was rooted in moss and it bloomed all summer. When all the blooms were
done, I cut back the spikes and repotted the orchid in bark. When the
orchid was rooted in moss, it was fairly easy to determine the mosture
content, but bark is another story. Any advice on how to determine when I
should water? Thanks for any help.


Some people find using a barbeque bamboo stick as a water guide
easy. When you think it may be time to water - stick the bamboo
into the pot several inches. Allow it to sit there a bit. When
you pull it out if it is dry all they way down, your pot is dry.
If not you should be able to see the point at which the bark is
damp.

Some people can pick up their plants and feel the weight
difference between a wet (just watered) pot and a dry (in need of
water) plant. It takes time to develop this 'touch'.

Under watering is less damaging to a plant than over watering.
So one of the other rules is that if in doubt - wait a day.
Good luck.
SuE
http://orchids.legolas.org/gallery/albums.php

watering
 

Walter,

This won't help you this time around, but next time when you repot an orchid
into bark, if you use a transparent plastic pot, then you can observe when
there is no more moisture visible on the inside of the pot, and water then.

Why did you repot this orchid into bark rather than into moss anyway? If it
was doing well in moss, and you could tell when to water it in moss, it
would probably have been better to repot it into moss again. I am very bad
at telling when an orchid in bark needs watering (unless it's in a
transparent pot), and thus I try to repot as many of my Phals as possible
into moss.

Joanna

"Walter Whidden" wrote in message
...
I received a phalaenopsis last May as a gift. It is my first orchid. It
was rooted in moss and it bloomed all summer. When all the blooms were
done, I cut back the spikes and repotted the orchid in bark. When the
orchid was rooted in moss, it was fairly easy to determine the mosture
content, but bark is another story. Any advice on how to determine when I
should water? Thanks for any help.

watering
 

Another technique I used to use was to pot up a couple of "nothings" in the
same pot, using the same medium (ie., no plant), and keep them in the same
conditions and under the same watering schedule.

When you think the medium in the plant might be ready to be rewatered, heft
the pot to see how much it weighs, then do so with a "blank" before dumping
it to see how good your guess was. After a few tries, you'll have it down,
then you can judge by the weight of the potted plant alone.

--

Ray Barkalow - First Rays Orchids - www.firstrays.com
Plants, Supplies, Artwork, Books and Lots of Free Info!


"J Fortuna" wrote in message
news:aJd7f.12393$Io4.3648@trnddc06...
Walter,

This won't help you this time around, but next time when you repot an
orchid
into bark, if you use a transparent plastic pot, then you can observe when
there is no more moisture visible on the inside of the pot, and water
then.

Why did you repot this orchid into bark rather than into moss anyway? If
it
was doing well in moss, and you could tell when to water it in moss, it
would probably have been better to repot it into moss again. I am very bad
at telling when an orchid in bark needs watering (unless it's in a
transparent pot), and thus I try to repot as many of my Phals as possible
into moss.

Joanna

"Walter Whidden" wrote in message
...
I received a phalaenopsis last May as a gift. It is my first orchid. It
was rooted in moss and it bloomed all summer. When all the blooms were
done, I cut back the spikes and repotted the orchid in bark. When the
orchid was rooted in moss, it was fairly easy to determine the mosture
content, but bark is another story. Any advice on how to determine when
I
should water? Thanks for any help.

watering
 

I had a couple phals planted in moss, from the vendor, in dark green
pots. These almost never needed watering, as they held too much water
and led to root rot. I saved both by moving them to bark, in
transparent pots.

If your pot is transparent, then you can tell when the roots inside
look dry and you can water then. If it isn't transparent, then having a
similar orchid in a transparent pot (along the lines as the previous
poster but with a plant in the pot) can serve as a guide. So now you
have an excuse to buy another orchid!

But if you want to be really sure, you can remove a few bark chips and
peer into the bark below with a flashlight. New bark is light when dry
and dark when wet. If the bark inside is becoming light again, then
it's time to water. After you've done this for a few times, it'll
determine a regular schedule that you'll only need to adjust if the
temp & humidity (in the growing area) change radically.

-Munir

watering
 

I'm a "heft it" fan because it's the most foolproof way of determining
the moisture content. The problem with using transparent pots or poking
a finger into the media is that SOME orchids have root masses (that are
sometimes in a "plug" of some other media) that are centered right
under the leaves and do not extend to the sides of the pot. Thus, the
core of media around the roots stays wet while the looser media near
the outsisde of the pot is dry.

This "dense plug in loose media" potting is not the case with all
orchids, but several vendors (offshore USA, I'm betting) are selling
mass-market orchids potted like this. Lesson: If an orchid dies, don't
just pitch it out-- do an autopsy to try to detemine why it died.
Sometimes it really isn't your fault.