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#1
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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. |
#2
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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 |
#3
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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. |
#4
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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. |
#5
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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 |
#6
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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. |
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