help !!! any orchid experts on P.S. ? give me some tips....

[Dancing Fire]

every spring i buy a couple of orchids and after it blooms the leaves turns yellow (falls off) then eventually dies.

too much water ? what is the right way to water them ? how offten ? not enough sun light ? what kind of plant food should i use ?

 

[Mara]

There is no easy way to care for orchids! Some people say that you either have the touch or don't. I definitely DO NOT have the touch for orchids. I love gardening and can grow many things, but I cannot for the life of me make my orchids reflower! I can keep them alive for YEARS, but with no reflowering happening at all. Whereas other friends who don't know a thing about gardening just put it by the window and it blooms year after year. Go figure.

Well I'll tell you what I know. First off, you have to find out which type of orchids you have, different varieties take different types of lighting and temperatures and also fertilizer!

Check out this website for more information and lots of tips: http://www.beautifulorchids.com/

You can also get orchid food /fertilizer at a local gardening store or Orchard or Home Depot or similar.

As a good rule of thumb, orchids do not like direct sunlight at all, indirect bright light is usually okay, they may require frequent watering with VERY good drainage, so you end up watering more often because the water only coats the roots for a short period of time since there is no dirt in their pots, only various mixtures of barks, sands, etc. And FERTILIZE!! According to the bottle instructions.

But the first thing is to figure out what types of orchids you have! The falling leaves sounds almost as though they are getting watered too much with not enough drainage? Though also some of the ones I do keep around the house later...they do drop a leaf or two but they always grow a new one. Are yours growing new ones?

I've given up trying to make mine reflower, the local farmers market sells them for $10 each, big beautiful flowering ones, so I usually just go once every 2 moths and buy about 4 and spread them around the house, the flowers last for the next two months!

I get the ones with newly budded or flowered blooms so they last the longest, you can rub the blooms between your fingers to feel how new they are. The newer the bloom the thicker it feels, the older, the more papery and thin. Also try to get ones that maybe have one flower open and the rest in buds, that will definitely last the 2 - 3 months!

Then when they are done, I throw them away/recycle them. I know, plant sacrilege, but I don't have the room to put them somewhere in optimal conditions to try to coax them to reflower only to see nothing happen. If one day I have a greenhouse, I'll definitely try again with that extra space!

Good luck!

 

[Kamuelamom]

Dancing fire, fancy to meet you here in the afternoon.

Orchids are air plants. Here are some info sites I pulled for you. There are literally hundreds (thousands, maybe) of varieties, so there is a lot of info to sift through. Good luck! They shouldn''t be that hard if you know how to care for them so good luck.

http://www.orchidlady.com/growing.html

http://www.thegardenhelper.com/orchid.html

http://www.ces.uga.edu/Agriculture/horticulture/orchids.html

 

[Kamuelamom]

I see Mara and I are making the gardening round.

 

[Mara]

KM, it''s a little break from diamonds!!

 

[belle]

excellent response mara... you seem to have the same luck with orchids as i do! i have houseplants bloom that aren''t supposed to but, when it comes to orchids, i have no such luck. and it''s not for lack of trying, i''ve tried "easy" as well as "hard" ones, i just can''t seem to get them to rebloom. my father grows many different types with apparent ease. i''ve tried everything he suggested and still no blooms. so, there is a point to this story....orchids are tricky, but when you figure them out, they can be very rewarding. what type of orchid(s) do you have df?

 

[jenwill]

I would say that leaf dropping is a defintie sign of over watering. Orchids do well with plentiful indirect light as Mara stated. They should also be watered only when they have just gotten dry. An orchid does better with too little water than with too much, so err on the side of too little if needed. I check mine for water needs by lifting the pot...once it loses that ''full of wetness'' heft, I will add more water. They also like a spritz from a mister every once in awhile.

They do best with room temps during daytime of 70ish, nighttime no colder than 58-60. Many houses get too cold durign winter nights which will also not be good for them.

 

[Dancing Fire]

belle
i have the common type with (big fat leaves) that i buy at costco or target every spring and i manage to kill them in about 3 months.last yr i went to a orchid show and spend $120 on 4 plants,2 of them still alive( barely)....i''m going broke buying orchids

 

[Dancing Fire]

K-mom
thanks, for the info sites even if i read though all those ,i still don''t know what the heck they''re talking about.

i thought you girls can give me some basic tips .

 

[Kamuelamom]

Date: 1/24/2005 9:18:43 PM
Author: Dancing Fire
i''m going broke buying orchids

well then, dancingfire, ''tis it not better to be going broke buying diamonds instead?

 

[Dancing Fire]

Date: 1/24/2005 10:37:56 PM
Author: Kamuelamom

Date: 1/24/2005 9:18:43 PM
Author: Dancing Fire
i''m going broke buying orchids

well then, dancingfire, ''tis it not better to be going broke buying diamonds instead?

K-mom
why are you here so early ?

 

[Kamuelamom]

I snuck in before din-din. And now I snuck in after din-din. I''m off to do my routine, see you in a couple of hours, around 11-12, your time.

 

[hoorray]

As everyone says, orchid needs vary by type, but in general, they are pretty sensitive to wanting lots of light (not direct), humidity and the right temp. I used to grow they with neglect just because it was the right environment. (60''s temp, lots of indirect light and moist air). The bloomed for ever and rebloomed constantly. Now, I cant keep one blooming for weeks, much less months. (Variable light, dry, warm air). I''ve misted, watered, not watered, fertilized, etc.

Read up, but my take is that they are very environment specific, and trying to recreate or fake it is tough. Your local Smith and Hawkins should have some good advice or you. They tend to know lots about orchids, and should know your area.

 

[iceprincess]

Hey DancingFire,
Why not try an orchid variety that is a little more hardy? I have had variable success with all the different orchid varieties. I found the aerials like vandas to be most difficult to grow, while dendrobiums were rather simple to grow. I found cymbidiums to be the most hardy and easiest to grow and they thrive just about anywhere. I''ve had cymbidum blooms last for nearly 4 months.

I still have a pot of cymbidums that I bought when I still lived in the Bay Area (almost 11 years ago!). When I moved down to L.A., I put them in a mix of medium sized potting bark, crushed pumice stone for good drainage and put them in a huge terra cotta pot and left them outside. Honestly, I only watered them once a week at the most and fertilized here and there. Every year I get at least 15 flower stalks with 6+ buds on them. I have even seen these planted in the ground with barely any drainage. Go figure!