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Orchid growing tips, how to and tricks

E

elizat

Ideal_Rock
Joined
Mar 23, 2013
Messages
4,101
Calling @winnietucker due to her beautiful orchid garden/ collection!

I adore orchids and haven't been successful. What are your tips? Any varieties that are easier to grow than others?

Anyone else have a talent with them? I would love to be able to have them be successful for me.
 
Yay!

Here are care sheets. I personally like to repot all my orchids ASAP. Flowers or not. I have a couple I waited too long to repot and they are struggling. It just works better for me to evaluate the roots and get them into fresh bark.

IMO cymbidiums are the easiest. My pink one is from Trader Joe’s. I got it a year ago with one thing of flowers and this year it has 6. It grows like a weed with minimal care.
 
It's all about finding the right amount of sunlight, temperature, and humidity for each type. Once you have that down pat, you can pretty much leave them alone with the exception of watering and the occasional fertilizer and they will grow like weeds and flower regularly.

Given that I'm not in the tropics, I've had to modify a bit to suit the orchids. What type do you have? I seem to have the best success with Phalaenopsis and Paphiopedilum. Cymbidium requires too much light and space in my home. I also haven't quite gotten the hang of Dendrobiums either, either too much or too little watering.
 
@chrono Do you have any recommendations as to where to buy well priced orchids online? I’ve bought from Olympic Orchids and know about Seattle Orchid but I’m always looking for more places to buy stuff. :bigsmile:
 
Olympic Orchids when I want something fancy. I haven't branched out because these pretty (and rarer) orchids are too nice to experiment with. I killed too many in my first 3 years! As it is, I don't have room for any more. I've had to "split" pots every year and try to hoist them off to family and friends.
 
I have Phalaenopsis orchids and they seem to be easy enough for me. I soak them in water when they are dry then remove them from water completely and do not let their roots sit in water. My orchids have bloomed several times now and I haven't fertilize them at all. I'm pretty sure they would bloom more often if I do though.
 
None are budding or flowering yet. Seems they are currently in growth mode with new leaves, baby offshoots and lots of roots.

Plus they are growing in my bathroom so not exactly a pretty place.:lol: The humidity is just right, plus I can control the amount of light (large windows with blinds)
 
I have 6 or seven orchids, most are gifts or rescue orchids...brought back from severe dehydration or leaf damage or root rot. My experience is that people don't know what to do with orchids and when they see I have some they are happy to give them to me because they think orchids are hard. Sometimes I rehab them back to health and return them with instructions. I have one rescue in kinda bad shape right now, I don't even know what it is. I will have to unpot it and look at the roots to see whats going on.
I live in an area with colder winters so a heat mat under those orchids is important for keeping them through the cold months.
 
Its interesting, down here I see them stuck to trees all over the place. In the church yard near where I walk my dog, they have a really big vanilla orchid thats up in a palm tree. they put a fence around it so no one tries to run off with it... I only learned what it was by someone who walked out the church and I asked. Nifty, but apparently rare.
 
Do European orchids count? I am not growing them, they just happen to be around allot this year - www, tough qasi-desert weeds; the magenta ones are the largest, about one meter high.
 
I used to kill all of mine till I put them on the balcony. I also learned that they would not rebloom unless I had a good orchid fertilizer.

This is my current flower - I more or less get flowers intermittently all year round.

20200413_125959.jpg
20200413_125844.jpg

As you can see this is litterally all I do for them. They are currently stashed in a corner of the balcony with a pile of mops and buckets and whatever else my maid likes to store there.

Orchids can be very forgiving if you find the right environment for them. Truthfully 2 years ago I had a kid, and stopped caring for them altogether (as i just was beyond being able to look after them, and keep all the balls up in the air simultaneously.). Now I encourage my maid to water them, and occasionally teach her tiny bits about propagating them or fertilizing them -- they basically became ginuepigs there for a while (as sometimes I would realise that she had been caring for them in a bit of an unconventional way for the last few months). Err last few years have been a bit rough on them, but it's getting better now and they are growing like weeds. They dont like direct sun though-- hence the balcony is not ideal, and several have some brown spots (which are actually burn marks).

Many of these are about 4-5 years old.

If you are not living somewhere warm all year round then probably a trolley which can hold them and can be wheeled next to the window is your friend. Otherwise a nice window sill. Orchids like lots of natural sunlight.
 
I just posted a thread of my orchids in Hangout if anyone is interested!20210122_134113.jpg
 
winnietucker said:
Lol yes I meant the orchid. What do you have in your collection?
Click to expand...

I posted them in the thread - too many to post here but over 200 orchids I have been growing for over 25 years. I posted the most recently blooming ones in the thread :)
 

My Orchids

I have been growing them for over 25 years and have over 200. Here are some that have bloomed in the last couple of months. I mainly grow in a grow room in our basement under lights.
www.pricescope.com
 
ilovegemstones said:
I posted them in the thread - too many to post here but over 200 orchids I have been growing for over 25 years. I posted the most recently blooming ones in the thread :)
Click to expand...

I’m going to go ask you questions in that thread. I love orchids. I’m currently having a table built by a local woodworker to my collection can sit by the window in our living room.
 
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