How to Water Orchid Properly
Watering your orchid is one of the critical task when caring
for orchids aside from providing sufficient light and adequate amount of
nutrition. Proper watering will ensure you to get the utmost of your orchid
which will eventually provide you with stunning flowers. Either too much water
or too small amount of water will harm your orchid very much.
Watering your orchid is one of the critical task when caring
for orchids aside from providing sufficient light and adequate amount of
nutrition. Proper watering will ensure you to get the utmost of your orchid
which will eventually provide you with stunning flowers. Either too much water
or too small amount of water will harm your orchid very much.
Similar to any other plant, orchids also need proper growing
conditions to be able to live and thrive healthy. The task of providing your
orchid the proper growing conditions includes to giving your orchid the right
amount of water. The requirement for each and every orchid for water can vary
between one and another. So, it will be very important to be sure in the first
place about the orchid type or species you are caring for.
The majority of orchids are native to tropical areas of the
world. Tropical areas are characterized with plenty of rain and high humidity
where orchids get used to an ideal level of humidity around 80%. Such high
humidity level will definitely not be comfortable for the majority of human
beings. Thus you have to figure it out on how to provide a comfortable
environment for your orchids while being kept in rooms or houses.
An easy and smart way to humidify an orchid plant is
providing them with regular water supply. You can purchase and make use of a
deep bowl and some small rocks. Place the small rocks into the bowl. Then you
should place your orchid pot on top of the small rocks within the bowl and then
pour in water into the bowl. Keep the
water level away from the bottom of your orchid pot. You have to make sure that
the water level will never touch the orchid pot. This will create an artificial
high-humidity environment around your orchids.
As mentioned earlier, over watering your orchid will be
fatal. This is probably the biggest mistake of watering an orchid, although
this is not done by intention but merely due to lack of understanding about
some condition, including the knowledge about the orchid type. It happens very
often, using the common logic if a potting media looks dry then watering is
needed. But this is not the case for orchids. We have to be aware about the
fact that although a bark looks dry, but it still holds some moisture
inside.
There is a simple rule of thumb to follow. Just water your
orchid once in a week or once in a fortnight, with modest amount of water.
Again, never overdo it. If you care for an orchid in your house, you should
make sure that the barks in the pot are totally dry prior to watering. You
might keep some orchid species on trees or branches. In this case you should
examine their roots prior to watering. If they are totally dry, then proceed
with the watering.
You may as well make use of a fertilizer, especially if you
want to get amazing flowers. You have the option to purchase it at a gardening
store or you can make them yourself using used kitchen stuff like eggshells,
dried and crushed chicken bones, milk leftovers, etc. But you need to use the
fertilizers sparingly, since most of the orchids can thrive healthy without any
fertilizer
However providing good routines for watering plus
fertilizing your orchid is a sort of guarantee to be able to see orchid grow
healthy and produces amazing flowers. Just remember that water orchid and
fertilizing are parts of a total good care for your orchid. Other means like
providing sufficient amount of sunlight, changing the potting media regularly
and repotting your orchid when needed are also parts of caring for orchids the
right way.
