It’s easy to grow an orchid – care

The exquisite luxury of tropical orchids will enchant anyone whose gaze falls on these delicate, incredibly beautiful flowers. Orchids will penetrate into someone’s soul only for a moment, and someone will be bewitched for many years. For example, they no longer let me go.

What to do with panicles?

I fell in love with orchids as a child. In those distant times, my imagination was awakened by phalaenopsis, miltonia, wandas, odontoglossums depicted on stamps. I wanted to have such beauty at home. True, for many years the desire to acquire these tropical beauties cooled the desire that I heard about them, as if they were very finicky … However, any publication, a book about orchids attracted attention, and communication with “fans” and novice orchidists in the end prepared me for a decisive act – I bought my first orchid.

Miltoniopsis orchid

Phalaenopsis, miltonia, dendrobium and other orchids are quite expensive when they are in full bloom. But now they can be purchased at a discount in almost all major flower centers. They end up on the shelf of discounted plants for two reasons: they have not been sold for a long time or some kind of disease has appeared. In both cases, the plant loses its decorative effect. But buying, of course, is only worth the copy that has no signs of illness.

On the advice of a seller in a shop at the All-Russian Exhibition Center, I chose a hybrid phalaenopsis. It was handed over by a florist who grows orchids right on the windowsill, without a greenhouse. It was also important that the phalaenopsis faded and I was offered a substantial discount – 50% of the original cost.

I was lucky: a plant with two old peduncles was without signs of bacterial and fungal infections (dots and spots of unknown origin may be evidence of some serious problems), fat greenish roots were visible through the transparent walls of a small pot. The same dense, glossy aerial roots rose above the surface of the pine bark substrate. In general, the moment to start exploring orchids was the most appropriate.

It's easy to grow an orchid - careOrchid Cymbidium

Farmer Burea-Uinsurance.com Magnus Manske

Experience suggested: to speed up the next flowering, you need to remove the faded inflorescences. I tried to figure out where it is better to make a cut. By the way, two of my friends, who also bought hybrid phalaenopsis, unanimously asked: “What to do with the panicles?” I leafed through many books and only one – Frank Relke “Orchids. This is how they grow best“, A practical guide to buying, choosing a place and proper care – I found the answer:”… to increase the splendor of the phalaenopsis orchid bloom, you need to cut off the faded arrows above the “sleeping eye” approximately in the middle. Then the thickening on the stem will swell and within 90 days a new flower brush will appear …ยป

But I did my own thing: I removed the old peduncles (there were two of them) at the very base, almost above the substrate level. I fed Pokon liquid specialized fertilizer for orchids according to the instructions, at the same time treated the leaves and the substrate with the fungicide Fitosporin-M for prophylaxis. She removed the lower mechanically damaged leaf and put the new settler on the northeast window. And about two months later, two new peduncles appeared from the axils of the leaves!

It's easy to grow an orchid - careDendrobium orchid (Dendrobium)

Farmer Burea-Uinsurance.com Magnus Manske

Since I bought Phalaenopsis at the end of August, I fed Pokon once a month in the fall and winter, each time adding Fitosporin-M, although in the recommendations for caring for orchids without additional lighting at this time, experts often recommend excluding feeding. But I was hoping to help the plant gain strength for the next bloom.

I did not begin to highlight, relying on the natural shade tolerance of my plant. But one hundred percent used the diffused light on the sill of the northeast window. After some time, she changed her place of residence for the plant, put a pot with phalaenopsis 0,5 m from the southeast window, curtained with a fairly dense tulle, also without additional lighting. Which to some extent corresponded, in my opinion, to the natural conditions in which these orchids live: they settle under the crown of trees.

From the reference books I learned that phalaenopsis successfully exist at 50-60% humidity of the ambient air (I have about this in my apartment). So I replaced spraying in the autumn-winter period by wiping the leaves with boiled water with the addition of Fitosporin (fortunately, my phalaenopsis had only 5 leaves at that time, and they are quite wide and dense – in a word, convenient for this procedure). When spraying, of course, the air humidity rises, but water droplets, flowing down the surface, collect in the axils of the leaves, which can lead to rotting of the stem or leaf.

It's easy to grow an orchid - careVanda Orchid

Farmer Burea-Uinsurance.com Mister Flower

That’s all it took for new flowers to appear on two peduncles in three months! The first bud opened just on New Year’s Eve, and for more than three months the phalaenopsis delighted with cute flirtatious “moths”, similar to cabbage butterflies, fluttering frivolously in the summer. Thanks to this unpretentious maintenance, my first orchid has been blooming for the third year for about 12 weeks every 3-4 months.

Watering is a delicate matter

Someone watering orchids like ordinary plants – on top of the substrate, someone lowers the pots of plants into the water until they are completely saturated with moisture.

I chose the second option, it seems more reliable to me. First, for irrigation, she boiled water, cooled it to 25-30 ยฐ and lowered the pot into it for 20-30 minutes so that the water barely protruded above the substrate. Later, when my collection of indoor plants was replenished with new orchids and the total number of plants became quite impressive, the technology had to be changed. I just pour hot water into the bathtub (the layer thickness is about 10 cm), and when the water cools down to 25-30 ยฐ, I put all the pots on the bottom. Closely, one to one.

It's easy to grow an orchid - careOrchid Odontoglossum (Odontoglossum)

Farmer Burea-Uinsurance.com Hook

This will raise the water in the tub and completely cover the pots. As a result, due to

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Anna Evans

Author โœ“ Farmer

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