Orchids are one of the most beautiful flower-bearing plants in the world. They are strikingly unique and delicate to look at. People grow them because of their remarkable variety, stunning flowers and even colorful leaves. Because of this, most people think that taking care of one is difficult. Actually, most orchids are very easy to maintain. They didn’t survive the dinosaur age if they weren’t resilient and extremely adaptive to begin with. They require only the basic things that any plant needs to survive. To help you newbies out there, here are simple orchid care tips you can follow:
Let There Be Light!
Orchids like any other plants out there need light. Basically, most orchids flourish best in bright indirect sunlight. Too much sun and you risk burning their colorful flowers and leaves. Place them near windows or under the shade of a bigger plant of tree, but do not completely keep them in the dark. Like the saying goes, too much or too little of anything is never good. That is why the only two places you cannot find these ancient plants are the gloomy glaciers and intense deserts. Keeping this radiant orchid care tip in mind will surely contribute to the survival of your orchid.
Thirst Quencher
Another orchid care tip that is a no-brainer is watering them. Water them once or twice a week. Be sure, though, to water them a little more or less depending on the temperature. When the weather is a little bit hotter, water them more and less when it’s cooler. Never leave them soaking in water. Make sure that if you grow them in pots, they have holes at the bottom where water can exit completely. An orchid’s sponge-like, ball-shaped roots quickly absorb water and nutrients around it. In fact, their ball-shaped roots got them the name orchid, from the Greek work “Γ³rkhis” which means testicle.
Fertilize, Fertilize, Fertilize
If you are serious about growing orchids, consider fertilizers. This orchid care tip is optional but highly recommended for optimum growth of your plants. Be sure to use soluble fertilizers, which are best for orchid growing. Do this once a week. Every end of the month, clean the pot with water to eliminate fertilizer residue such as salt.
Temperature Tip For The Serious Grower
Orchids can be easily classified into what temperature they need when growing. There are cool-growing, warm growing and intermediate growing ones. If you want to know the type of your orchid, do some research. There are lots of free resources available online today. Be sure to classify them correctly and supply the needed temperature for each kind to obtain optimum result. Usually, nighttime and daytime temperature need to vary for each kind. It’s such a waste to just watch a beautiful plant wilt away because you didn’t do enough research before anything else. Just a little information about your specific plant can prevent this from happening.
Now, if you follow these orchid care tips carefully, you are virtually sure to have perfectly grown plants. Nevertheless, if you really are serious about growing orchids, take your time and spend more time learning about these magnificent plants before embarking on your adventure of growing them.
And to learn even orchid care tips, download my totally FREE 5-Day Orchid Insider training course by going here: Orchid Care.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed. With all these tips, I know I will successful grow breathtaking orchids
Thank you so much
Lubov
Great tips Mary Ann look foreword as a newbie to any help that is offered by professionals -keep up the practical info
Thanks Peter N
Thanks, Peter! I’m glad this is helpful for you! – MAB
I love my orchids and know a few tricks of my own. One is if you want to get keikeis of your phals keiki paste works great and very quickly. How you do it is to go to the bloom stalk, look for a node, using an exacto knife make a slight cut on each side of the node on the piece that covers the node, peel this down with a tweezer to expose the node, put a small quantity of keikei paste on the node and in a few days you will see a new growth. it will either turn into a new plant or new bud growth but it does go very rapidly. Another tip is if you have to cut any part off of your orchid you can dust the cut with ground cinnamon to avert infection
That’s great! π Thank you and please keep sharing with us! – MAB
I have three phals and I have noticed that the leaves started to droop but were still green so I took each one out of the clay pot and saw that the roots were dead or dying, one has a few nodes that look like roots, I trimmed the roots and spikes and sprayed with an antifungus then put cinammon powder on the cuts and before repotting them used some rooting powder too, used the orchid mix and some spagnum, hope that all is well eventually, I will let you know
It sounds like you are on top of it! Please do keep us posted. – Mary Ann
I found this plant blooming and hidden under the fronds of an old fern.
The container was setting in water. This plant I know must be at least 3 years old. I did not know it was there and it has received no care.
I can not believe it.
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Sometimes miracles do happen. π That’s quite amazing. Thank you for sharing! – Mary Ann