December 24th, 2009 I Really Care About your Orchid
For most, orchid growing has become a rewarding and relaxing hobby. Orchids are easily distinguished, as they share some very evident apomorphies. Orchids have developed highly specialized pollination systems and thus the chances of being pollinated are often scarce. Orchids, like tulips, have become a major market throughout the world.
Cares About Your Orchids
Keep your eyes on the trees for orchids such as Schomburgkia that bloom once a year with spectacular results. All orchids must be dispatched bare root and treated two days prior to packing with three separate chemicals. Orchid roots often creep over the edge of the pot before the body of the plant makes it to the edge of the pot. Under ideal growing conditions (and if you didn’t over pot the plant to begin with), most commonly cultivated orchids outgrow their pot before the media breaks down. Most orchid potting media provide support only, and have little or no food value. No expensive equipment is necessary to provide more humidity for your orchids. But if humidity is a problem for your other plants, then it will definitely be a concern for your orchids. If you have adequate humidity to raise other houseplants, you have enough to raise orchids. A part from that, moving air is very beneficial to the overall health of orchids. For cooler-growing orchids forced to endure hot weather, the key is lots of additional water and lots of good air movement. If for some reason you need to “stretch” an orchid’s tolerance zone, one way to do so is by reducing the watering. Orchids leaves often have siliceous bodies called Stegmata in the vascular bundle sheaths (not present in the Orchidoideae) and are fibrous. There really is no hard rule for watering that can be applied across all orchids, particularly bearing in mind that some homes are drier than others, small pots dry out faster than large ones, and some plants prefer more water than others. One watering rule you can live by is that most orchids tolerate being too dry much better than they tolerate being too wet. Accordingly, your orchids should not be allowed to stand in water in your home.
Looking after orchids is supposed to be (and is) a relaxing activity. Orchids must be watered somewhat differently from most other plants, the most noticable difference being orchids’ intolerance of dissolved salts.
Tags: About, care, orchid, Really