A Gardeners Forum Forums Gardening Reference Gardening in 2005 orchid

my mom finally gave me her orchid. she said it wasn't happy with her and let me have it. it was huge, but a large chunk of it, about half, had dried up and died because she'd forgotten to water it. i just pulled it out of the pot and cut the dead part right off, and put it back in the pot with fresh bark, watered it, and set it over a saucer of pebbles with water. i also cleaned the dust off all the leaves.

so now my question is, how do i take care of it?

how much light does it need? how often should i water it? i have orchid fertilizer, its 20-20-20 (bought it for the epi cutting Cricket sent me, which is doing well, btw) and i have another kind my mom gave me that is 19-31-17. how much and how often should i water and fertilize? how much humidity does it like? i was thinking of planting it in a turarium with a lid so i could control the humidity, with other tropical plants that like humidity, like carniverous plants and african violets.

thanks ^_^

the care tag for my orchid (a phalaenopsis)says-

place plant in a bright location out of direct sunlight
ideal temperature is between 20 degrees celcius and 27 degrees celcius with 60-70% humidity (20 degrees is approx room temp in canada)
water thoroughly once a week and fertilize every 2nd watering using half dosage fertilizer(20-20-20)
after blooming cut the flower stem 1" below the last flower to promote additional spike.

hope that helps

My Orchid page....

Barb\'s Orchid page

right now i've got it on my bookshelf with all my other plants. i have a growlight over them, with the plants that require the least light, or indirect light, out to the edges, and the ones that need bright direct light in the center. i put the orchid towards the edge. its in the middle of the room, nowhere near drafts.

last year, i wanted to take a section of this very same orchid and try to grow it in my hermit crab tank, so i unpotted the main plant, chopped off a small section, and repotted it. the original plant then bloomed. the cutting was torn appart and eaten by hermit crabs.....

i'm thinking that it liked that "trauma" from cutting off part of it, and it stimulated it to bloom. the other day i had to cut the plant in half because half was dead.

its over a tray of pebbles, not sure on the temp in here, but its a comfortable room temp, probably about 70-75

do i have to drop the temp at night?

if our plant flower in the tropical greenhouse, its considered bad, as plants flower when they are under stress. So I dont like to see them on "my babies" (I take care of 10-20,000 3 and 4 inch tropicals)

ummmmmmm......whatever.

this orchid was blooming when we bought it, and bloomed with 2 flowers once after that when i chopped the section off. my mom has had it for about 5 years...i dont think its under that much stress.

I also inherited a phalaenopsis recently, except it had experienced bud blast. A local gardener told me I should cut the spike as if it had just bloomed, slightly above the last bud to promote a new spike in the next growing season. So I did that.

But the only thing that's happened is the tip (about .5-1 inch long) is starting to yellow and looks like it's drying too. I had repotted it awhile back, from a plastic pot with no drainage within another ceramic pot to just the ceramic pot which has ventilation designs throughout it. Keep it in there with 2 inches of riverstones on the bottom and the whole thing on a pebble well.

It seems to me the yellowing is working its way down, but I'm not sure what to do.

Hi Soriathen,

Lots of people here with orchid growing experience (I'm not one of them) but wanted to pop in to say I'm delighted to read your Epi is doing well!

Cricket

i've got a phal...i keep it in my kitchen in the west facing window. it doesn't get any direct sunlight as the house next door blocks it. i've had it for 4 years and it's doing very well.

i bought orchid food...i've never actually used it tho. lol!