Posts Tagged ‘caring for orchids’
Caring for Orchids
caring-for-orchids
Caring For Orchids
A practical guide to caring for and watering your exotic hybrid orchids as house plants. Orchid plant care tips and tricks what others are saying about my e-book caring for your first orchid & more dear doctor barker, i have read your book on advice to a beginning orchid hobbyist and find it. Orchids com : support : care & tips your gift list solved thrill all the flower lovers you care about send them the secrets of growing breathtakingly beautiful, romantic, exotic orchids – order here. Caring for orchids – the basics read about orchid basics you can also get information on how to grow orchids and also about the caring of orchid trees. Growing orchid – orchid basics – caring orchid trees caring for orchids phalaenopsis (fal-en-opp-sis) phalaenopsis are among the easiest and most rewarding orchids to grow.
Caring for orchids how to grow breathtaking orchids – even if you’ve never raised one before simply orchid plant care website reveals all the secrets long-lost manuscript found under dusty table. Caring for an orchid – fragile elegant exotic caring for orchids – it’s not so difficult orchids can be challenging to grow however, they are not that complicated and if you understand caring for orchids and their needs you. Caring for orchids as house plants a guide to choosing, planting and caring for orchids in your home, along with some orchid history and ideas for floral decor. Caring for orchids doityourself.com to keep your plants healthy the gardener will say you need good sunlight, enough water and an even humidity and temperature that suits the plants the basics of caring for orchids.
Orchids are fascinating flowers that are fun to nurture but do need some special care. These slow growing plants are best grown indoors and will need to be repotted every other year. In addition to repotting, you will need to provide the plant with enough light, water and fertilization as well as prune it properly to keep it in the best of health.
Repotting
Orchids should be repotted in a pot that is larger then the current, but not too much larger – go just one size up. Don’t make the mistake of thinking you can repot into a really huge pot and then not have to worry about it for the next 5 years! Fill the pot about 2/3rds of the way with soil that is formulated for orchids and set the plant with the growing tip in the center and it’s roots spread out in the soil. Fill the pot with the rest of the soil and pack it gently around the plant. Water thoroughly.
Soil
Tropical orchids thrive in organic material. Fir bark and osumda fiber mixed with peat are great for growing orchids. You need soil that has good drainage but will also hold some moisture. You can buy special orchid mix soil to plant your orchids in.
Light
Orchids like light and your plant will do best in a bright sunny window. A south window, where the plant can get indirect light in the morning and afternoon is best. Make sure the window is not drafty. In the winter you must be sure that your plant is getting enough sunlight and you may want to use fluorescent lighting to supplement the natural sunlight. Fluorescent lights work quite well for growing orchids and you can use them in even the darkest corner and have wonderful plants.
Water
All plants need water but many people do not know how to provide it properly. Some water too much leaving standing water in the pot all day and contributing to root rot. Others don’t water the plant for weeks and wonder why it can not survive. The first consideration is to make sure you use a pot with good drainage – either one of those with a hole in the bottom and a saucer or at least put pebbles under the soil. Water the plant thoroughly but not so much that a pool of water is sitting on the soil – water once a week or when you feel the soil has dried out. If your orchid is planted in bark, then it will probably need to be watered every 5 days or so.
You can also moisten your orchid with a spray bottle to give it a more humid environment. Some people like to gently wrap the plant in a floral paper or wax paper cone and spray inside. The cone helps to keep the moistness in. If you do spray your plant, use distilled water as tap and spring water can leave deposits on the leaves.
Temperature
Although orchids are tropical plants, they prefer cool temperatures at night. Most orchids will do best in temps that would be to cold for you in your house. When grown in professional greenhouses, they are kept between 55 and 65 degrees at night. The cool temperatures help to keep the soil more moist.
Fertilizer
Orchids growing in bark or peat and bark mixes do best with a liquid fertilizer that has a 20-20-20 analysis or, better yet, a specialized orchid fertilizer (30-10-10). Try using a water soluble urea free fertilizer for best results. When fertilizing, simply add it in your regular watering schedule following the instructions on the fertilizer package.
Pruning
Pruning is important for orchids to remove dead parts and shape your plant. You can prune your orchids periodically throughout the year, or reserve the pruning for once a year typically in the fall or early winter. When the blooms have died and the stalk is dried up and yellow or brown, use sharp shears to cut it back to an inch from where it comes out of the soil. A new bloom will appear during the next blooming season.
In some cases, you may want to just remove the end of the bloom stalk which may cause it to bloom again. If you do this, you may find a new shoot or baby plant to spring up. If this does happen, you can remove the baby and plant it in a separate pot for an additional orchid plant to enjoy!
Caring For Orchids
Caring For Orchids
To grow an orchid from seed can be a complicated process, but once mastered can provide a thrilling sense of satisfaction.
The plant to be used as pod parent should be well established with good root growth in fresh medium before seed bearing is risked. To bear a seed pod is hard on the mother plant and often jeopardizes its life. The planned end-result should be worth this risk.
The preferred method of collecting pollen is to use a sharpened glass rod or a platinum wire that can be quickly sterilized and cooled.
After pollination the plant should be dried out a bit and removed to a more sheltered part of the greenhouse.
The seed-bearing plant should be treated moderately, but with particular care in watering to avoid chilling at night
Fertility of the seed may be determined microscopically, although there are other means of determination. Fertile seed, under the microscope, appears browner than infertile seed and reveals dark blurs.
It is best to plant seed immediately. Absolute cleanliness should be the rule in planting. Hands and tools should be washed in a 20 per cent Clorox solution. If possible, seed should also be sterilized, as contamination is invariably easier to prevent than to cure.
Seed may be sterilized with a degree of success in 3 per cent solution of hydrogen peroxide. Most growers prefer calcium hypochlorite, 10 gm. to 140 cc. of distilled water, filtered. Seed may be exposed to this solution for fifteen to twenty minutes without harm, but a longer exposure will yellow the seed. Rapid whirling or shaking of the container holding seeds and sterilizing agent will make certain that the solution washes over each seed.
Antiseptic containers should be provided after sterilization is completed. Test tubes are satisfactory in a number of respects. Medium is placed in the tubes and the tubes laid on their side to provide more planting surface.. Erlenmeyer flasks provide generous planting surfaces. Whatever the container, it should have been sterilized in a pressure cooker or autoclave for thirty minutes at fifteen pounds pressure.
There is wide variation in the kinds of planting enclosures used, the choice often being determined by practical considerations. It is still advisable, however, to spray lightly if an ordinary room is used. Fungi spores travel on dust particles floating in the air, and spraying causes them to fall to the floor.
The planting medium must next be provided. A wide choice of media is available. Orchid magazines carry names of firms that sell the necessary chemicals as well as prepared products. Some of the media available, such as Difco Bacto Orchid Agar, require only the addition of water.
The materials are now ready for the final operation of ‘planting.’ A platinum needle or loop, which may be readily sterilized in flame, is ideal, but a long-handled spoon, a pipette, or an eye-dropper are all satisfactory. Sterilized seed is floated in a vial containing a bit of distilled water. The seeds (so tiny that they have the appearance of powder) are taken up with the tool and scattered over the planting surface in the flask or tube.
A rolled stopper of cotton (flamed to kill fungus) should have been kept in the mouth of the flask, being removed only long enough to permit the seed to be placed inside
After the seed has been introduced, the cotton stopper should again be flamed over a Bunsen burner and the mouth of the flask and the stopper wrapped lightly with paper. The flasks should be kept at an even temperature of not lower than 65 F nor higher than 80 F. A temperature of somewhat above the 65 F minimum is most desirable.
The flasks should be kept by themselves in some kind of an enclosure (a Wardian case in the greenhouse is excellent) where they may be protected from sun and excessive moisture and moved as little as possible. This stage of culture will last from eight months to over a year.
When incipient roots are one quarter of an inch long, the seedlings are ready for repotting.
Congratulations! The orchidist has succeeded in raising an orchid from seed – no easy feat!
Caring for orchid and orchid tattoo information and resources. Time caring for orchids – page 2 - the leaves were blackish green and the flower itself was glossy yellow, the y. Caring for your orchids by bill and susan fender the orchid is a magnificent flower which has survived for 20 million years, right from age of dinosaurs this beautiful and delicate flower is also considered a symbol of love. Caring for your phalaenopsis orchid caring orchid dendrobium orchids plants care seeds flowering repotting pot. Caring for orchids – a way to get a taste of the tropics by mel it is clear that i spend more than 6 hours per week to care for my orchids, on top of the help that i got from my mom my collection is pretty sizable (at least 1000 orchids.
1888orchids.com – caring for orchids orchids are one of the sturdy plants despite their flower’s delicate appearance even if they thrive regardless of neglects, they still require some care caring for orchids is all. A brief on caring for orchids caring for orchids by 1888 orchids.com – caring for orchids 123 easy. Caring orchid dendrobium orchids plants at everythingorchids.com fender’s flora in the sarasota, florida area 941-412-1355 offers cattleyas, phalaenopsis, dendrobiums, vandas, oncidiums and other orchid varieties. Tips on caring for orchids caring for your phalaenopsis orchid temperature a minimum night temperature of 62 to 65 is optimum, but temperatures as low as 50 will not harm the plant.