Growing an orchid sounds like climbing a mountain to some. However, if you learn the art of doing so, it’s really a piece of cake and is soon to become your addiction. Think of all the beautiful, colorful plants that would add to your indoor surroundings. You’ll need not have any artificial flowers or spend a lot of amount on getting fresh flowers to decorate your table beautifully for meal times if you have orchids readily available at home. The best home orchids are phalaenopsis or moth-orchids, because of the shape of its flower, like Dendrobiums and Phals.
There are 3 simple rules to grow orchids at home. This includes temperature, light and watering requirements. You also need to know the best techniques for repotting, re-flowering and using fertilizers for your orchids as they are some of the secondary considerations. Let’s look at each one:
1) Temperature Requirements for Orchids:
Although, the tag on the orchids that you buy from a grocery store or anywhere has the temperature requirements mentioned. Here’s some general information to help you begin with in case it isn’t clear to you. Firstly, remember all orchids aren’t the same and since they aren’t similar, not all of them are happy under one specific temperature requirements. However, the ideal temperature for orchids, grown at home, lies somewhere between 60 degrees F to 80 degrees F. A drop of 10 degrees F at night would aid in re-flowering your orchid that is the house should remain somewhat cool than it was during the day. So basically, they thrive on human-comfort level.
2) Light Requirements for Orchids:
The orchids available at stores for homes usually like to live in low-medium light conditions. While there are kinds like Dendrobiums that could handle bright light, there are many which can’t take the late-afternoon sunlight as it would burn the leaves. If you use artificial light, there are chances that your orchid will take a little more time to bloom but once it starts, it will do so frequently.
3) Watering Requirements for Orchid:
It is quite a phenomenal quality of an orchid that they survive on not-so-frequent water conditions. Simply put, the more you leave it stranded much are the chances that it will thrive. However, water is one of the main ingredients in growing an orchid so what you need to do is check the growing mix for dryness to make sure whether it requires any watering. If it’s dry, water it but remember not to over-water it. Just enough to let it soak in by the time you finish watering and are ready to abandon it again. A drifty orchid plant is not the one that gives returns.
4) Other Considerations for your Orchid:
- Choose the appropriate fertilizer, the one that is especially formulated for orchids. There are package directions mentioned if you have hit just the right fertilizer.
- The plant needs to be repotted once it’s through the bloom period. Take it off the pot and dust away all the moss, swishing in water could help. Once that is done, you need to identify between the healthy roots (white and soft) and blackened or rotten roots. Cut the latter carefully with sterile snippers. Your plant is now ready to be set in the pot again and don’t worry about the anchoring, just set it firm and it will eventually anchor itself as it will grow new roots thereby attaching itself securely to the pot.
- Your orchid will begin with its re-flowering phase if you have gone through the above steps carefully.