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One of the first objectives in orchid care is learning how to water your orchid correctly
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because the biggest problems are either overwatering or underwatering. Once you get that down, half your problems in orchid care are covered
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Hi, I'm Amanda Matthews, and thank you for watching this video at Orchidaria
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where I share tips and hints of what works for me for caring for orchids indoors
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since my outside conditions aren't that great for orchid care. Now, I wish I could give you a straight example of water this much for every orchid and you'll be fine
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But I really can't do that because first, I don't know what conditions your orchid is in
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So we need to yze these conditions, which are the size of the pot, the type of the orchid, the season of the year
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the orchids condition, as in health, the type of potting media that it's planted in
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and if the orchid undergrows a dormant cycle. Let's look at those one by one. First, the type of the
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orchid. If you got an orchid as a gift or bought it in a supermarket, it's probably a phalanopsis
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orchid, which is this one right here. Now there are over 760 orchid genre, and in those orchid genre, they divide
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further to 28,000 species. So you can imagine why I can't give a straight answer
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And I mention this because some orchids will love to grow in tropical and subtropical
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rainforest while others do live in desert climates. Some will like it cold or some will like it hot
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We have this tendency to think that all orchids like the same thing
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So first, know the name of your orchid. Know what genre, what species, know where it lives, know the natural habitat
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And try to mimic that as much as possible, and that's the best orchid care that you can give it
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Now, if you have a phalanopsis like this one that has no idea on it
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how do you know how much water to give it where it lives
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There's no tag on it. And what the tag does say is to water with ice cubes
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Well, don't do that. And there's a video up here. about why you shouldn't do that, why that can cause more harm than good
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So let's just assume you have a phalanopsis orchid. Now one thing that all phalanopsis orchids have in common is they usually grow near a source of water either a waterfall a river a creek a stream or a pond
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They won't be in the water, so you don't want to overwater it, but they will be in more humid
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climates. So they love this water around them. They love being in humid places, but they also like
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to dry out. That's one thing you need to really focus on, is that you, You have to water your orchid, but you also have to let it dry out
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Don't keep this orchid humid all the time. The second thing you need to look at is what is the potting media
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Now, if you bought your orchid at a supermarket, it's probably going to have this
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yucky potting media right here. Looks like a brownie. Looks like, it's called peat moss
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It is specially made in most cases. to absorb a melting ice cube, which again, I'm not going to go into here, go back to that video up there
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So if you want to keep this potting media, that's fine, but you need to know that this will absorb a lot more water than other potting media
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Now, there is a whole video about potting media, which you can watch right there
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Some potting media will be absorbing enormous quantities of water, for example, sphagnum moss
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Other potting media, for example, bark will absorb intermediate quantities, but they'll dry out sooner
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And others absorb none, kind of like lava rock, river rock, pebbles, or even mounted orchids, which is an option for this one right here
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I could mount it and that would influence how much I would water it
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Their potting media is going to be the second biggest influencer in how much water you're going to give this orchid
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Now if you have a medium-sized orchid and it's in sphagnum moss, and this is a general guide that I'm going to list here, it will usually dry out in six, seven days
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If you have orchid bark mixed in with that sphagnum moss, it will usually dry out between eight and nine days
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If you have only charcoal, three days. And if you have a mixture of all the above, you can usually, you know, a medium-sized pot hold up to about 12 days
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So you can really see that potting media influences how much water you're going to give your orchid
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And that is why it is never a good idea to use one measurement and do all your orchids the same
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It's easier, yes, but each orchid you're going to have to look and see, is that dry
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Can you I water it now The third main influencer in how much water I going to give this orchid is this is a phalanopsis orchid This also is a phalanopsis orchid
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They're the same genre, but they're different species. This one will never grow into this
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Of course, I'm not going to give the same amount of water to this one as I do to that one
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So your pot size and the size of the orchid will determine how much water that this orchid will get
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Also, these smaller pots will dry out quicker than the larger pots will
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So it's not only the question of, you know, there's a lot of roots in there, but how fast the potting media will dry up
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So a small, like a two inch pot, like this one right here, that will dry out in two or three days
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I need to reapply water every two or three days. If it's in bark
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Now, if it's in this yucky stuff that it comes in, it can stay up to a week
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Here's a tip. When you water, always keep the overhead fan on because that will promote evaporation quicker
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We'll have less problems with crown rod and root rod and other types of rot that will come with this orchid
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The fourth thing that will influence how much water you give your orchid is your orchid's health
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Now, if you have a healthy orchid, you can water it on a cycle
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You already know what your potting media is. you know your pot, you know what genre and species or orchid you have
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So you know all that already. But if your orchid doesn't have any roots
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or if your orchid has a bacterial problem, or if your orchid has a pest or an insect
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you'll need to adapt that watering cycle. One of the problems you will probably face is root rot
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That's because we love our orchids and we want to water them
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because we want to provide the best care for them. But if you overwater them, these roots
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which are nice and green and healthy, are going to start to turn brown
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and they're going to start to rot on you. And once they are rotted
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they will not recover from that. The orchid will have to produce new roots to replace them
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Let's imagine that I watered this wrong. All the roots rotted off
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Now it has no roots. How am I going to water that
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I'm going to have to change my watering cycle. I'm going to have to use a spag and bag method, which you can see up here
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And I'm also going to have to raise that humidity. I going to have to water this totally different than if it is a normal healthy orchid You get the point The fifth thing that will influence how much water you give your orchid is the season of the year Now phalanopsis usually live in a place where the
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temperature change will not vary that much during the year because they are located more toward the
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equator, but they do have fluctuations. It's slight, but they do. Their main fluctuation will be
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in monsoon season or not monsoon season. Since I'm growing my orchids indoors, I can control what the
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temperature is. I can control how long my artificial lights are on. I can control how much water they get
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So I can recreate this monsoon season and I can recreate a winter season. So during winter, I usually
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do not water that much. You're going to water less during these winter
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cycles. They're not going to water as much. Now in summer, it's hot, it's human, I'm going to want to
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get more water to my orchid. The sixth reason, which is going to influence how much water you give
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to your orchid, is hotter temperatures require more water. And that's just because if it's
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hotter, the water is going to evaporate quicker. So your potting media is going to dry out faster
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If it's cooler, it's going to linger around in the pot and just create that wonderful environment for root rot
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So that's also going back to the last point of the seasons
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That's why in winter we water less because that water just isn't going to go anywhere in the cold weather
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So hotter temperatures, if you have your orchids even outside and it's a hotter temperature, water more because that water is going to evaporate quicker
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it's going to be more thirsty. So my recommendation is start out between seven and 10 days of an interval
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and adjust that to your environment. All these things together is going to give you a good idea of
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where to start. And then you'll find that perfect cycle of watering and how each orchid likes
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their water. If you have questions, please leave them in the comments below. The great thing is that you're
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already looking for information. So don't stop. The more information you have, the better you
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understand the why of orchid care, the better care you will provide for your orchids indoors or
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outside. So I can recommend two videos. The first one is a video about watering and the second
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is a playlist. So thank you so much for watching and happy cultivating
