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Why You Shouldn't Believe What You Read About Watering Orchids with Ice Cubes
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Oct 3, 2024
7 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Water Orchids With Ice Cubes One of my biggest irritations with orchid growing is the amount of misinformation that is circulating both on the internet and greenhouses as to how to water your orchids. One of the biggest problems in orchid care is either overwatering or underwatering. Finding that perfect equilibrium is one of the most difficult for beginner orchid growers to master. But how do ice cubes interfere with this process? In this video, I will explain what ice cubes do for your orchid and why you shouldn’t water orchids with ice cubes. Ice cube watering will kill orchid tissue on the leaf and stunt growth over time. Cold ice water will not decrease display life but it will deter overall life span and the quality of the orchid’s life, hindering a rebloom. The drop in temperature does not promote orchid health in roots or leaves. To prove my points listed above, I will be using the same resources and arguments that the producers of the biggest company in the United States which promotes the ice cube method, Just Add Ice, uses. I have nothing against this company. In fact, I bought a blue orchid from them and it’s still alive and well—no ices cubes used. I’m against the sales mechanism that they are using to promote sales is harming many orchid growers as they kill orchids over and over again. That is the whole point of this video, to save your orchids. I’d prefer you to understand the reasoning, the why and how, behind orchid care, then to just enter a fixed routine and not really comprehending why you do what you do. This is what takes orchid care to the next level. If you want the full explanation of this video in writing, go to https://orchideria.com/orchids-and-ice-cubes/ On Orchideria.com, you can find more in-depth guides and all the access to our information, tutorials, guides, and much more... all for free! Happy Cultivating! ______________________
View Video Transcript
0:00
Can I water my orchids with ice cubes
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And this question is legitimate because after all, the instructions tell you you can't
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So in this video, I'm going to show you the evidence of, no, you shouldn't and why
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Because at first glance, they do an excellent job of presenting their facts
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But you have to look below the surface. Hi, I'm Amanda Matthews and thank you for watching this video at Orchidaria, where I share my tips of how to grow orchids indoors and how to craft herarian
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To do that, I need to go to my computer, so I am going to just turn you guys around and move
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When you go online and you type, can you water orchids with ice cubes, it will usually show a study done by Ohio State University
0:55
and the name of these study is ice cube irrigation of potted phelanopsis orchids does not decrease display life
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And it's a real study. They actually did a great job, but what are they actually evaluated
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If you want to follow step by step of what I'm doing, you can go to orchidaria.com
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And I'll show you here and type in ice cubes. And five reasons you shouldn't water with ice cubes
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So here you have the page that I'm going to go down and you can follow it
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You can click on the sources. You can just accompany it right there in real time
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So why don't I actually like this method very much? They're evaluating the display life or how long an orchid will stay open in bloom
1:50
and if the watering method has any effect on that, they separated two groups of orchards
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which is awesome. That's what you have to do. You have to have a control group. One group they watered with five ice cubes a day
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The other, they watered with water in between the temperatures of 20.1 to 21.3 Celsius
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or 68.18 to 70.34 degrees. So the difference in degrees in water is how they manage that
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So let's go into the first point, which watering orchids with ice cubes doesn't affect display life
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Now, their conclusions were obvious, and if anyone repeated this study, they would also get these same conclusions
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which is the bloom life doesn't affected. The ones that were watered with ice cubes will stay in bloom for the same amount of time as the
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ones who were watered with warmer water. So the time that the bloom stays open and is vibrant
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is the same. That is not changed. And there are six reasons that orchids will wilt and none of those
3:00
reasons have to do with water. The reasons they wilt are underwatering, temperature change, a drastic
3:07
temperature change, insects and pests, stress from moving to a new environment, not enough humidity
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and it's the end of their normal life cycle. So those, are the six reasons but none of those include watering. The first question mark I get when
3:24
I read this study is that the study was done in terms of six months. So during these six months
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they said that the time that the bloom was open was not affected. Well, an orchid does not live
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six months and then die. Let's look at this long term because keeping an orchid open does not
3:46
require a lot of orchid care, but getting that orchid to re-bloom year after year after year
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that's what tells you if you are a good orchid grower. If this study was done over three years
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and I beg the company, please redo the study over three years better, over five years, ten years
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see how these orchids react in a long period of time Will it affect the roots The roots had nothing to do with the study Will it affect the leaves Well the leaves also never entered as a variable in the study See the thing about ice cubes again is if you using
4:23
three ice cubes on a mini phalanopsis orchid, you have to press that ice cube against the stem
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or against the leaves. There is not enough room to fit three ice cubes, much less five ice cubes
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in a bigger orchid. So these ice cubes are going to touch the leaves
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leaves and where they are in contact, direct contact with the leaf, they are going to kill the
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plant cell tissue, the outer layer of it. There's no way around it. It's going to take five hours
4:54
as the study actually showed to get down to 55 degrees. But before those five hours are up, they are
5:03
under the 55 degrees. It's like keeping an ice cube up against your skin. If you do not take that
5:10
ice cube off, you will cause frostbite. It's the same idea in the plant cells. These five ice cubes
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I'm going to have to lean it against the stem. And where does the stem come up in this study
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Well, it doesn't. So that's another questionable thing. So orchids do not live only until they're
5:30
blooming cycle. That is what this implies that the study was done only over six months. Let's repeat the
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study. Let's see how it does long term. Another questionable thing about this study, does a bloom
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indicate a healthy orchid? Absolutely not. Sometimes orchids will bloom because of their last hope
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in ever repropagating the species. So they want to get that bloom out because they're using all
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their energies like, this is my last shot. I'm going to give it everything I have. So I want to make
6:00
this beautiful bloom, then I'm going to die. So blooms are not indicators of a healthy orchid
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if you want to see 13 signs of a healthy orchid, you can watch this video up here
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The study measured how much water was gathered after the ice cubes melted and from the bottom
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of the pot and how much water was left over from just normal watering. See, here's the thing
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Does that really prove anything? Because water melts, the ice cubes will melt, they will
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trickle down through the potting media, the roots will absorb that, and what's left over
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the orchid roots didn't absorb. Well, that probably means you have a good drainage and a good media
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that lets water come in and exit the pot quickly. That's what we're aiming for. I want this water
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circulating in the pot. How much water is left over? What does that tell me? Nothing. In fact, the study said
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that the amount of water that left the pot at the end of the watering cycle, the melting cycle
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was less than the water used if the five ice cubes were melted and used that water
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And I think it was one third of a cup. I'll have to check that
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It's in the study. Is that a good thing? I mean, I'm saving water
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Yes, but for the orchid, I mean, I want that water coming in the pot and out of the pot and in the pot
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and out of the pot. Keep that water running. That just shows that your potting media will absorb more
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instead of less. One thing I want you to consider when watering with ice cube, where your
7:43
ice cube sits on top the pot, it's going to hydrate that part of the media. It's not going to
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hydrate the entire pot. So you need to distribute these ice cubes around the pot so they are
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equally hydrated at all times. Now this always doesn't happen because the majority of these orchids are
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tiny. If you have a big orchid, it will say five ice cubes. If you have a mini orchid, it will say
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three ice cubes. Now everybody's ice cubes are different. You can have tiny little ice cubes and you can
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have humongous ice cubes. Please define ice cube. All of these orchids that were submitted were submitted
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with the same potting media. They came from the same company There were not different potting medias in their medias There were not different potting medium in there
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so they could actually test, you know, which one, the ice cubes and bark, well, that was not tested
8:46
Ice cubes and sphagnum moss. That was not tested. Ice, they tested it on their own peat moss
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which is technically made to absorb a lot of water. By the time the water melts and interacts with the roots, which usually takes around five hours
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if you're in an environment like a home office or a living room, that takes five hours
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And the temperature of this water that reaches the roots is 13 degrees Celsius or 55 degrees Fahrenheit
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Now, most orchids do not like 55 degree, because again, most orchids are from a tropical or subterbury
9:28
tropical climate. And the idea is that this is the way you should water all your orchids. That
9:33
where it becomes misleading. Well, phalanopsis, they can withstand a temperature of down to 50
9:42
but anything lower than that, you're really pushing the limits here. But what about a catlia
9:49
What about another warm growing orchid? If you give ice cubes to that orchid, it's going to complain
9:58
do something funny on you. And even in winter, I have to use a seedling mat underneath my
10:05
catalys to keep them warmer. And some of the phalanopsis too, depending on their species. So this water
10:12
is actually not beneficial at 50. If it was a little higher, if, you know, just a few degrees
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it would be better. The final discussion as one of their points. And it's not the final point of the
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video because I have a lot more to say this part right now is their points. Let me get to mine
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Their final argument is that they weighed the plant later after the blooms had fallen off to
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see if there was any difference. And their idea behind this was that if there was root decay
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the weight would be different. Their conclusions show that there was no weight difference at the end
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of these five months using ice cube. Now that is a all great and dandy and wonderful, but the problem here is that a dead root will weigh the same as
11:04
a live root. The only difference is the water inside of it. So if you're weighing dry material
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that root will be dry, therefore the weight will be the same. So those were their reasons. Now let's
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get into mine. So first, who supplied these orchids? And I'll have to go strictly to the
11:26
the screen to show you this. So when this company presented these orchids to be evaluated
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they got orchids from one company only. And that company is called Green Circle Growers from Ohio
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So let's look at Green Circle Growers from Ohio. Go up here. Green Circle Growers. Green Circle Growers
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So I clicked on the first result that talks about who we are, being innovative, sustainable
11:56
and look at their brand. Company that presented every single orchid to be evaluated if they would accept the ice cubes or not
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were from the company who uses ice cubes. So they're paying with their own orchid
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It's kind of like a contest. Let's say my dog Max, see how many poles he can jump over
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And the only dog that I signed up for this. contest was Max. So of course he's going to win. You know, let's get other companies in here
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Let's get other orchid growers. Let's use other different potting medias. It's very suspicious
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when the company who supplied all the orchids is the company in question My question on the second reasoning is where the research Because you go to if I click on this page right here greenhouse growers driving sales value
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they talk about how they got this name. And you go to this website, and it's talking about the green growers
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but read this paragraph right here about focusing on consumer success. It also says for five months
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they had orchids on their desk with questions. He's talking about the employees to develop the care and handling information on large tags
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which is this right here. So he said for five months, they had orchids on their desk with questions, he says
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We were challenged to come up with 50 words that were meaningful and direct to communicate
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So nothing would be misunderstood. I love that. You know, you're working on what are the biggest problems that orchid growers have
13:41
and they came up well with the biggest problem. is watering. It is. So let's solve that. Let's find a quick and easy way to fix that problem
13:52
Well, John says that, and I'm still reading here, John says consumer research showed that the
13:57
greatest concern for orchids was how to care for them. Water. To address this fear factor
14:04
and overcome the common problem of overwatering, Green Circle came up with the just add ice orchid
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slogan. It's a cool way to communicate the objective to the consumer instead of saying
14:17
water moderately. Well, I wouldn't mind watering moderately if it wasn't cold. The instructions
14:25
are simple. Just adding three ice cubes once a week makes watering simple. Yes, I agree. If there's
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anything great about this method is that it's easy. I mean, very easy. And the article just goes on to
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talk about their sales program and that they moved from being a production company to being a
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sales company. It is marketing to get out there. So they addressed the biggest problem. They offered a
14:55
solution. Unfortunately, it wasn't the best solution. Why not just say one third cup orchids? That works too
15:05
Where is the source? Where is this actual study? See, when they, I had to go to the Just Add Ice store page and find it here. So let's click on that. And this will take you to the Just Add Ice page and they explain their study. So here's like the Just Add Ice right up here. And the study summary, they talk about the summary of how the ice cubes actually do a great job. And then you come to the reach the conclusion
15:35
conclusions, yeah, that's very great. And I still have questions. So read the ice says here, read the eye study results. That's what I want. I want the research. Where is it printed in? What magazine is this? So I click on that. Here's my evidence. And this is what I've been wanting to reach all along the scientific evidence of this study. And what do I get? I get the PowerPoint presentation. I get slides. So this is defending a thesis
16:05
and it's your slide presentation, which, yeah, it does summarize the facts, but extremely
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summarized the facts. So I really would like to read the article. So I'm skeptical. When it comes to that
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I'm really skeptical. Now, I have nothing against the company just at Isaac, except for their
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logo and slogan. So I really wish they would change that. If we all as orchid growers can
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gather together and ask them to change that because their orchids are healthy they are durable they
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have great roots i mean they're beautiful orchids it's just their i mean ice cubes that needs to
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change this part needs to change if you do want methods to how to water the correct way you can
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watch these two videos over here that talk about watering and in all i would
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I wish you the best in your orchid care