Restoring a sick Orchid plant
For me orchids are new. I have ample experience with container plants, tropical flowering bushes, and cacti. Except for grafting, I could handle most of the plant problems and pests. Propagating through small cuttings is also not difficult, as I’ve been initiated into the technique by a horticulture professor. The remaining items in this (area of) hobby are: Orchids, propagating orchids, grafting, and bonsai plants. At least for now, I’ve succeeded in taking care of the delicate orchids.
Symptoms
The first orchid plant survived for more than two years. It put on new leaves and bloomed successfully. Originally it came in a small glass bulb (container). Had I repotted into a suitable container with proper drainage, it would have thrived giving yearly flowers. Due to neglect and overwatering it did not survive. I tried to repot diligently, but with no success. I thought I learned my mistake and for a while I did not pursue growing orchids. Here most of the varieties available on the market do not carry any fragrance. My preference in plants is always for those with sweet aroma like jasmine, peony, rose, tulip, or stargazer lily. Any experience, particularly pleasure must carry multiple senses: eyes (visual), nose (aroma), touch (tactile), taste, and sound (aural). In growing fruits and vegetables (pumpkin, bitter gourd) we get to feel all the senses. This happens even with some of the finest roses (hence the rose jam, gulkand – rose petal jam). But with orchids (particularly Phalaenopsis) we get to experience just two or three senses.
Repotting
With orchids we must first acknowledge a few basics: Their roots are delicate like those of cacti. The roots can sometimes grow outside the pot and collect necessary moisture from the ambient air. Healthy roots are plump and light green in color. If you can grow cactus and make it bloom, then you can also grow orchids successfully. But there is a slight difference - the potting medium. The medium for orchids is roughly 80% (fir) bark, 20% sphagnum moss. We can add a bit of perlite, pieces of charcoal, or coconut fiber. Basically bark (or coconut fiber) tries to hold onto water and then slowly release (evaporate) it. The potting medium cannot be heavy or dense; it cannot squeeze (or put pressure on) the delicate root system. I collected the bark pieces from the evergreen trees in our garden and in the backyard woods. Looks like orchids do not like soil or clay growing medium. Obviously the pot must have plenty of holes to drain the water thoroughly.
Watering
About the tricks for watering this delicate plant, here are two techniques: 1. Use the well-known technique of ice cubes. Place two or three (depending on the pot size) ice cubes above the roots (i.e., potting medium). You can keep the ice on a piece of tissue paper to avoid giving chills directly to the exposed roots. With this technique we are able to slowly wet the roots from top to bottom slowly, gently. Watering once a week is good enough (again this depends on the ambient humidity temperature, and season – summer, winter, dry autumn); similar to the care we give to most other plants, I would rather err on the side of less water (periodic draught) for orchids. 2. Using rainwater. Fresh rainwater here in the northeast is clean and cool. We can let the pot soak in the rainwater about half or two-thirds the height (of the container) for about 2 – 3 hours. After complete soaking, now we have to gently tip the pot to drain all the excess water (if there are no drainage holes). This method also works wonderfully. Similar to cacti and succulents, there is a method for determining the frequency of watering: If you see the orchids leaves turgid (stiff to the touch) and full of (green) color, then you can hold off the water for a few days. If the leaves are a bit droopy and easy to fold (soft), then you can water the plant. Always make sure the (exposed) roots are healthy and there is no water logging in the pot at the bottom.
The difficulty of handling commercially grown orchids is this: They usually come in double containers or pots. There is the external pot (for aesthetics, for conveniently placing on a work table for beauty) and then there is the inner transparent container with drainage holes. So, when we just add water to the plant with double container system the excess water does not drain away. It has to slowly evaporate from the bottom – this may take days. And in the process the root system may get damaged; the obvious visual sign is shrunken roots (or dehydrated shriveled brown colored roots). Here I have touched on the main issues related to the care and potting of orchids. For food you can give a very dilute solution of fertilizer suitable for flower plants. Generally with good soft illumination (indirect sunlight) the plant can synthesize its own food. There is plenty of valuable plant care information on the Internet for orchids. Now about fertilizing: So far I have not given much feeding (fertilizer) to the two orchids. There are some issues like the source of nitrogen (non urea type) and the hardness of water, etc. I will address these matters at a later date. For now I am using dilute general-purpose fertilizer (Miracle-Gro 20-20-20, Jobe’s flower sticks) for the orchids. First thing we learn with any plant is – how not to kill it, with excess watering or careless repotting. It seems plants too are susceptible to virus and fungus. To be on the safe side, it is better to handle orchids with clean hands (with gloves) to avoid virus problems. I did notice virus problems with gladiolus bulbs; luckily they recovered on their own and produced healthy blooms the following year. I did not destroy them because they are too precious for me. At one time we had almost fifty healthy purple gladioli. Due to neglect or heavy spring storm downpours we lost most of them. What can one say? You keep on learning something or other with gardening!
