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New to orchids

I've always stayed away from orchid growing due to their maintenance and price but alas my wife-to-be brought home a phalaenopsis which was given as a gift.

My question is... can we use RO water and how will it affect the growth/development?

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Hi Charles,

If I remember correctly you grow Nepenthes don't you? Orchids (especially phals) are way easier so take it easy!
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R/O water is best for orchids but it is a good idea to add a bit of orchid fertilizer (1/8 - 1/4 strength) to your water. Water with this light fertilizer water every other time you water since they need a bit more nutrients than Nepenthes. When you don't use the fertilzer water use plain R/O to help wash free the excess salts left in the soil by unabsorbed fertilizer.

It is best if you use only urea free or nitrate orchid fertilizer. Most fertilizers are Urea Nitrogen and orchids can not use this fertilizer as quickly as Ammoniacal or Nitrate Nitrogen. these forms for fertilizer are about twice the price of stuff like Miracle Grow but when using only 1/8th of a tea spoon for a gallon of water for one plant, it'll last "forever".

Phals only need watering once a week or so since they are used to growing epiphytically in trees with their roots exposed to the air. If possible make sure they have at least 50% humidity or mist them once a day before dark, so no water sits on them during the night - don't mist the flowers. I assume your plant was potted in miniature wood chips called "orchid bark" this is usually the only potting media and shows you the importance of air circulating at the roots. If your plant was potted in peat type soil then you will want to change the potting mix as soon as the bloom fades.

Orchids do not generally want/like the kind of light used to grow Nepenthes (bright) so you don't need to do anything special to give them light. Sitting them next to a well lit window will usually do it.

Hope that helps some!
 
Wow... easier than I thought. Thanks Swords...

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Hi

Congrats on your new orchid. :) Swords pretty much covered everything but I just wanted to say too many people think orchids are plants that must be grown under very specialized hothouses conditions. But there are lots of varieties that are well suited to home growing. Most of the ones you see being sold in garden shops like Lowes are the "easy care" ones...dendrobiums and phalaenopsis. Good bloomers too! So don't be afraid to try some more. You'll find they are as addicting as CPs.
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Suzanne
 
... Thanks for the info Suzanne.
It's easier to find more varieties here in Canada than CPs, but they're still quite costly. But one thing's for sure, they are gorgeous.

We sat in front of the phalaenopsis the other day and just stared at it. It has 3 flowers with another which just started to bloom.

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Orchid flowers are captivating. If you can find a local specialist Orchid greenhouse you'll find the numbers of species and colors mind blowing. I've never been a fan of garden plant flowers. I guess always thinking them more for women and carnivorous plants for men (am I sexist?) but upon buying my first inexpensive orchid hybrid a few years ago I can say I do like flowers, Orchid flowers! My current favorites are the slipper orchids (Paphiopedilum & Phragmipedium) but no one can choose a better starter orchid than a Phal for ease of care.
It's too bad they only bloom once a year but in most orchids the bloom lasts a long time. In some instances that bloom will last a very long time. I had a white Phal hybrid which bloomed 2 and 3 flowers at a time on the same stalk for almost a year! I suppose there won't be any blooms this year as it probably needs a good rest and to put on some growth before it flowers again.
 
So exactly what do I do after the flowers have expired?  The Phal that we have has 4 flowers now and about another 4 buds which may bloom.

BTW, to answer your Q on Neps.. I grow N.Ventricosa and N.Tobaica but I'm looking for N.Hamata and N.Bicalcarata(?) to add to my collection.

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Whenever one of my Phals quits flowering I cut the flower stalk back to the bract where the first flower appeared on the stem. This usually leaves 3 or more dormant bracts (small triangular dry-leaf like things) lower down on the flower stalk. I water with a phosphorus heavy orchid fertilizer for a  month or so and usually it will kick out a few more flowers from a lower bract. Otherwise It could also create a tiny new plant on that flower stalk called a kheki.

If you cut back the flowerstalk and after a couple months nothing at all happens then the plant is probably exhausted. In this case you should completely remove the stalk (at the base of the plant) and begin fertilizing with a balanced or slightly heavy nitrogen fertilizer to initiate new growth.

You can skip the pruning the flower stalk and trying to force new blooms part. Just cut the entire stalk off once it quits flowering the first time and start feeding with the nitrogen heavy fertilizer. But I figure it takes so long to get them blooming I might as well have them around as long as possible!
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this is in responce to the only bloomin once a year comment someone made, i have a small collection of "Lowes" orchids that i have aquirred over the last year all but 2 were bought without flowers and on sale. one of the 2 with flowers is a phal that i picked up this spring and quit blooming about 3 months ago and three weeks ago i noticed its flower stock growing and forming new buds and will probably bloom again in a couple weeks( that makes 2 blooming periods in 6 months) i also purchaced an occidium(i know thats not spelled right but its a "dancing lady orchid", lots of smaller yellow flowers) that i purchaced last winter out of flower but it looked healthy and i didnt have one. anyways it started blooming about the end of june and the flowers lasted several months untill the dead flowers far out numbered the live and i cut off the the flower stock. well imagine my surprise whe i was watering this plant a couple weeks ago and low and behold there is another flower stock coming up(not sure how well i like this i was about ready to repot it because the last time it bloomed i had to set its pot inside a larger one to prevent the wieght of the flowers from tipping the pot). another double bloomer in 6 month period. these 2 plants also are NOT in any special conditions they are growing on a NE facing window sill in the north east corner of Montana(a place known for a distinct LACK of humidity......i just grow them in clay pots in trays that containe shpagnum moss) anyways this is just my experiance and being that i am having quite i time getting Dendrobiums to do well for me has me mystified as to why these other 2 are doing so well.

Sheridan S.
 
  • #10
Josh

My favorites are the paphs and phrags as well.
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I've always had a fondness for the slipper orchids stemming from my first childhood discovery of a cypripedium growing in the woods behind our house. I was awstruck! Unfortunately in my childish ignorance, I dug it up and moved it up closer to my house and of course it died. If only I had known then of their rarity and special requirements. I'd love to have some cyps one day but they are so expensive.
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So for now, I'll enjoy my paphs and phrags and all my other orchids.
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  • #11
Rattler,
As I explained, Phals will flower continually from the same inflorescence (flower stalk) if the plant is in good health and growing conditions. I had a pure white Phal. amabilis hybrid flower off and on in about 6 flushes for almost a year but this is the SAME flower stalk and thus, NOT a new bloom event.

You cut off the flower stalk of the Oncidium ("dancing lady"?) and it grew another  flower stalk. I'm quite sure that it sent up a new stalk from a different pseudobulb as Oncidiums do not repeatedly flower from old bulbs (i.e. bulbs which have already flowered). The old bulbs are simply used as nutrient stores to fuel the next growth. If it did rebloom from the same bulb and in the same growng year (it happens every now and then) then that is very exceptional. Each orchid has a blooming season, just like any other plant.

Edit: Dendrobiums die off and then begin to grow again. When the plant dies back after flowering water it only rarely and do not fertilize it (do mist the bare or few leaved stalk every day or two to keep it from drying out totally). When the light intensity increases in spring the plant will begin to send up another growth. When this happens you can begin watering and fertilizing as normal for Orchids (1/8-1/4 strength Urea Free Orchid fertilizer) The new growth(s) should mature and flower by next autumn.

Plantakiss,
Yup, the Cypripediums are always very expensive. It's rare to find a single growth immature plant of any of the 45 or so species for less than $50-$100 (and usually more). The poached plants off Ebay not included!  
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  • #12
Some Dendrobiums, such as Den. nobile and its numerous hybrids, are deciduous and have that distinctive winter die-off.  I have a Den aphyllum that does the same.  But many others, such as the phalaenopsis type Dendrobiums at Lowes, etc., do not do that.  They keep plugging away, growing new pseudobulbs and blooming once from each.

A good choice for a long blooming orchid is Encyclia cochleata.  It's known as the cockleshell orchid and is the one whose flowers look like little purple and white octopi.  I've heard they can be in perpetual bloom.  But, as Swords mentioned, plants need good health and growing conditions for longer blooming.  I'd like to think I give my orchids good health, but good growing conditions are scarce during the 8+ months they spend inside each year.

Regarding sources for Cyps; check with Spangle Creek Labs, which sells small Cyp. seedlings for something in the range of $6.  You'll need to baby them and be patient, but it's an affordable entry into that world.
 
  • #13
Hey thanks alot Bruce!
I will have to contact these fellow Minnesotans on some seedlings-maybe I can save on shipping by driving there to pick up my order. I've lived in MN my whole 28 years and I have no idea where Bovey is!
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I do not grow any Dendrobiums except D. polysema which was sold to me as D. macrophylla. The differences between these two are subtle. I did not know until I got home and began researching the flower against the descriptions and photos in my books. This Dendrobium species is not deciduous but I was somehow put under the impression that any non-Latourea ("Antelope Orchid") section Dendrobiums were deciduous. Maybe I'll have to branch out to more Dendrobiums after all!
 
  • #14
Bovey is about an hour west of Duluth. I expected to be in Duluth for a work-related trip back in June and, since I'm a geologist, had thought about renting a car for a day and heading into the Iron Range. The trip fell through when then boss' boss forgot to approve the trip in time.

Other sources for Cyps, of larger stature, include Cyp. Haven, Rocky Mountain. Orchids, and Vermont Ladyslipper Company. There are a couple others, but I'll have to do a little searching to find them. I'm not organized enough to keep track of them.
 
  • #15
Fear not, that's far more contacts than I'll ever need! Thanks again!
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  • #16
I have a miltoniopsis hybrid and it had one flower stalk when i got it, then it formed another one from the same pseudobulb, then it started another stalk from one of the the new growths before it finished growing.
 
  • #17
Ok... so the time has come that the original 3 flowers that came with the orchid are wilting now. Since then, 3 new flowers have bloomed with more on the way. Should I cut the 3 wilting flowers off and leave the rest alone?
Yea or Nay?
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  • #18
You may cut them off be sure to dip your knife of scissors in rubbing alcohol first to sterilize it to avoid introducing pathogens to your orchid. Likely however, they will shrivel rapidly and drop off in a day or two by themselves.
 
  • #19
Thanks Josh... I just wasn't sure if leaving them was detrimental to the other flowers (as with african violets which usually need to be deadheaded).
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  • #20
I don't let a new orchid do much flowering. It's experienced stress and that sometimes encourages a plant to put everything it has into flowering and trying to reproduce. I like to see some flowers, but then I cut spikes and try to encourage new roots and leaves, in that order.
 
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