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Some Basic Concepts for Growing Orchid
Species
Congratulations!
You have chosen as your avocation (or pastime) the most
interesting and enjoyable field in all of botany! After all,
orchids are by far the largest plant family, the most
diverse, and the most written-about group of plants.
Fortunately, orchids are among the most adaptable of plants.
A testament to this is the fact that our nursery somehow
manages to grow maybe 2000 different species, whose natural
habitats range from sea level to over 10,000 ft in
elevation! Our greenhouses are not closed-in, so we have no
control over temperature at all. Some of our plants come
from wet montane forests, while others come from hot dry
lowlands. We do enjoy good growing conditions here in
windward Maui. However, there have been many instances where
customers of ours, with seemingly less-than-ideal growing
conditions, have grown a particular species far better than
us -- winning cultural awards from the American Orchid
Society, etc.
Because every grower's conditions vary so greatly, it is
impossible for me to tell you exactly how to grow orchid
species. What we can do in this short article is to lay out
some basic concepts to help you formulate or refine your own
cultural techniques. The best source for specifics is still
other local growers in your area. Join a local society to
meet growers more experienced than yourself, who will
generally be very nice about helping you. This article does
not for the most part, discuss particular fertilizers,
insecticides, or potting medias per se.
1. Orchid
culture is about "a balancing of factors". The different
factors are light, humidity, water, temperature, air
movement, and feeding. When one of the factors is out of
balance, another might be adjusted to compensate. For
example, if you can't give your plants an ideal amount of
light, you might then cut down on the watering and
fertilizer. Conversely, if your plants are receiving high
light, you might compensate by watering more often and
feeding more. If your plants are getting root-rot, you could
add more air movement and cut-down on how often you water.
One time, we had a large group of identical vandaceous
mericlones that were growing well under extra shade. A
fungal or bacterial problem emerged that was spreading like
wild-fire. We could see that it would soon ruin the entire
crop. It happened in the dead of "winter", when days are
shorter, temperatures are cool, and sunlight is weak. Rather
than go crazy spraying a bunch of toxic fungicides, we
"balanced the factors" by simply removing the extra layer of
shade-cloth, thereby increasing the sunlight. The infection
immediately stopped dead in its tracks. You see, the
particular disease organism thrives in a very specific niche
of shade, humidity, and moisture. We merely changed the
niche slightly. Regarding fungicides in general, I've always
felt that it is far better to change the way you are growing
the plants than to try to make up for wrong culture by
spraying these potentially-dangerous chemicals. There are
appropriate uses of fungicides also, but too often they are
used solely because of some misplaced belief that they are a
cure-all.
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