Indoor Orchid Watering?

[rapidan]

Just wondering how you indoor growers water. Milk jug? Sprayer? Just the sink? Other?

[orchidlady]

Just the sink.

Susan

[tcatl]

Once a month with a watering can for fertilizer, as needed with a pitcher of plain water, and spray the moss on top of the bark when humidity drops. Week before fertilize, take to sink, put finger over drain hole and flood, then leave in sink to drain. Pretty much the same with the non-orchid plants, but use the shower because they won't fit in the sink.

[Kmac]

Weekly I take them all to the sink (I have between 55 & 60, I think) for a good soak. This also lets me examine each one individually, and clean the shelves if needed. So, I soak them & fertilize them (3 out of 4 weeks...the last week of the month they are flushed with plain water), look them over carefully, and them return them to their shelves. Some (smaller ones or those who like damper conditions) need a mid-week watering, and I do that with milk jugs. I water mostly with rain water, and if it is too cold, I add a bit of hot tap water. This routine is all new this year...a year ago I had many fewer orchids, and they got much more haphazard care. Sometimes as I warm their water, I feel a bit like I am a "concierge" for them, but they seem to approve of the new level attention, as I have a fair number of blooms and buds, so I guess its worth it!

[cakedaddy]

Jeez Kathi! You are one busy woman! I do the same, but I only have sixteen. I do have limited space being that I rent a condo.

[Kmac]

I know, I know. It doesn't take as long as it sounds though...really.

Only 16, huh? I once had only 16 ;-).

[EMos]

Hi Jeremy, thanks for starting this very interesting thread, I hope many people will contribute to it.

I grow my orchids on a window sill , and over time I have developed a system where I put three or four pots together into a plastic draining container, and when I water I lift the container and not the individual pots. The containers rest on a tray of pebbles or I sit them above the tray by putting some pot feet below; this way the water from the pots can continue to drain and it also allows some air below the pots. I found that this method saved me time as I now have about 50 orchids.
I have added a couple of pictures below to make it easier to understand how I do it.

Orchid pots into plastic draining containers on my window sill and on a shelf


I water twice weekly in summer and weekly in winter. I use a fertilizer weekly.
I either take the container with the orchid pots to the sink or use a plastic tray to collect the water upon watering so that I can re-use the water. It is also a practical way that avoid me the trip to the sink every time and I can almost water on the spot.

Watering and collecting water for re-use


I use a watering can with a small sprout as you can see from the picture above, and water only the roots. I give all the plants a complete flush, roots and leaves everything one a month.

Cheers
Eric

[Janet]

I use semi-hydroponics for media, so it's a bit different. The pots all sit in trays that can old some water. So I can just use a watering can and water pretty freely twice a week at this time of year, once with fertilizer and once without. Extra water pours out and sits in the bottom of the tray and evaporates. My orchids are mostly all together under eithe fluorescent lights or an HID system and I have a ceiling fan running all the time, which helps evaporate the water and increases the humidity. Once or twice during the winter I try to haul them batch by batch into the shower, let the shower run for a few minutes, stop, let it run again an hour later or so, then put them back. This takes several days to get through them all, but it does give me a better chance to inspect them and gives them a realy thorough watering.

[jrfehon]

I do the same as Kathi and have around 70 orchids. I'm still perfecting my system but I know that in the winter it takes a week for all of them to dry out (I live in Pennsylvania so the furnace dries them out pretty quickly). And since they're all now in bark mixes they dry out at the same time. I water on the weekends when I have time to really inspect each one and give them some TLC. In the summer they all go outside.

-Jason

[Kmac]

In the summer they all go outside.

Oh, yes...mine too. Then I can flush them with water using the garden hose, and they drain on the patio. Much easier!