Orchids are exquisite flowers of extraordinary beauty. These exotic beauties are favorites in home gardening. For many indoor plant lovers it seems very laborious and painstaking care of orchids at home. But it is not so. To verify this, you should familiarize yourself with the conditions for growing this marvelous flower: transplant, propagation, care.
Caring for a room orchid
In order for the orchid to feel comfortable in the room, you need to properly care for it: regularly and abundantly water it, while feeding it, ensure optimal air humidity, maintain the required temperature regime. All these procedures are important, do not ignore them. But it should be borne in mind that orchids have many varieties, each of which needs to provide a special microclimate in the room. It is important to remember that regions with a warm climate are the natural habitat for orchids in nature.
Lighting
Growing orchids at home? Caring for them involves a number of activities, one of which is providing the flower with the right lighting. Under conditions of natural growth, these flowers receive a moderate bright, but diffuse lighting during daylight hours. To grow orchids and care at home, you must create the same microclimate as in the wild. It is important to remember that for normal growth and abundant flowering, the daylight hours for orchids should be at least 13 hours, including in winter.
If you put an orchid in pots on the south window, home care is complicated by the shading device. The fact is that when direct sunlight hits the leaves, burn spots remain on the leaves, and the buds fall off. If you put a flower on the north window, you will need lighting not only in winter but also in summer. The best place for orchids are windows located on the west or east side of the room.
Humidity and air temperature
Orchids are tropical plants that grow in humid climates. It is important to remember this when leaving at home. Orchids grow well and bloom indoors with a humidity of 60-70%, which is quite real in the summer. But in winter, when the air is dried by heating appliances, you should use humidifiers and other means. For example, a container with flowers is placed in a tray with wet moss or expanded clay, which retains moisture for a long time. However, the best conditions for orchids and home care (photo for review are presented below) in winter is an indoor greenhouse. It should be separated by a glass or plastic partition.
It is very important to observe the temperature regime when keeping orchids in the room. During the day the air should warm up to 24 ° C, and at night it’s enough 14. During the warm period, it is advisable to take the flower pot out onto the loggia or garden. The plant will get used to temperature changes. In winter, the room with orchids should be ventilated at night, but avoid cold air.
Top dressing
Indoor plants grow in a substrate, limited in volume, and therefore need regular additional nutrition. But fertilizers often should not be used. Feed additives for flowers in the form of specialized liquid mixtures (Bona Forte, for example) are added to the substrate in which the orchid grows, twice a month: when the plant is actively developing and flowering. Orchid does not tolerate excess salt in the soil, which have a negative effect on it. It is important to remember that over-feeding does not bring benefits to the flower, but only harms. Dressing and watering should be alternated. The plant does not need additional nutrition in the winter.
Watering
Orchids have powerful rhizomes, both aerial and underground. They are designed to extract moisture from the ground and store it. Nutrients and water, in small quantities, the flower also preserves in the leaves. It is very important to observe the watering regime when growing orchids. Home care is abundant moisturizing, but not flooding, which is detrimental to the plant. It is important that the substrate in the pot dries between the watering procedures.
There is no permanent watering schedule for pot culture; it is adjusted depending on the season. In the summer, watering is carried out up to three times a week. The water should be soft and warm, ideal melt or rain settled. In the cold period, the frequency of procedures is reduced to one or two times, carried out as necessary, in case of severe drying of the soil.
Flowering Care
A clear sign of orchid preparation for peace are wilted buds. At the same time, the plant retains foliage, but consumes less nutrients, develops more slowly until the flowers again appear on the orchid. Home care (photo below) during this period requires special attention to peduncles. If they retain juiciness and color, you do not need to remove them. There are frequent cases when buds form on these peduncles again, and the formation of rosettes also occurs. When the roots appear, they can be cut and planted in a separate container. If the flowering is completed, the peduncles are blackened and dried, the whole plant is cut to the very base and thrown away. Top dressing during this period is reduced, it is enough to apply fertilizer once a month.
Transfer
A flower purchased at a store does not need a transplant. It can grow in the same pot for several years. But if sphagnum moss was used as soil, transplantation is necessary. In a new soil, the plant does not need to be fertilized immediately. It is important to observe the dry regime, while the orchid will get used to the new environment, it does not even need to be watered. The most important thing is to provide the flower with complete peace. If, upon careful examination, no spots or insects are found on the plant, chemical treatment is not necessary.
In case of transplantation, soil is prepared before it, which includes expanded clay, charcoal, crushed bark of coniferous trees, polystyrene, sphagnum. The pot should be medium in size. If it is too large, the orchid will grow foliage, not bloom. It is best to use a transparent container with slots, this will facilitate monitoring of the root system. The first watering after transplantation should be done after five to six days.
Propagation and care at home
An orchid, subject to certain rules, is bred easily. There are many ways to propagate a flower. One of them is the use of stem processes, which are called "children." They form on flowers with high levels of nitrogen. When the lateral processes appear, the plant needs frequent spraying. Roots will appear very soon, the stems are separated from the flower, processed with powdered charcoal and planted in another container or pot.
Propagation by layering
Horizontally growing orchids belong to sympodial plants, that is, growing horizontally. They have layering. Their formation occurs in flowers with shoots of elongated or thickened shape. Care and propagation of orchids at home in this way is to make the layering awaken. To do this, a small greenhouse is built above the site of kidney formation using a plastic glass.
To achieve high humidity, you can spray moss and the shoot itself. In a month, the buds will awaken and new plants will appear with their own roots and leaves. It is enough to separate them and transplant them to a new place of growth. For better rooting, new plants should be left in the greenhouse for some time.
Vegetative propagation
The above article talks about home care. Propagation of orchids (photo presented for review) of any species and varieties can be carried out vegetatively. The procedure consists in dividing the root into parts with the preservation of pseudobulbs. To plant orchids in this way, adult plants are taken. Each part is planted in a separate pot. New plants are intensively watered and sprayed. The appearance of leaves, shoots indicates that the flower has begun.
Phalaenopsis Orchid Overview
This flower is a herbaceous plant and belongs to the Orchid family. Its homeland is the humid forests of Australia, the Philippines, Southeast Asia. Most phalaenopsis are epiphytic plants, that is, their place of growth is trees. But there are also such varieties that grow on stones. Phalaenopsis was first discovered by a naturalist from Germany in the Moluccas. They got their name in honor of Karl Blum, who at that time headed the Leiden Botanical Garden. The scientist, looking at the flower with binoculars, thought it was a butterfly. Hence the name: phalaenopsis - "like a moth."
The plant has 70 species and is popular with flower growers not only for its exquisite beauty, but also for growing without much hassle. Care at home Phalaenopsis orchid is not difficult. The main thing is to create a microclimate for the plant, close to the conditions of natural growth. This can easily be arranged in an artificial way, taking into account the peculiarities of phalaenopsis.
- A container with soil or a pot is necessary for the flower, as a support.
- The roots of the plant need light and air. They get moisture from the atmosphere, food is taken from the bark.
- This flower is endowed with aerial roots. Stalks in search of food can easily penetrate other pots, so you need to monitor the phalaenopsis orchid. Home care involves trimming long shoots.
The flowers have a variety of colors: purple, white, lilac, green, yellow, red. A contrasting lip stands out against their background.
Phalaenopsis orchid: home care
When growing a flower, it is important to choose the right place for planting, to carry out timely watering and top dressing, to protect the plant from pests, and to maintain the optimum temperature in the room. Phalaenopsis grows well and blooms in a ventilated room with an air humidity of at least 30%. In a dry microclimate, leaves lose their elasticity and flowers fall. At high humidity, the roots begin to rot.
This flower does not need to be sprayed even in extreme heat, as water flowing into the axils of the leaves causes them to rot. Watering is carried out only when the soil is completely dry, but the phalaenopsis orchid cannot remain dry for a long time. Home care is necessary when the plant needs watering. Dressing the flower is carried out no more than once every half a month. At the same time , Kemira-Lux complex fertilizer is added to the water . One gram per liter of liquid is enough.
Transplanted once every two to three years. During this time, the substrate has time to coalesce and becomes unusable. You can buy a ready-made earth mixture or cook it yourself.
Orchid dendrobium, photo
Home care for this plant is considered simple. But this is the opinion of experienced gardeners. Beginners should remember that the dendrobium orchid needs systematic attention. Home care involves good lighting, but not direct sunlight. The best place to place the flower is a window on the south side. North direction is strictly contraindicated. Depending on the intensity of lighting, the leaves change their color. If there is not enough light, they turn dark green, and, conversely, when it is excess, they acquire a light green hue. Yellow leaves indicate a lack of lighting.
It is very important, especially during the period of active growth, to observe the temperature regime. Optimal for daylight hours is 25 ° C, at night - 20. The plant needs a daily temperature difference, otherwise it will not bloom. He does not tolerate extreme heat. Like other plants, growing dendrobiums without watering is impossible.
This procedure is carried out as necessary, but always after the soil is completely dry. To do this, put the flower pot in warm water for a quarter of an hour. Then they take it out, and after the liquid drains, put it in its usual place. The dendrobium orchid needs top dressing. Home care involves the introduction of complex fertilizers, starting from the flowering period and ending with the formation of new shoots.
Propagation Features
When leaving at home, the reproduction of orchid dendrobium is possible only in a vegetative way. The seed method is not used, since the flower will grow slowly, and it is very difficult to collect planting material. And yet, in the seeds collected at home, there are no characteristics of the mother plant variety. Orchid propagates in one of the ways: using layering, cuttings or dividing the bush. The procedure is similar for all types of plants.