hi everyone this is Noelle and I'm here at Casa Verde which is our growing
facility for Petitti Garden Centers and I'm so happy to be here because it's
wonderful being around all these beautiful blooming orchids and
bromeliads behind me I'm going to talk to you about orchids today because we're
just gonna focus on the care of some of the easiest orchids out there there are
known as moth orchids or Phalaenopsis orchids I do have a couple others that
I'll talk to you about in just a moment the reason we like growing Phalaenopsis
orchids as they are a beginner orchid and where people do not have success
with orchids is generally because they overwater them so I want you to keep
that in the back of your mind when you are caring for orchids of any kind they
do not need to be watered heavily these are the types of plants most of them
grow up on top of trees they're what they call an epiphytic plant so it's an
air plant they sit on top of larger trees and they're absorbing humidity
nutrients water right out of the air so again trying to keep those roots on the
slightly drier side is a good idea okay so let's start out with lighting
lighting for your Phalaenopsis orchid is going to be bright indirect
light so that means no Sun folks you really do not want direct sunlight
coming through the windows and hitting their foliage if you have a bright sunny
window what you want to do is you want to pull that plant away from the window
so it's not getting direct light on it okay a northern exposure window is
perfect for Phalaenopsis because it is all indirect light so that's the
lighting that they prefer again you can use artificial lighting right around the
14-hour mark for artificial lighting so in offices and things where you don't
have windows you can definitely use the artificial lighting to take care of this
plant the next thing that we should talk about is the watering again I mentioned
watering this plant what you want to do is you want to
water with room temperature or lukewarm water and you want to run it through the
the soil base that is in this pot lots of orchids will be grown in a bark type
mixture some will be grown in a moss type mixture the bark mixture is always
going to dry out and drain a lot faster the moss mixture is going to hold on to
the moisture so you do have to figure out what type of soil you have and then
of course touch go ahead and see if that soil still has moisture and it normally
with a four-inch Phalaenopsis orchid in the winter it can be watered once about
every two to three weeks believe it or not the smaller mini Phalaenopsis orchid
I have a smaller one right here it's in a teeny tiny like 2 to 3 inch pot it
might need watering about once every week ok so just be aware of that that of
course your watering is going to vary from your pot size and your sole holding
capacity as well in the pot the other thing about watering orchids love
humidity they naturally grow in the rain forest so spray misting them in the
morning putting them on a humidity tray clustering them together with other
foliage plants like the philodendron that like humidity is a really good idea
try to keep that humidity around these plants they love it temperatures so this
is kind of tricky temperatures on orchids help them go into bud and bloom
phase what they're looking for ideally is a cooler evening temperature and then
about 15 to 20 degree rise in temperature during the day I know it can
be difficult in the household at night maybe around the 60 degree mark and then
during the day if you get up to 70 degrees 75 degrees not bad okay and that
work is really going to appreciate that and the temperature difference is really
going to help them set your buds and your blooms for
as far as your soil is concerned we talked about bark or moss and when do
you repot these guys well if their roots are sticking out of the soil these gray
roots are air roots and believe me they want to be out of the soil they do not
want to be potted in this pot so most of the time orchids can stay in a pot one
to three years after you have purchased them and
they'll be fine they like to be pot bound and if the air roots are coming
out that's not a problem whatsoever you're gonna repot them normally in the
spring when we tend to repot most of our houseplants and go ahead and use the
same potting material that you have in that pot right now so if there's bark in
the pot repot with bark if there's moss in the pot repot with moss the other
thing that I was going to tell you about the orchids is that with fertilizing
these plants do really well with a weekly weak fertilizer meaning that if
you put a water-soluble fertilizer into their water and then you're watering
them weekly or once every other week that's fine for example you have Miracle
Grow at the house and you go ahead and dilute that in water
probably half two quarter strength and then use that in your water regimen
that's gonna do really well for the orchids you can also use an orchid
fertilizer and there's lots of varieties out there I have a spa Mose organic
orchid food okay this one they tend to recommend with your watering about once
every two weeks okay the same thing this is kind of a neat product this is
miracle grows orchid spray this one you spray once a week right on the foliage
of the plant avoid your blossoms avoid your flowering stems but the foliage the
soil of that pot you can spray this right on there once a week so that's a
neat way of watering or excuse me fertilizing the orchids weekly at a weak
rate if you will so that works out really really nicely a
couple things that I want to mention to you if you are growing a Phalaenopsis
orchid and these leaves are starting to become they should be olive green
naturally but if they start to become darker like a very dark evergreen color
it usually means they're not exposed to enough white and the opposite effect if
you see red in the leaves like red edges or maybe red streaks through the foliage
that usually indicates too much light so do look at your leaves and the health of
your foliage with the Phalaenopsis orchids okay now the one last thing that
everybody always asks is how do I get my Phalaenopsis orchid to rebloom and this
is one of the few that we have really really good success with getting it to
rebloom right after its bloom cycle finishes so I will have Taylor take some
close-ups to show you but what you're looking at on your flowering stem is
you're looking at the first flower that comes into bloom this is also going to
be the first flower that will also fall off of the stem when it falls off and
when all these flowers are done blooming and it could take months you know two
three four months for Phalaenopsis orchids to finish their flower cycle but
when it is finished and go back down to where this first flower was you'll see
kind of a scar there you are going to clip it right above that first flower
scar and there's these there are cells there that are really really productive
it'll make that stem branch into two branches with more buds on it so that's
how you keep your Phalaenopsis blooming if for whatever reason the branch goes
ahead and the stem kind of dies back yellows out that's okay
it'll dry out what I want you to do is I want you to count one two leaf nodes
above the foliage and then clip right above the foliage and then you will
start to see new stems for me it may take a few months it may take a year
just remember light temperature and fertilizer are
definitely the key for the Phalaenopsis orchids to repeat bloom for you be
patient and always keep them on the drier side of watering okay
you can use ice cubes too so that's another tip people ask if they can put
ice cubes in their pot yeah four inch pot if you can fit about No one two
three ice cubes around once a week or once every other week yeah that'll work
out just fine we tend to prefer using that lukewarm water method but if ice
cubes are handy and that works for you not a problem whatsoever
one other plant that I wanted to mention was the bamboo orchid and I did want to
tell you this is kind of an intermediate type orchid this orchids a little bit
different if you look at it it has a stem that has like nodes like bamboo
okay and these stems are very very thick so they hold a lot of water so if you
think you're gonna let these guys dry out slightly before you water them you
really want to let this one dry out really well before you water and again
because it's holding a lot of water and its stem just like a succulent would be
doing okay so be aware that if you're growing a Dendrobium orchid they do like
to be very dry before you re water them they also like to be very pop pound just
like the feeling abscess they do like a little bit more light so if you can
expose them to some direct sunlight that's fine and they tend to like a
little bit warmer temperatures than the feeling OPS's as well so just be aware
that there's a couple different well there's thousands of different orchids
but these are probably one of the two most common that you'll come across
they're both great air purifiers and they look beautiful in your home enjoy