How to care for an orchid? Orchid care at home

Today in the article we will talk about how to properly care for an orchid. The material will consist of the following items:

• General rules for the care of the orchid


• How to properly transplant the orchid


• How to water the orchid


• How to choose a substrate for an orchid

General rules for the care of an orchid

Remember once and for all that an orchid is an epiphyte. Simply speaking, it lives on trees in natural conditions, for this reason it is impossible to plant it in the ground, you need a separate substrate. In stores you can buy a ready-made substrate for an orchid, although you can cook it yourself. To do this, you need a dry bark of pine, put it in a pot of water and boil, then dry it and leave it for two days. Boil again to kill all bacteria and microorganisms. Next, cut the bark into several small pieces, about 2 centimeters. Add moss to sphagnum powder, this completes cooking.

Then you need to select a pot for an orchid, note that a transparent or white translucent pot is better, because it does not lend itself to heating by the sun's rays, even the roots of the plant will not heat up. Much more preferable pot of plastic, as in a pot of clay flowers quickly take root to the porous walls, and this threatens injuries during transplantation. Pot choose with holes, since orchids need excellent ventilation. Also it's good because the water will not stagnate for too long.

Next, you need to simplify the care of the orchid, to do it simply - to the bottom of the pot, put the drainage, which is needed to move the liquid. You can use pieces of foam plastic about one centimeter in size as drainage. The layer should not be too small or large, it should occupy about 20% of the pot volume. Then put the substrate for the growth of the orchid, and directly lay out the orchid. Be careful, do not put pressure on the roots of the plant in any case. When you lay out the plant - you can cover the rest of the pot with a substrate.

As the orchid grows in the room, it does not tolerate very warm air and high temperatures, so you need to take care of airing the room with the plant. In the form of soil for an orchid, you can use prepared land with sand for flowers. Although it is much more convenient for the special soil used to grow this plant, you can buy it at a hardware store. As a drainage system is suitable as foam and stone, but they should have a small size - 1 centimeter. Also, note that it is too often impossible to replant a plant, it is done once in three years.

How to properly transplant an orchid

It is necessary to change the earth only when the crust is destroyed and the earth becomes denser. As a rule, the substrate comes to disrepair for 3 years, so it should be changed with such frequency. You can use substrates from household stores, it's called "substrate for orchid."Since in the spring the plants grow faster and absorb more easily useful substances, it is better to transplant at this time of year. The plant is in any case undergoing great stress, but if you spend the transplant in autumn or winter - it can not withstand stress and die. You can not do the transplantation when the plant blooms, otherwise it will end immediately.

As mentioned earlier, transparent pots made of plastic are ideal for orchids. The fact is that the photosynthesis of the roots of an orchid is exactly the same as that of a leaf, so sunlight must flow to the roots. During transplantation, they get rid of the empty and dry roots together with the worn out substrate. Carefully get rid of the dead roots, which reached the walls of the pot, in order to conduct the procedure, you need to water the plant 50 minutes before the transplantation so that the roots and the substrate receive a sufficient amount of liquid. Due to this, the roots are easier to move away from the pot walls. Also there will be pieces of bark, they can not be disposed of, even if the roots are pressed against them.

To improve the rooting and growth of plants, you need to water the orchid for several months, as a rule, it's quite enough for two months of watering. Add Zircon to the water, about 3 drops per 200 milliliters of water. After transplantation, in any case, the flowering will be delayed for a couple of months, but in rare cases, immediately after the transplantation, the flowering of the plant begins. To the end it is not clear how the stress will affect the state of the orchid.

How to water the orchid

It is necessary to take into account so much important nuance as watering a plant. It is from the watering that the speed of flowering and orchid plants will depend. They easily bloom, but you need to control the development and do everything possible so that during the growth period the plant will get all the necessary substances. First of all, you need to take care of enough water. As soon as the vegetation is over, it is possible to reduce the amount of watering the plant.

How to determine the frequency of irrigation? This depends on the substrate composition, room temperature and the amount of incoming light. It should be borne in mind that it is better to fill the orchid with water than pour it. Since the orchid is attributed to epiphytic plants, it copes with the temporary decrease in moisture in the soil without problems. Pour water into the plant carefully, the water should be soft, so that it does not have rough salts. For this, boiled water with room temperature or rainwater is suitable. The water temperature should be 2 degrees higher than the room temperature. Note that the top layer of the substrate should not be too dry, remember that the time of year affects the amount of moisture in the substrate. The plant needs more water in the summer season.

Begin to water the plant from above, if it is planted in pots. If the plant in the basket - immerse it in water for several minutes, then let drain water and return to the place. Water the plant in the summer three times a week, then wait for the complete dryness of the outer layer of moss and let it rest one day. In winter, the plant lives in conditions of low moisture, but you will immediately understand when to water the plant, since there is a slight wrinkling. It is also necessary to take into account the living conditions of orchids, often the way of watering depends on different circumstances, for example, on the temperature level, the amount of fresh air, the pot volume, the drying of the pine bark and sphagnum and so on. Orchids can not live in conditions of high moisture, so they can not stand water stagnation. It is preferable to water the plant in the morning, it is undesirable to water the orchid on cold, hot or cloudy days.

Which substrate to choose for the orchid

? For any orchid, the ideal substrate is the pine bark, but it must first be boiled and crushed to be divided into small pieces measuring 2 centimeters. Then clean the bark of dust, and divide into two parts, one with small and the other with large particles. Preferably the bark from dry pines, but you need to immediately throw out resinous or rotten pieces. You can cook the bark immediately after grinding, but this will require boiled or rainwater. Boil the bark for about an hour.

Then drain and cool the pine bark, pour it on a baking tray with a thin layer. This is convenient because it immediately cools and dries, because the bark should not be wet. Then you can add a small part of the moss-sphagnum, about 20% of the amount of bark. But carefully read the moss, it is possible that microorganisms remained in it. Then cut into pieces of 3 centimeters. If you have a ground orchid - add more moss, about 60%.Also, to improve the effect, you will need red peat and calcareous crumb.


Correct lighting and temperature regime for petunia
It is preferable to look after an orchid on a western or eastern window. But you can do it in the room itself under a fluorescent lamp that illuminates the plant with white light. Suitable for care and a lamp with useful substances. You need more light in autumn and winter, while the light day takes about 14-15 hours. The best temperature for a plant in the summer is about +25 degrees Celsius, and in winter +18 degrees. To make it grow faster, you need to change the temperature from time to time, for example, at night to reduce it by three degrees, and in the daytime increase. Spray the leaves of the plant at least three times a day, preferably more.