Experience in watering orchids

Wan Yunkun

In ancient times, it is said that the cultivation of orchids is "watered for three years" and "orchids are known only when the art is difficult". Indeed, it is quite difficult to find this watering in orchid cultivation as dill gets longer and longer. In fact, the root hair is not good mostly because the water supply is not suitable to make the transpiration difference of the plant material too big, because the characteristics of the plant material are not well understood, so it can not be accurately mastered.

For example, when I grow ordinary mountain grass, I use the general humus open-air cultivation, every time with a pot filled with fresh tap water to water the face, so that the thick pipe also grows well. But it does not work in the variety of grass, it is not suitable directly, under the same management, the root emptiness is either caused by dry or water stains. As a result, I especially admire the Lao Lan family who use soil species. They look at the basin water supply, knock the basin to listen to the sound to know the water, which makes me admire them as much as God.

They grow high-quality orchid seedlings because of their flexible water supply. It gives me the feeling that I have met a calligraphy master who does not choose a pen to produce a fine work. When we calligraphers are still choosing which pen to write well, those holy hand bald pens like Mr. Sha can write fine calligraphy with a special flavor, and there is no way to reach that level if we don't have enough skills. Only to look up at them.

Does Yilan have any pioneering and innovative places? The answer must be yes, with the emergence of a variety of plants behind, soft, hard, mixed, plain can be said to be dazzling. In this case, watering has also ushered in opportunities for reform, such as the automatic water supply system in Dalanchang, artificial flood spraying for small-scale planting, soaking basins and edge water supplies for planting orchids on balconies, and so on.

Watering is easy, but watering well is not easy, this is a systematic problem, poor disposal will lead to rotten roots, empty roots and cause a lot of diseases.

1. Misunderstanding in the selection of water

Recently, when I shared Yilan's experience with Lanyou, he talked about that his precious orchid has been drinking bottled pure water. This is too delicate, and the use of pure water to water orchids is also disadvantageous to its access to some trace elements. In orchid cultivation, it is better to use water that is easy to obtain in nature, and there is no need to specify what kind of water.

The Quran classify river water, rootless water and well water, and give a summary that rootless water and river water are the best, and the alkali content of well water is not easy to use. if there is no water source, it needs to be softened or mixed with vinegar. Rootless water refers to water that falls from the sky without touching the ground. I collected snow water around 2002, but it is not easy to use because it has been stored in a chain for a long time. Moreover, the falling water is now heavily polluted by air, containing sulfur, alkali, salt, acid and many other chemicals, which is no longer as clean as it was when there were no chemical plants in ancient times, so it is not recommended to use it.

Now tap water is basically supplied uniformly except away from cities or villages and towns, so tap water has become the first choice for people. Fresh tap water can fully meet the growth needs of orchids, of course, underground water supply is used in some places, there will be hard water phenomena such as excessive alkalinity or chlorine, which is not conducive to the root development of orchids. In view of this, we can store it for about two days or add "enzymes" to soften and neutralize the water before use. The purpose of storing tap water for two days is to volatilize the sterilized chlorine so that it can mix with beneficial bacteria such as "Yilan" and so on.

The mixed water of "enzyme" and "Yilan bacteria" can be used in the cultivation environment of large and small orchids, and it is easy to operate, and it is the favorite blending water of orchids.

The advantage of flushing and watering is that the dust on the blade can be washed away under the impact of water pressure, and the elasticity of the blade can be refined.

Second, the best time to water

The best time for watering varies from season to season, which should be mastered flexibly, rather than immutable. However, in the choice of watering time, many novices are not sure, the main reason is that office workers, time is not at home at noon is to water the morning and evening all the year round; second, some people who do not care to come out, do not quite understand orchids, so in watering orchids also suffer.

The choice of watering time is very important. Spring, the temperature is not too high generally choose afternoon to evening; summer, the temperature is high and easy to produce steaming phenomenon, it is better to choose watering after 6 o'clock in the afternoon. At this time, the temperature difference is small, and it is not easy for orchids to relax after a day to face the high temperature. during this period of time, the water supply is the favorite of orchids, and it is mentioned that showering promotes cell division. and wash away the turbid gas formed in the orchid basin one day to make its roots breathe smoothly and walk well; in autumn, the temperature gradually cools, and early autumn is regarded as summer water supply. The watering time is slowly adjusted forward after late autumn, because the root system has an obvious demand for temperature, and we do not want to dissipate heat energy through cold water when the temperature is too low, which is not conducive to keeping the roots warm in the basin; in winter, the temperature is the lowest in the four seasons, so watering at noon is the best. The period from 12 noon to 15:00 is when the temperature is the highest in the day, and the temperature drop produced during watering is small, which is beneficial to root respiration and winter bud gestation during hibernation.

If the above four seasons watering time period is selected on a sunny day as the background, then how to flexibly master watering in non-sunny days?

In overcast and rainy days, the temperature drop without sunlight during the day is also relatively small, which seems to be small, but I often find that the water in the orchid room moves very fast at this time, which may have something to do with the magical adjustment of nature. Watering in cloudy and rainy days is the easiest, no scruples, whenever you want to water, there are no adverse reactions and should pay attention to.

Now some large-scale professional planting households are all managed automatically throughout the process. At 24:00, drip irrigation, which is automatically adjusted due to air dryness and humidity, is programmed, so there is no need for people to water it at all. Therefore, the watering method mentioned in this essay is the choice of small-scale planting enthusiasts.

The flood shower gives the orchid a refreshing spirit after bathing, which is the delight of the orchid.

III. Management after watering

Ventilation must be carried out after watering, and the stagnant water in the leaf core should be dried in time to prevent waterlogging. The higher the temperature, the greater the risk. many people know this and handle it carefully to get through it safely, but they often get carelessness in spring, autumn and winter, thinking that the danger has not arrived or has passed.

In spring, the temperature rises slowly, and last year's autumn and winter buds gradually ushered in a growth peak. Waterlogging in the leaf core is easy to hurt when the cells are rapidly divided and not hardened, which is mainly represented by individual core pulling; in autumn, the temperature goes down from high to low so that the vigilant heart slowly relaxes in the slow-growing high-temperature zone, what is easy to paralyze people is that there is no problem at high temperature, and it is confident that autumn will not happen either. It is often better to consider more saving electricity, just as turning off the electric fan after watering prematurely makes the stagnant water in the leaf core not fully dry, resulting in the breeding of harmful bacteria in the stagnant water, slowly pulling the core or inducing the second rot to cause certain losses; in winter, although the harm of stagnant water treatment is less than other seasons, it will face the test of short-term rise in temperature when exposed to sunlight at noon, and often lose Jingzhou carelessly.

The plastic is washed with the same amount of water, which is watered at an interval compared with the water in the tile basin.

IV. Side effects caused by improper watering

The harmfulness of improper watering has not been paid attention to by many new love cultivators, thinking that it is not so simple watering, is it necessary to consider so much? But the orchid in its hands is not good, but it has been unable to find the real reason. The easier it is for seemingly small and simple problems to reveal the key to greatness. Some time ago, he talked about the problem of watering with a new lover in Shanghai, and he had a similar situation.

The harm of pouring half a section of water is easy to cause stuffy stains or dry air damage in the basin.

In watering, half-cut-off water is the most harmful. Around 2002, I have been using balcony closed 6 square meters, only 2 small windows of the house orchid, because there is no water leakage design can not give water, only through the basin to undertake, so can not thoroughly pour through the plant material or flush the turbid gas in the basin, so in the use of peat soil particles has been a bad root, easy to dry empty.

The harm of soaking basin water supply is easy to cause cross-infection and turbid gas can not flow away.

In the past, when planting orchids on the balcony, in order to water thoroughly, the favorite was to use a soaking basin to give water, so that the water was saved and thoroughly, and it was very beautiful for a moment. But this kind of water supply seedlings do not grow well all the time, and it is easy to cause second rot or other diseases. After investigating the reason, we know that this is because of the long-term immersion basin water supply, the continuous pulverization of mud in the plant material will accumulate and affect the discharge of turbid gas, and make the root system breathe slowly, and finally the root system appears poor growth, such as rotten void, and so on.

How to water correctly

Watering is also fastidious in operation. In the past, it was said that as long as it was watered to the bottom of the basin, it was actually unscientific. The running water at the bottom of the basin does not mean that the plant can be absorbed, because the time of the plant passing through the water is too short, and the water flows away when it is not fully saturated, especially the granular plant can not be watered only once at a time. Therefore, each time should not be too long to let the water slowly absorb into the plant material when there is a buffer process, to pour back and forth, so that after 3-5 times will be really absorbed.

Now I like to use 3.2.1, it feels good. One by one between the orchid frame, when the first round trip three times for the first line of water, when the beginning of the second row or the third row, there is a better internal absorption buffer time in front. Walk twice in the second channel and once in the third.

6. How to prevent sunburn during watering

When there is direct sunlight, watering must be careful to prevent the leaves from hanging water balloons for too long, because the water droplets play the role of a concave-convex mirror, which is bound to burn the leaves and cause leaf spots under focus.

Therefore, watering at noon when the temperature is low must make the water droplets on the leaves blow dry quickly to prevent side effects.

How to deal with the phenomenon of water temperature drop during watering

Orchid cultivation environment and tap water temperature difference exist all the year round, when the temperature difference is too large will also affect the growth of orchids, so we should pay attention to it. In order to prevent this situation, we can choose to store tap water in the cultivation environment first, with the best 24-48 hours, so that there is no temperature difference in watering at any time, and the water quality can be softened, which can be said to kill more than one stone.

Eighth, the benefits of flooding

Among all kinds of water supply methods in orchid cultivation, it is best to rinse with water. In the past, the orchid plant on the balcony chose to use a kettle to feed water around the basin wall, so that the turbid gas and pulverized mud in the basin could not be washed away, but also made the leaves accumulate dust for a long time, thus affecting photosynthesis and easy to induce fungus erosive disease spots such as leaf spot and anthrax.

The leaves washed by the flood are clean and good-looking, and they are also flexible. It has a good inhibitory effect on the growth of harmful bacteria.

Concluding remarks

The balcony growers of orchid lovers are limited by conditions, and flooding is generally not easy to achieve. You can consider finding an environment designed by water source and floor drain to water the orchids thoroughly and then move them away, but the workload is greater, but the orchids will be much more comfortable. Wait for orchids to grow more, and then create better conditions.