Dry and wet orchid cultivation

Orchids have been cultivated in China for more than 2000 years, but due to historical reasons and objective conditions, people have basically adopted dry methods to cultivate orchids for a long time. The advantage of this method is easy to get materials, easy to operate, easy to manage, close to the natural state, if cultivated properly, orchids grow better, flowers more, flowers fragrance; but the disadvantage is also obvious, that is, a little careless, can cause orchid root dry, affect the growth of orchids, or even dead seedlings; in addition, due to insufficient water supply, orchids seedling, growth are relatively slow, and even seriously affected the seedling rate.

Therefore, the ancients said, "raise orchids a little bit, watering for ten years." To this end, some orchid families began to explore new dill methods, wet orchid cultivation came into being. Especially after the 1980s, with the increasing progress of orchid cultivation technology and the continuous improvement of orchid planting materials, combined with the successful experience of orchid families in Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, wet orchid cultivation has gradually become popular in our country. it has been valued and adopted by more and more orchid families.

Of course, things are always divided into two, wet orchid cultivation also has its shortcomings, such as the choice of environment, the selection of pots, the preparation of plant materials all have certain requirements, management is relatively tedious, management cost is relatively high, need to invest more energy, easy to accelerate the degradation of old seedlings, and the opening of flowers (such as fragrance, petal type) is slightly inferior to the traditional orchid cultivation method. Therefore, the choice of orchid cultivation method, can not be generalized, should be combined with their own actual situation to choose.

The following is a brief introduction to two dill methods.

The main results are as follows: 1. The traditional method of dry orchid cultivation adopts dry orchid cultivation, which is not very strict to the environment, such as in the balcony, under the eaves, on the edge of the corridor and under the shade of trees. Pots generally use tile basin, pottery basin, wood basin, plastic basin, etc., especially the drum-shaped tile basin, pottery basin is more ideal, its good air permeability, strong water absorption, very suitable for dry orchid cultivation. The orchid basin requires that there are drainage holes at the bottom and air holes on the side. If you can't meet the requirements, you can process them properly. The size of the basin, depending on the size of the orchid plant, must not be small orchid big basin, weak orchid big basin. The selection of plant materials is the key to the success of orchid cultivation. In general, dry orchid cultivation is mostly based on humus soil taken from the growing place of orchids in deep mountains and valleys, and then properly modified by adding appropriate amount of bark, particles to burn the soil, foam particles and so on. This kind of plant material is rich in humus and slightly acidic, loose and breathable, which is very suitable for orchid growth. The most important part of dry orchid cultivation is water management.

Orchids are fleshy roots, have no root hair, and are symbiotic with orchids. Orchids rely on their hyphae to absorb nutrients for orchid growth. The orchid root itself is also an important respiratory organ of the orchid, which needs to breathe oxygen. at the same time, the orchid belongs to aerobic bacteria, and its growth and proliferation also needs oxygen, so the plant material must be breathable to ensure the supply of oxygen. If there is too much water, the oxygen content in the plant material is less, then the orchid root respiration will be blocked, the orchid bacteria can not grow normally, and it is easy to produce empty rotting roots. Due to the use of humus soil, dry orchid culture is still strong in water retention, poor permeability and heavy fertilizer due to the use of humus soil. with the increase of use time, bad phenomena such as hardening and acidification will occur, such as improper watering time. It is very easy to cover the roots of orchids and affect the growth of orchids. The ancients stressed that "Lanxi moist but afraid of wet, like to dry but afraid of dryness", the general plant water content of 75% is the most suitable, less than 40% should be watered, higher than 75% is very easy to stain the root of orchid for a long time. But when should be watered and when should not be watered, it depends on the environment, the plant material used, the size of the basin, the temperature and humidity of the air, and the growth of the orchid. How to determine the moisture content of orchid pots?

After groping, the Lan family roughly has the following methods:

1.1 the intuitive judgment method is based on the leaf condition of the orchid plant and the dry and wet condition of the surface of the orchid pot. if the leaf surface of the orchid plant is slightly dehydrated, the plant material on the surface of the orchid basin has been dry, and the plant material is about 5cm when it is removed, and when it is still dry, it shows that the plant material is insufficient and should be watered.

1.2 the principle of the weighing method is that the water content of the test plant is 100% when it is leached without water, and the water content of the plant is about 20%. The corresponding water content of each unit weight is obtained through calculation, so as to judge the water content in the orchid basin plant. In theory, this method is more accurate, but in practical application, there will be some deviation, and it is not easy to operate.

1.3 the stick insertion method is to carefully insert a bamboo stick into the appropriate position of the orchid basin and pull it out about an hour later. The moisture content in the orchid basin plant is judged according to the moisture degree of the bamboo stick. Now some people replace the small bamboo stick with an electronic hygrometer. This method is more effective and easier to grasp, but the disadvantage is that it is easy to hurt Langen.

1.4 pick up a pot of orchids, put them to your ear, and tap the edge of the orchid basin with your hands. If the sound is stuffy, it means that the plant still contains a lot of water, and if the sound is crisp, it is time to water. This method requires some experience and is not easy for beginners to master.

1.5 in the control method, an empty basin is loaded with the same plant material, and then watered with the orchid basin at the same time, and placed together at the same time, and the water content of the orchid basin plant can be compared by inserting fingers into the control basin during inspection. Of course, after years of groping, some senior Lan families also have a set of methods for judging the moisture of plant materials. Generally speaking, they only need to make a slight examination to know how much moisture is. It can be described as "bamboo in the chest," but it is a different matter. In a word, dry orchid cultivation is a simple, convenient, practical and economical method, which does not need to invest too much energy and cost. it is especially suitable for orchids who do not have enough time and limited energy. as long as the watering problem is solved, it can make the orchids grow well, bloom luxuriantly, bright colors and rich fragrance, which is a better popular orchid cultivation method. (2) Wet orchid cultivation is developed on the basis of summarizing the advantages and disadvantages of dry orchid cultivation, and its biggest characteristic is "wet", and its requirements for environment and plant materials are relatively higher.

2. When using wet method to raise orchids, we should pay attention to the following six points:

2.1 compared with dry orchid cultivation, wet orchid cultivation has higher requirements on the environment, especially the proper grasp of temperature and humidity. if the temperature and humidity are too low, it will lose the significance of wet orchid cultivation. Therefore, the orchid shed should be fully closed or semi-closed, ventilation, lighting is good, try to avoid a variety of pollution sources, such as lampblack, dust and so on. The common ways to increase humidity are as follows: the foundation of the orchid shed is used as waterproof material, the ground is laid with water retention layer of building materials such as red brick, sand, volcanic stone slab, or water plate, masonry pool, etc., and the walls are made of water curtain wall glass, volcanic stone slab curtain wall, water spray humidification and so on.

2.2 the selection of pottery, pottery, wood and plastic pots are all ideal orchid pots, especially plastic pots, which have recently become the mainstream of wet orchid pots because of their low price, light and durable.

2.3 the selection and preparation of plant materials for wet orchid cultivation are mainly coarse plant materials, and their preparation should strive to "loose air permeability, drain and moisturize". The general proportion of the author is: rotten leaves 50%, granular bark 15%, granular burning soil 15%, foam particles 10%, granular laterite 7%, snake wood 3%. Of course, this formula is only for Yunnan Lanyou commonly used plant materials, such as the use of fairy soil and other plant materials, can refer to the treatment. When the plant material is used for a period of time, it is easy to rot or break, so it should be replaced in time.