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needinfo001

Got these for $7 dollars at lowes! says to "just add ice"

needinfo001
9 years ago

The instructions say to just add ice.
Is that all i need to do?
Will they survive with just the lights on in the living room?
I dont have sunlight coming in through windows.

Comments (6)

  • rgebczynski
    9 years ago

    Well,

    First of all don't ever add ice. The cold water from the ice cubes can shock the roots, the ice itself can cause frost damage to the roots.

    Best way to water your orchid is to put it in a bigger pot and fill to around 3/4 with tepid water and leave for around 15 - 20 minutes, take out let the water strain and put back on its right place.

  • orchidnick
    9 years ago

    If it's in tightly packed Sphagnum Moss, like most of these are, the above instructions surest way to kill them. With that much water the roots will be black and the plant essentially dead by the time it has stopped blooming,. Either repot it in bark and follow the instructions above or do the ice cube.

    The reason they want you to do an ice cube is to keep you from over watering these plants. For a small $7.00 one like you have, one shot glass a week is all the water it needs. Or one ice cube. Most people kill them by over watering, the ice cube trick is to prevent you from doing that.

    Nick

  • dbarron
    9 years ago

    Truly quantity of water doesn't matter, if the medium is freely draining and allowed to dry before rewetting. Indeed, in that case, flushing well and ensuring bark or fern root is well saturated is very helpful.
    Of course if wrapped in spagnum (as you say), then I guess it's horribly water retentive :(

  • orchidnick
    9 years ago

    Wrapped in loose SM is one thing but these things are packed extremely tight. There is no drainage whatsoever. The growers do this because they use very little water and fertilizer and it helps the bottom line. The customer then loves them to death with lots of water and then buys another one which I guess is the whole idea.

    Nick

  • dbarron
    9 years ago

    Yep, if I were to buy one (and my aunt did), the first thing would be to repot it.

  • tamela_star
    9 years ago

    I bought one as well. Oddly enough it wasn't packed in sphagnum moss. What I do with mine is take them out of the decorative pot and water them on the sink once a week with room temp water. Every few weeks I fertilize them. Every morning I give all my plants a light mist to add some humidity. I only do this in the morning so they have time to dry out. If you're summering them outside there's no need for misting.