Brad, once again you have delivered a tutorial I needed. I am following your advice closely for keeping my Phalaenopsis alive. Thank you. Columbus, GA (January 17, 2016)
Brad, I spend hours listening to your tutorials on Sundays. I have your videos cataloged on my TH-cam list, and they play repeatedly, until I practically memorize your lessons and tips. I am sure you have orchid enthusiasts the world over who thank you, too. I appreciate the care your take in making your lessons easy to follow, see, and understand. . Thank you so much. Lee
Thanks for brads Greenhouse & Gardening, I learnt proper way water and fertilize from the video. Could you tell me how often we have to water and fertilizer Phalaenopsis orchids?
Brad, this video really helped me. I know that teaching videos will help a lot of folks, me especially. I really appreciate you taking your time to teach us. I sure have spent a lot of money on different fertilizers. Funny, I had the right one to begin with. Also, telling us about your temps in the greenhouse were just to cool to keep your Phal's happy, really, really helped. I wondered if I needed to keep mine in the house over winter. Here in Missouri, my winters can get to 10 degrees or lower but then they go up to 40 and down to 20 and up to 60 like it did today and 70 yesterday, so Missouri is great for temp variation in the winter. What are your normal winter temps?
Susan's prairie orchids thanks, yes I have gone through many kinds of fertz as well. my normal winter temps in the greenhouse are 53F night, 70F- 85 F days. depends on the day
You know I always wondered about over fertilizing and what would happen if you used more than what the recommended dosage is :) I recently upped my dosage to about 400 ppm due to a bad case of serious deficiency, the magnesium adding seems to boost spikes so that is fun to watch, also they really greened up with the magnesium and higher nitrogen fert.. the fert I bought from a nursery has a crazy dosage that would make any orchid grower shiver, insane amount, but I am starting to think that's not so bad. Too bad I cannot found any fert in powder form, I go through them like a mad woman.. btw any logic behind fertilizing wet orchids? I never pre water them, maybe I should?
MissOrchidGirl yes, I started slowly with fertz to and like you say low doses had poor results . Logic behind never fertilize a dry plant is, dry roots take in so much water at once that I can burn the roots ( I'm told) . You know, At that change from silver dry roots to the moist green roots.
Do you water with hard water? I am a wimp with the watering I try so hard to never get the leaves wet. I noticed your leaves look waxy or shiny do you put something on them?
hi Brand, thanks for sharing this video. i just got an orchid on sale. After you fertilize your orchids, do you rinse your orchids with water after you fertilize them? I need help
hi brad, I have an orchid palaenopsis that I've had for two years now it is extremely healthy, but after watching some of your videos I knew I needed to repot it since it has been in the original store bought pot and check out what the roots looked like. I struggled getting the plant out but once I finally got it, I found it to be extremely healthy. I planted my orchid in coconut husk bark in an orchid pot. my question is I couldn't get the bark through all of the roots towards the middle of the plant underneath, will that cause problems in the future? also towards the first of the year I cut the spike as it was drying out and it has yet to start another, nine leaves later! is there a reason for this? thanks and hope to learn more from your videos!
Hello Brad, The aerial roots on a few my phals were always silvery grey, never seemed to hydrate, and there were never any new growth tips. When I repotted them very recently I tucked them into the bark chips. Do you think it is unproductive and stressful to reposition aerial roots into the substrate, and should I leave them outside? Thank you very much for your help, and for your videos. js
I'm not the expert that Brad is, and I can't honestly say that I've seen him bury aerial roots when re-potting. However, I have watched a lot of other re-potting videos and many of them buried aerial roots in the process. And, they mentioned it was alright to do so. I have re-potted orchids and have buried aerial roots in the medium, and they have never seemed to mind. Hope this helps.
Hi, i have a question, i was told not to use orchid fertilizer that contains urea , that it will harm cattleya,oncidium,and brassia's and their hybrids.well, i checked the label of my orchid fertilizer and it does contain urea, should i stop using it? love your videos, very informative!
This is just a copy and paste but it somea up my views pretty well... Sorry for being late on the discussion about fertilizer. It is all a matter of finding time. the one thing I want to dispel is that urea is not good for plants or orchids contrary to often what is written about it. I posted a similar post to this one years ago on this forum, but information gets lost especially when there is a lot of misinformation. Almost all published studies done on fertilizers and plant nutrients have been done on crop plants. I do think though that much of this is transferable to orchids. Most orchids can absorb nitrogen directly in the forms of cationic ammonium ion (NH4+), the anion nitrate (NO3-), and urea. The nitrogen in the ammonium ion (NH4+) is available immediately to the plant for the production of amino acids and other compounds. Nitrate nitrogen (NO3-) on the other hand has to be reduced in order to be used by plants. Nitrate nitrogen is more "time released" then urea. Urea�s nitrogen availability is more the middle ground between nitrate and ammonium. Urea hydrolyses into ammonium (NH4+) and C02. This breakdown of urea can take place in the surrounding soil, bark or coir and in the roots and leaves of orchids. The urease enzyme breaks down the urea in leaves and roots. Urea is readily absorbed by roots and leaves and can be used in foliar feeding. While urea is broken down in a growing medium and the resulting ammonium nitrogen is absorbed by the orchid, it is not necessary as orchid can directly absorb urea and break it down within the orchid. Contrary to older orchid book statements urea does not take a year to break down, and can be used by orchids directly. Ammonium Nitrate NH4N03 is like a quick fix nitrogen drug for plants, as the plants readily take up both ammonium NH4 and nitrate N03. Because ammonium is directly assimilated into plant metabolism and growth, it benefits only work in very good light conditions or in correcting nitrogen deficiencies. Many orchids grow in a constant swing of moist to dry to moist, and I imagine this is also the case with orchids use of nutrients as they become available then unavailable. The use of ammonium in this situation is probably advantageous. Excesses of ammonium in plants can cause many problems in plants reducing their ability to absorb and utilize other nutrients. Urea only provides nitrogen in the form of ammonium NH4. Nitrate nitrogen can be stored by plant. Orchids or plant preferences for ammonium or nitrate nitrogen is directly related to their ph preference for growing (acid medium growing plants have a preference for ammonium, plants with a preference for a alkaline growing medium prefer nitrate nitrogen), though both nitrogen sources are used by plants throughout the ph range. For these reason and others, the highest growth rate is a mixture of nitrogen supplied by both ammonium and nitrate.
Hi Brad, congratulations for your videos and amazing orchids! I have a question for you: I want to know how to fertilize a dracula orchid and what kind of fertilizer I must use. Thank you!
Brads, thanks for the insightful videos. One question, why you dont recommend to fertilize the orchids when it is dry but only when it is wet? Thanks a lot :)
Great video Brad Thank You. All I have right now is a liquid fertilizer, I mix it in with my water can like you did and give my orchids a good drink. So far no harm has been done, I just was curious if it made a difference on liquid or dry fertilizer ?
Oh my gosh it is so terrifying for me to see you get the leaves wet. I guess I am going to have to re-adjust my thinking because so many people say that it's fine to actually get the leaves and crown wet as long as it's dried out before night. But it is giving me a heart attack to watch it!!!!!! XD
***** I dry out the crown if it was to stay wet for to long, in the dry house is isn't a problem but in the greenhouse on a winter day it would be worth a quick drying of the crown
fifi corina Logic behind never fertilize a dry plant is, dry roots take in so much water at once that I can burn the roots ( I'm told) . You know, At that change from silver dry roots to the moist green roots.
Hi Brad, great video as always. A couple of questions... do you have a water softener in your home? We have very hard water here in Ontario where I live and my wife it itching to have a softener installed. However, I think that I read somewhere that softened water is not good for plants due to the added salt. I have a collection of 25 orchids and do not want my plants affected. Last question, do you continue fertilizing when an orchid is already in bloom? Thanks B
My method lately is to let the roots dry out completely to a silver color and then some, and then take them to the shower or sink and drench the pot all the way around every watering. I've always heard that phals "need to be kept moist," but I haven't had any ill effects from letting them dry out. I love those blooms, are they fragrant? ;)
***** no, no Fragrant :( Ive let mine dry out like that to. The only thing I find is that the roots kind of wrinkle and the leaves may droop. once a droop they stay drooped.
Hey brad so I have a question! I had to move my orchid from my office to my home and at my office it sat in front of a window and got good sun and now at my home it's not getting enough sun. There were 3 new buds coming out and they're just stalling now 😩. Any advice for me moving my orchid to new location to help her bloom and get sad on me!!
Feeding orchids is a funny business. I've known hobbyist who never fertilize and produced healthy plants. Many of the professional growers feed fairly heavily with good results. I fertilize lightly/ frequently with an occasional heavy feed during active foliar growth. I find that too much nitrogen, especially in non-greenhouse settings, seems to discourage spiking in some orchids........ but who knows ! ? When people ask me how to water and feed their orchids I'll just direct them to his video. :-)
I thought I had seen a video of yours last year where you dunked your orchids in a barrel of standing, fertilizer-fortified water in your greenhouse. Was this for other types of orchids or am I mistaken? Keep up the good work; I really enjoy your videos. Fieldo
i ask question about water... which u use tap water or OR water??? i think better use cool boiled water to remove chlorine but mineral...how to solve problem to feed water orchid...
Very helpful videos, as usual, but I don't understand why you water your orchids using so much water, when I hear that they can't be watered with too much water.
orchids didn't found in indoor on the first time they came from the wild therefor are expose to the environment and when rains I take the orchids outside but not under the Australian sun
I water all of my orchids by filling one gallon empty clean ice cream tubs with reverse osmosis water and soak for 20 minutes once a week. Is that to long to often? Should I not fully submerge phals? Also, a friend opened a window on a cold winter night with my orchids by the window (grrr if I wasn't sleeping I would've said something about it) and the cold completely killed all the leaves and spike on one of my orchids. All that's left is a little black nub. But there are still plenty of roots will it ever regrow? Sorry for so many questions.
I really enjoyed this video and glad to see how you watered and fertilized them. Great video!!!
Best video for watering orchids..THANKS!
Thank You I have learned a lot from you. Now I am going to re-pot my orchid.
Thanks Brad! Your videos are always a delight and helpful!
Brad, once again you have delivered a tutorial I needed. I am following your advice closely for keeping my Phalaenopsis alive.
Thank you.
Columbus, GA (January 17, 2016)
+Lee S. Thanks Lee, glad you find my videos helpful. Happy growing!
Brad, I spend hours listening to your tutorials on Sundays. I have your videos cataloged on my TH-cam list, and they play repeatedly, until I practically memorize your lessons and tips. I am sure you have orchid enthusiasts the world over who thank you, too. I appreciate the care your take in making your lessons easy to follow, see, and understand. .
Thank you so much.
Lee
Thanks for brads Greenhouse & Gardening, I learnt proper way water and fertilize from the video. Could you tell me how often we have to water and fertilizer Phalaenopsis orchids?
Plant looks great
If i make a gallon of fertilizer does it have to be all used or can I keep the extra fertilizer water I didnt use?
Brad, this video really helped me. I know that teaching videos will help a lot of folks, me especially. I really appreciate you taking your time to teach us. I sure have spent a lot of money on different fertilizers. Funny, I had the right one to begin with. Also, telling us about your temps in the greenhouse were just to cool to keep your Phal's happy, really, really helped. I wondered if I needed to keep mine in the house over winter. Here in Missouri, my winters can get to 10 degrees or lower but then they go up to 40 and down to 20 and up to 60 like it did today and 70 yesterday, so Missouri is great for temp variation in the winter. What are your normal winter temps?
Susan's prairie orchids thanks, yes I have gone through many kinds of fertz as well. my normal winter temps in the greenhouse are 53F night, 70F- 85 F days. depends on the day
Thank you brads, for letting us know, that’s the next step I be doing to add fertilizer.👍
You know I always wondered about over fertilizing and what would happen if you used more than what the recommended dosage is :) I recently upped my dosage to about 400 ppm due to a bad case of serious deficiency, the magnesium adding seems to boost spikes so that is fun to watch, also they really greened up with the magnesium and higher nitrogen fert.. the fert I bought from a nursery has a crazy dosage that would make any orchid grower shiver, insane amount, but I am starting to think that's not so bad. Too bad I cannot found any fert in powder form, I go through them like a mad woman.. btw any logic behind fertilizing wet orchids? I never pre water them, maybe I should?
MissOrchidGirl yes, I started slowly with fertz to and like you say low doses had poor results . Logic behind never fertilize a dry plant is, dry roots take in so much water at once that I can burn the roots ( I'm told) . You know, At that change from silver dry roots to the moist green roots.
***** yeah that's fair, never used high amounts and never had problems, I might reconsider now after some observation :) thanks for the vid!
I have learned so much from you Brad, thank you for sharing! How do you combat the dry Canadian winters when it comes to indoor orchids?
+Dreams828 thanks, glad I could help. West Coast winters are 100% humidity from month straight, no dry winter here
Ya love all your videos :) Ah I see, East coast here is dry and dark all winter long. So nice you get to have a greenhouse!
Do you water with hard water? I am a wimp with the watering I try so hard to never get the leaves wet. I noticed your leaves look waxy or shiny do you put something on them?
hi Brand, thanks for sharing this video. i just got an orchid on sale. After you fertilize your orchids, do you rinse your orchids with water after you fertilize them? I need help
Very good Video now i know how to water. Them
Do you have a soft water system or RO system ?
hi brad, I have an orchid palaenopsis that I've had for two years now it is extremely healthy, but after watching some of your videos I knew I needed to repot it since it has been in the original store bought pot and check out what the roots looked like. I struggled getting the plant out but once I finally got it, I found it to be extremely healthy. I planted my orchid in coconut husk bark in an orchid pot. my question is I couldn't get the bark through all of the roots towards the middle of the plant underneath, will that cause problems in the future? also towards the first of the year I cut the spike as it was drying out and it has yet to start another, nine leaves later! is there a reason for this? thanks and hope to learn more from your videos!
Hi Brad how do you keep your pals leaves glossy
Hi brad how short to you cut the flower stem i'm new to orchids and I'm Enjoying your video is very much
We have soft water, and I have two Orchids and need to give them a good soaking. Please advise
Thank you so much for the video!!:)
Hello Brad,
The aerial roots on a few my phals were always silvery grey, never seemed to hydrate, and there were never any new growth tips. When I repotted them very recently I tucked them into the bark chips. Do you think it is unproductive and stressful to reposition aerial roots into the substrate, and should I leave them outside?
Thank you very much for your help, and for your videos.
js
I'm not the expert that Brad is, and I can't honestly say that I've seen him bury aerial roots when re-potting. However, I have watched a lot of other re-potting videos and many of them buried aerial roots in the process. And, they mentioned it was alright to do so. I have re-potted orchids and have buried aerial roots in the medium, and they have never seemed to mind. Hope this helps.
Thanks Gail.
i would love to do this but I am afraid. My tap water may be to hard. Can you flush with tap?
Hi, i have a question, i was told not to use orchid fertilizer that contains urea , that it will harm cattleya,oncidium,and brassia's and their hybrids.well, i checked the label of my orchid fertilizer and it does contain urea, should i stop using it? love your videos, very informative!
This is just a copy and paste but it somea up my views pretty well...
Sorry for being late on the discussion about fertilizer. It is all a matter of finding time. the one thing I want to dispel is that urea is not good for plants or orchids contrary to often what is written about it. I posted a similar post to this one years ago on this forum, but information gets lost especially when there is a lot of misinformation.
Almost all published studies done on fertilizers and plant nutrients have been done on crop plants. I do think though that much of this is transferable to orchids.
Most orchids can absorb nitrogen directly in the forms of cationic ammonium ion (NH4+), the anion nitrate (NO3-), and urea. The nitrogen in the ammonium ion (NH4+) is available immediately to the plant for the production of amino acids and other compounds. Nitrate nitrogen (NO3-) on the other hand has to be reduced in order to be used by plants.
Nitrate nitrogen is more "time released" then urea. Urea�s nitrogen availability is more the middle ground between nitrate and ammonium. Urea hydrolyses into ammonium (NH4+) and C02. This breakdown of urea can take place in the surrounding soil, bark or coir and in the roots and leaves of orchids. The urease enzyme breaks down the urea in leaves and roots. Urea is readily absorbed by roots and leaves and can be used in foliar feeding. While urea is broken down in a growing medium and the resulting ammonium nitrogen is absorbed by the orchid, it is not necessary as orchid can directly absorb urea and break it down within the orchid. Contrary to older orchid book statements urea does not take a year to break down, and can be used by orchids directly.
Ammonium Nitrate NH4N03 is like a quick fix nitrogen drug for plants, as the plants readily take up both ammonium NH4 and nitrate N03. Because ammonium is directly assimilated into plant metabolism and growth, it benefits only work in very good light conditions or in correcting nitrogen deficiencies. Many orchids grow in a constant swing of moist to dry to moist, and I imagine this is also the case with orchids use of nutrients as they become available then unavailable. The use of ammonium in this situation is probably advantageous. Excesses of ammonium in plants can cause many problems in plants reducing their ability to absorb and utilize other nutrients.
Urea only provides nitrogen in the form of ammonium NH4. Nitrate nitrogen can be stored by plant. Orchids or plant preferences for ammonium or nitrate nitrogen is directly related to their ph preference for growing (acid medium growing plants have a preference for ammonium, plants with a preference for a alkaline growing medium prefer nitrate nitrogen), though both nitrogen sources are used by plants throughout the ph range. For these reason and others, the highest growth rate is a mixture of nitrogen supplied by both ammonium and nitrate.
Great video.....I have some orchid in side my house.....they stay in flower for 3/4 week
ivy geerman awesome! Orchids are long bloomers sometimes
Hi Brad, congratulations for your videos and amazing orchids! I have a question for you: I want to know how to fertilize a dracula orchid and what kind of fertilizer I must use. Thank you!
hi brad what widow exposure do you use for your house phals? love your observations on watering and fertilizing....
I have an orchid that has two shoots one has three flowers but nothing on the other what could be the problem
Brads, thanks for the insightful videos.
One question, why you dont recommend to fertilize the orchids when it is dry but only when it is wet?
Thanks a lot :)
Great video Brad Thank You. All I have right now is a liquid fertilizer, I mix it in with my water can like you did and give my orchids a good drink. So far no harm has been done, I just was curious if it made a difference on liquid or dry fertilizer ?
Nice
I live is USA. Do you have a recommendation for potting mix source ?
Oh my gosh it is so terrifying for me to see you get the leaves wet. I guess I am going to have to re-adjust my thinking because so many people say that it's fine to actually get the leaves and crown wet as long as it's dried out before night.
But it is giving me a heart attack to watch it!!!!!! XD
***** I dry out the crown if it was to stay wet for to long, in the dry house is isn't a problem but in the greenhouse on a winter day it would be worth a quick drying of the crown
Never had a big issue with getting the leaves wet myself - they get wet in nature.
As long as they don't sit and soak, it is all okay.
Hi Brad, I have a question for you, why we have to water the orchids before fertilizing?
fifi corina Logic behind never fertilize a dry plant is, dry roots take in so much
water at once that I can burn the roots ( I'm told) . You know, At that
change from silver dry roots to the moist green roots.
Hi Brad, great video as always. A couple of questions... do you have a water softener in your home? We have very hard water here in Ontario where I live and my wife it itching to have a softener installed. However, I think that I read somewhere that softened water is not good for plants due to the added salt. I have a collection of 25 orchids and do not want my plants affected. Last question, do you continue fertilizing when an orchid is already in bloom? Thanks B
briguylor hey, yeah no water softeners. They do add salts and will kill your plants
How much water would you recommend each week, 1/2 cup, whole cup or more? Thanks..
Is your tap water salt free? We have a water softener and would that be good to flush orchids with? Thanks!
g'day mate. spring right around the corner
jimmydigital you betcha!
My method lately is to let the roots dry out completely to a silver color and then some, and then take them to the shower or sink and drench the pot all the way around every watering. I've always heard that phals "need to be kept moist," but I haven't had any ill effects from letting them dry out. I love those blooms, are they fragrant? ;)
***** no, no Fragrant :( Ive let mine dry out like that to. The only thing I find is that the roots kind of wrinkle and the leaves may droop. once a droop they stay drooped.
Hey brad so I have a question! I had to move my orchid from my office to my home and at my office it sat in front of a window and got good sun and now at my home it's not getting enough sun. There were 3 new buds coming out and they're just stalling now 😩. Any advice for me moving my orchid to new location to help her bloom and get sad on me!!
TheEyedyed nothing you can do to rush an orchid to bloom, I wouldn't move it further, let let it get use to the new home
Got a Phal for my birthday with a Keiki growing on the base does it need more fertilizer than a Phal without a Keiki? Thanks in advance.
wolfstardoberman sure be fine without extra fert as the mother plant will be giving it nutrients
Thank you sir.
Do you use warm water or cold water to water the orchid?
Ravi Mistry I use luke warm, slightly above room temp
Thanks for replying
is tap water ok to use then?
Feeding orchids is a funny business. I've known hobbyist who never fertilize and produced healthy plants. Many of the professional growers feed fairly heavily with good results. I fertilize lightly/ frequently with an occasional heavy feed during active foliar growth. I find that too much nitrogen, especially in non-greenhouse settings, seems to discourage spiking in some orchids........ but who knows ! ?
When people ask me how to water and feed their orchids I'll just direct them to his video. :-)
***** HAHA, It is a funny business. I think this is one topic that can have 100 different endings!
I thought I had seen a video of yours last year where you dunked your orchids in a barrel of standing, fertilizer-fortified water in your greenhouse. Was this for other types of orchids or am I mistaken? Keep up the good work; I really enjoy your videos.
Fieldo
These orchids are in my house so I take them to the sink.
I do this with all my plants once a week or so. I call it Bath time
i ask question about water... which u use tap water or OR water??? i think better use cool boiled water to remove chlorine but mineral...how to solve problem to feed water orchid...
Ron Hao I am lucky my tap water had no minerals in. it has a TDS or about 20ppm
ah
Very helpful videos, as usual, but I don't understand why you water your orchids using so much water, when I hear that they can't be watered with too much water.
Should I worry about chlorine if I flush them out ?
Thanks for the info God bless you but your subtitles going very fast
orchids didn't found in indoor on the first time they came from the wild therefor are expose to the environment and when rains I take the orchids outside but not under the Australian sun
How do you know it's a he plant? :0
❤️❤️❤️
Isn't it better to only use RO water?
I water all of my orchids by filling one gallon empty clean ice cream tubs with reverse osmosis water and soak for 20 minutes once a week. Is that to long to often? Should I not fully submerge phals? Also, a friend opened a window on a cold winter night with my orchids by the window (grrr if I wasn't sleeping I would've said something about it) and the cold completely killed all the leaves and spike on one of my orchids. All that's left is a little black nub. But there are still plenty of roots will it ever regrow? Sorry for so many questions.
LeoNarwhalDaVinci sounds like it will regrow...hopefully. RO water seems a little void of nutrients, just remember to feed it over long term
LOL. Okay thank you
i also water everywhere all over
How often do you use the fertilizer?
Jobita Gonzales once a week but forget sometimes
Jobita Gonzales p
Late night video I see.
Late night editing anyways.
你好
Wow, you fertilize heavily.....If you measure with TDS meter, the amount of dissolved matter must be really high.