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Repotted Orchids bark stay dry after watering

8 years ago

So after months of repotting phalaenopsis orchids, the leaves are slowly wrinkle away. I water it weekly, misting with garden hose. Today I decided to take it out of pot after watering, and surprise to find out that the middle of the pot is completely dry. So all the time I have been watering just the edge of the pot. How should I fix it? soaking it in bucket of water when weekly watering?

Featured Answer

mickeymantle

8 years ago

you need to ether soak it or run water thru it till it comes out the bottom soaking is better

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Comments (7)

Liam Coldwell (Zone 9a)
8 years ago
Bark aerates, so maybe mist twice a day?
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arthurm2015
8 years ago
How big are the bark chunks and where are you in the world? Did the orchids have good roots when you repotted them? Maybe you need to add a bit of spag or perlite to the mix.
Danielle Rose
8 years ago
Misting is nice for a daily treat, but that will never thoroughly hydrate the plant. Run a lot of water through the pot. If possible, dunk the entire thing in a bucket. All of my orchids soak in a container for 5-15 minutes at least weekly, so the bark can absorb water and keep the roots humid between waterings. Wrinkly leaves are the orchid telling you it wants to be watered more than once a week! Try every 5 days and see if it improves.
Shaoxuan Zhang
Original Author
8 years ago
Oh, I thought misting till water dip from the bottom will be sufficient watering. I have 8 pots of orchids, soaking them weekly seems lots of work. Will add some spag in the middle of the barks help?
jane__ny
8 years ago
Just soak them in a bucket for a few hours. Once you get the bark to hold water, the bark will start to hold water. I always soak bark before potting a plant. Sometimes I soak the bark for a week.

Jane
Danielle Rose
8 years ago
Adding sphag to the mix will help keep it moist, but you should still run the pot under water at least once a week. When I spray my plants, the water drips through to the bottom pretty quickly ... but this hardly adds enough water to soak the bark.

If you don't want to take all of the plants to the sink once a week, you can bring a deep bowl of water to your plants and dunk each one. If you don't want to let them soak, just dunk them quickly 2-3x a week to re-wet the bark. That's what I do in the winter (my oncidiums got dunked daily). Be warned: using the same bucket of water for all of your plants means that if any of the plants have anything contagious, it will quickly be transmitted to all of your plants, so you need to take care.

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