Winter Watering Woes for Orchids!

[Orchid doctor]

Hey Orchid Lovers! 🌿💕

Navigating the tricky waters of winter orchid care? Let's chat about the watering challenges our green pals face during the chilly season:

1. Cool It on the Watering: Orchids might be a bit moody in winter. Ease up on the watering – their roots like a cozy break.

2. Say No to Cold Feet: Cold water isn’t a friend. Use lukewarm water when hydrating your orchids. They'll appreciate the warmth!

3. Watch the Overwatering Trap: Winter makes orchids more susceptible to overwatering. Check soil moisture and adjust your watering routine accordingly.

[REDACTED by Moderator]

[WaterWitchin]

Welcome to Orchid Board. Please review this excerpt from the Rules and Guidelines:

• Commercial Business.
This forum relies on sponsor advertising for its existence. If you would like to advertise your venture, become a sponsor by contacting a moderator or administrator. Linking to a commercial website in a signature line may be permitted at moderator discretion by established members, with a minimum of 100 posts plus a one-year time period as a member of Orchid Board. Once a member has been granted permission by the moderator, the requesting member is allowed links to their legitimate business selling orchids and/or orchid related useful in orchid growing in their signature line and/or Classified Section.

The entirety of Rules and Guidelines can be found here.

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[Orchid doctor]

Dear Administrator,

I wanted to clarify the purpose of my website that I tried to link in my signature. I am a master's student creating a website blog focused on orchid care as a project for my studies. My site does not involve any commercial business or online selling.

I sincerely apologize for the confusion. As a student member with less than 100 posts, I now understand that I should not have included a link in my signature yet. I have removed the link to avoid any further misunderstanding(I think you already did).

Please let me know if I can provide any other clarification. I enjoy being part of this community and learning more about orchid care. As a student exploring this as a topic for my studies, I highly value the insights from this forum's experienced orchid growers. If you grant permission once I meet the qualifications for a link as an established member, I would be grateful. In the meantime, I will continue contributing what I learn without including any signature link.

Thank you for your guidance on following the proper rules and etiquette, and my apologies again. Please let me know if you have any other feedback or need any clarification from my end.

[Ray]

I will start by saying that I applaud your effort, but I'll play a "devil's advocate" for a moment...

The "cold feet" part of your statement is quite valid, but the other two statements and a lot of the stuff at your linked website is quite subjective and therefore is very limited in its application.

Your selection of "best products" is questionable, as far as I'm concerned - for the same reasons and others - and makes you sound like more of a shill than an experienced grower. With very few exceptions, any comment of something being "best" should be completed with "for me, under my conditions".

1) Individual orchids need what they need.

2) How you get there can vary widely, depending upon the specific growing conditions of the individual and their habits/abilities to generally care for the specific plants they have.

3) What works great for you might not work at all for another.

[Orchid doctor]

Originally Posted by Ray

I will start by saying that I applaud your effort, but I'll play a "devil's advocate" for a moment...

The "cold feet" part of your statement is quite valid, but the other two statements and a lot of the stuff at your linked website is quite subjective and therefore is very limited in its application.

Your selection of "best products" is questionable, as far as I'm concerned - for the same reasons and others - and makes you sound like more of a shill than an experienced grower. With very few exceptions, any comment of something being "best" should be completed with "for me, under my conditions".

1) Individual orchids need what they need.

2) How you get there can vary widely, depending upon the specific growing conditions of the individual and their habits/abilities to generally care for the specific plants they have.

3) What works great for you might not work at all for another.

Thank you for taking the time to share your insights and play the "devil's advocate" on my recent post about orchids. I appreciate constructive feedback from experienced members like yourself, as it provides an opportunity for me to learn and improve on my writing.

I completely understand your point about subjectivity, especially when it comes to labeling certain products as the "best." Your reminder about individual orchids having unique needs and the variability in growing conditions is well-taken. I will definitely keep that in mind moving forward.

On the other side, playing "devil's advocate" to your comment - isn't "Best" subjective? like best phone, best movie, best city, etc.
or you would think that, while writing it is a good practice to specify. Thanks again for helping me learn!

---------- Post added at 05:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:18 PM ----------

Thank you Roberta, WW, Estacion Ceca,
Minicoerulea all for your feedback and explanation.
I would definitely be mindful of posting content (go over existing first to not have duplication) and semantics of writing (shy away from always, never, best, etc.).

[Subrosa]

Originally Posted by Orchid doctor

Thank you for taking the time to share your insights and play the "devil's advocate" on my recent post about orchids. I appreciate constructive feedback from experienced members like yourself, as it provides an opportunity for me to learn and improve on my writing.

I completely understand your point about subjectivity, especially when it comes to labeling certain products as the "best." Your reminder about individual orchids having unique needs and the variability in growing conditions is well-taken. I will definitely keep that in mind moving forward.

On the other side, playing "devil's advocate" to your comment - isn't "Best" subjective? like best phone, best movie, best city, etc.
or you would think that, while writing it is a good practice to specify. Thanks again for helping me learn!

---------- Post added at 05:25 PM ---------- Previous post was at 05:18 PM ----------

Thank you Roberta, WW, Estacion Ceca,
Minicoerulea all for your feedback and explanation.
I would definitely be mindful of posting content (go over existing first to not have duplication) and semantics of writing (shy away from always, never, best, etc.).

If you're talking about subjective, you might want to start with your definition of the word "orchid" when making broad statements meant to apply to all orchids. Most of my orchids are currently preparing to spend the winter under a cover of snow.

[Ray]

Originally Posted by Orchid doctor

On the other side, playing "devil's advocate" to your comment - isn't "Best" subjective? like best phone, best movie, best city, etc.
or you would think that, while writing it is a good practice to specify. Thanks again for helping me learn![COLOR="Silver"]

"Best", in your stated examples, is what "ticks the most boxes" for the individual.

What I was trying to convey is that the plant needs what it needs - i.e., has its own boxes ticked - with some being more or less flexible than others. I have been known to refer to orchids as being the "Goldilocks" of the plant world. They don't care about the grower's opinion on the matter.

What we are shooting for is "the best" overall cultural conditions for the plant. How you get there, that is, what products and methods you use to achieve that, is relatively unimportant, as long as it gets you there. Two growers can get the the "best conditions" using entirely different methods, so an individual's selection of "what is the best" potting medium or container is not universal.

[tmoney]

howdy!

welcome to the ob, od! you stepped into with this one, but i must commend you on your well handled responses. as new growers ourselves, we can only say that we have learned a ton from this place and the members here truly are well meaning. im glad you are only taking their responses as constructive criticism.

now to your point specifically, when growing indoors with no additional fans, lights, etc., (and at a decently high latitude) we also need to be mindful of overwatering our phalaenopsis. last year especially we didn't use the heat that much and so our space was quite cold. for some of our species phals, besides being on the cold end of the range, i believe we would have had better success if we decreased watering instead of keeping the same schedule as summer. lessons learned, i suppose!

[Roberta]

A few more flags that say "inexperienced grower", along with "best", add "always" and "never". Since orchids rarely do anything fast, often even die slowly, after awhile one learns to qualify statements... "under my conditions" (with description so others can decide whether the advice is useful or not for them) , "for some period of time", "for this particular type of orchid". There are exceptions for essentially any "rule". That is not surprising since orchids come from every continent except Antarctica, elevations from sea level to above treeline, from the tropics to the Arctic. The same "rules" do not apply to all. And even when all those waffle words are taken into account and one has years of experience, one becomes humbled when a plant that has done wonderfully for 10 years suddenly crashes. For reasons unknown. It happens...

When you give advice, don't forget the "why" part. That's a valuable key to whether the advice is applicable in a particular situation for someone else.

[minicoerulea]

I help moderate an animal care forum. There, when I see a new account with a link to any website that contains Amazon links, especially with questionable info on products that has been lifted from the item description ('quarantined ingredients'? do they hold the bark for forty days to see if it develops symptoms of disease?) the account is considered spam and gets banned, cleaned and info sent to the online blacklist service.

There's a trend in animal care circles toward a multitude of sites with extremely general (and too often fairly inaccurate) content claiming they're 'comprehensive' and 'all you need to know' and getting a lot of naive readers into bad situations. It wouldn't improve the orchid hobby for that to become more prevalent.