How do you water Orchids in bark mix

[nenella]

I too soak for anywhere between 10 & 20 mins. I also soak my Ascocentrum Miiatum whose in a vase with no medium for minimum 30 mins a day.
Most of my plants are in a mixture of mostly bark.

[lily99]

I have most of my plants in loosely packed sphagnum. I run water through the pots until the moss is soaked. I'm afraid if I soaked them I would forget about them and leave them in water overnight which would rot them.

[bodaciousbonsai]

when you first open your dry bag of bark mix. find a big bowl fill it up with the medium. now fill it with water and let the bark mix soak for 72 hours. this way when you water your orchids the bark will be more water retentive.

[Sandy4453]

I water each one by hand. I have a big plastic tupperware bowl and slowly water each Phal (run lots of water, the sphag. filled pots need less). I can't stand the thought of water collecting in the crowns so it's become a weekly event for me. Have about 20-25 so it takes about an hour, every week. It gives me a chance to check them and spray, if needed. I actually enjoy doing all this .... great therapy!

[nhman]

The pluses and minuses of the two methods are as follows:

1) Soaking - if you have only a limited number of plants, this may work. To prevent the spread of diseases between plants though, you should change the water used to soak each plant with. This obviously creates a problem if you have many orchids to soak, but it DOES make sure that they are very well watered and does reduce the amount of times per week one needs to water them.
2) This method allows the water to run through the pot and thus, should not infect other plants with any potentially infected water. It may require going back to the plant to rewater it to make sure that the media is saturated enough. It will not give the saturation that soaking will, but it stems the spread of any diseases. It also allows any built up fertilizer to be washed out of the pot and media better, which is another plus for this method.
So, there you have it. Based upon your needs and collection of orchids, you can pick whatever method works best for you!! Good luck.

[RosieC]

I'm now going to contradict what I've just advised someone to do on another thread.

I tend to think that running water through is the best method and that is what I advised, but I am lazy and so I tend to be a soaker because I can put them in and leave them for a while.

Now you will be shocked by this, but mine soak between an hour and 10 hours. (These are Phals and a Dendrobium). It has never done any harm and they do dry out very thoroughly between waterings.

Once a month they get water run through the pot to flush out any fertiliser build up.

[let_it_grow]

I'm a soaker but will flush when I dont have the time to soak. I have most of my chids in s/h so i gotta soak for a few min to let the clay soak up some water but i make sure to give a good long soak at least once a month to get the excess fertilizer out. I will soak anywhere from 15 min to 2 hrs (i forget them sometimes )

[playtime8978]

I have a really stupid question how do you get bark to stay in the pot I tried it with mine and the bark floated and the orchid started rising I ended up flushing it.

[nhman]

I would assume that you are referring to the behavior of the bark as you try to soak the plant in its pot. If so, try either slowly immersing it in the water or pre water a bit to pre- wet the bark mixture and weigh it down somewhat. Remember, dry wood floats! Even wet bark will float too if given half a chance, so the word is S-L-O-W.

[playtime8978]

Thank you that makes a lot of sense I knew it was a dumb question It was newly potted and I hadn't soaked the bark so that fits in just fine. thank you again