Watering a Huge Collection

[Blondie]

I have a question for those of you with large collections. I see photos of greenhouses or window displays that are absolutely loaded (of course I get crazy jealous). How do you water them? When there are hundreds, it seems insane to take each individual pot to the sink. But it also would be a bad idea to run a hose through the inside of a house. What is going on here? How do you do it?!

I always get so worried when I'm watering about knocking spikes, hurting the plant, or leaving water drops on the leaves. It's quite the process when I water my small collection, and I do them one by one in my kitchen sink. There is no way people with 1,000 orchids are doing this. What are your secrets?

[ChasWG]

I, by no means have a huge collection, but I also don't take each plant to the sink either. I use a spray bottle. I have two locations where my plants are being kept. The first is in my master bath, in an East facing window. There I have my larger plants. One Dendrobium and one huge Phal. I also have a couple of spray bottles there with different formulas depending on what needs what. Then I have a downstairs plant enclosure filled with all sorts of things. A Neostylis, a Brassavola, a Phal. stuartiana and two noid plants. And then there is a large Margurite daisy, 4 tomato plants, 4 summer squash plants and two cabage plants. Watering that herd I use some more spray bottles for the orchids and then I use tap water in gal. filtered water bottles for the veggies and daisy. I use filter water for my orchids with weak fert. for the orchids. I only have to refill the water bottles once a week or so.

[John D.]

I have a little over 200 plants. Mix fertilizer by the gallon, use about three a week. Water with a turkey baster, helps keep water out of the crown of plants and allows me to water the medium directly. Takes about 2 1/2 hours a week

[kinknstein]

Thats a great idea John, I never would have thought of a turkey baster! Thanks for the tip!~!

[Blondie]

Oooh. A turkey baster! That is very clever.

So the orchids get wet enough with just water from a spray bottle? How does the water reach the roots that are waaay down in there?

[bonsai1504]

Most commercial greenhouses with 1000+ plants have automated watering systems and all of the plants get watered at the same time. Personally, with my 150 or so plants, i use a garden pump sprayer. It takes probably 15 minutes to get everything watered.

[Blondie]

Do you leave the pots sitting in saucers with water in them? Now I'm picturing a sprayer going all over the floor...

As you can see, this whole process is very confusing/interesting to me.

[Ironwood]

Deck sprayers with there 8 foot hose work great for this job. Easily handles 200 plants. You can shape the end of the wand by putting a curve in it, so you can easily point the nozzle into the pot or area you want to water. With very little practice you will see how easy this is.

[learning2letgo]

John that is quite a crafty idea! For you guys who are watering a smaller collection of plants, the turkey baster idea is great and you can even bring it down to small scale by using a bulb dropper for children's medication.

They're rather inexpensive and most pharmacies have them to give away if you just ask for one. Even if they have none, like I said, they're rather inexpensive

[cowboy51278]

I also used to use the garden pump sprayer. It worked well for a while. As my collection in the house climbed over 400 I decided that the pumping action really sucked. So I took the wand off the pump sprayer, attached a longer hose and now use a small submersable pump in a 5 gallon bucket. The pumps are readily available at hydroponic stores and we have several locally. Its not great pressure but certainly comperable to the pump sprayer and the submersable only cost about $40