how to manage watering large cymbidiums

[bjames]

Originally Posted by Des

I stand mine in a saucer of water and capillary action ensures that the plant gets what it needs. You will be surprised at how much water a Cymbid can take up on a warm and windy day.
A question , do you water twice the last being with fertilizer? If you do maybe you should try the fertilizer first as my reasoning tells me that once the roots are hydrated they wont be able to take up the fertilizer until the roots dry out again.
That is one of the reasons why I fertilize with every watering,but at a lower EC

I like your idea of adding the water directly to the dish the plant is standing in. I guess I thought that the bark would not allow the proper capillary action to supply sufficient water/fertilizer to the plant as bark is not as spongy or expandable as soil. I also thought that supplying fertilizer when the plant was dry, might burn the roots. That is why I watered first without fertilizer. But, what you say really makes sense.