How to clean my orchids’ leaves
 

Hello everyone! Now that I’ve finally managed to feel confident I won’t kill my pretty orchids (have them since February and they have all grown new leaves and are sprouting more roots) I have a more estethic question. One of them in particular has leaves that look full of dust. Not the new leaves but the old ones. I’ve tried giving them a shower when I water the plant but it still looks the same. They all sit on a screened porch but they look like this even after just being washed. My other flowers look fine. I don’t want to harm the leaves just because I think the leaves look dirty, but if I could clean them without damaging the plant I would love to do that. Any suggestions?

Either wipe with a wet towel or use leaf shine.

Do not use too much leaf shine or your plant's leaves will burn when it gets into contact with strong enough light.

Milk diluted with water makes a good leaf shine. Dont wipe the bottom of the leaves; you can clog the stomata there and inhibit the transpiration process.

50% water / 50% rubbing alchohol / 1 tbsp dawn dish detergent in a large spray bottle does a nice job! :)

I have always cleaned the dust off my orchids' leaves with a damp paper towel. I run a paper towel under the faucet, squeeze enough of the water out so that it's not dripping, and use it to wipe down the leaves. I'm very gentle, I don't rub or scrub, I use not much more than the weight of the wet paper towel itself. I will use the fingers of my free hand to gently support the underside of each leaf while I do it. I use a fresh paper towel for each plant.

I might try something stronger like Charles's formula if I had a plant that came to me in a very dirty state. I've never felt the need to use a shining product.

I fill a spray bottle with reverse osmosis water and give the leaves a good blasting. If that doesn’t work, I also gently wipe them with a moist paper towel.

Fresh squeezed lemons will do the trick!

The damp paper towel method works for me but the lemon juice is great at removing the marks left by dried fertilizer. Doesn't need to be complicated.

Believe it or not, mayo works great! Better than the other methods I've tried. Put some on a paper towel, wipe the leaves so they have a THIN coat of mayo, then take a clean paper towel and wipe it off. Make sure you get it all off. I've done this for years now, and my phals all look super clean and healthy! :)

Just don't use commercial leaf shine on oncidium type orchids because I've learnt the hard way that they hate it!