Knowing exactly how much water to add to your orchids can be difficult at all times of the year, particularly in winter.
If we overwater our orchids it could lead to root rot but if underwater our orchids, they may not get the nutrients that they require.
Izzy from the YouTube channel, Potted and Planted, uses a technique of adding small holes to her pots to help distinguish the water quantity that is needed.
She said that if your plant is taking longer than a week and a half to dry, try adding little holes.
Adding small holes to your pots can help with your orchid’s growth
GETTY
“If it is taking more than a week and a half to dry, you can add holes into the sites of the pot. I normally do that by getting a little poker and heating it up and sort of burning holes into the pot,” explained Izzy.
The content creator said that it is better to do this without your orchid in the pot but if you are very careful, you can add the holes in with the plant.
She said: “It’s always better to do that when you don’t have an orchid in the pot. But if you are really careful, you can see where the roots are, you just have to be very careful.
“You can add some extra holes in there for a little bit more aeration.”
The reason you want to do this is to increase the amount of air movement around the plant, as this can help speed up the drying process and growth of the orchid.
Izzy said: “Watering air movement is your friend as long as you’ve watered it and you’re giving it sufficient air movement. So that might be opening a window so that there’s some air movement sort of circulating around the room where they’re sitting.”
The small holes in the pots will help with air movement but it will also help to recognise if the plant is too wet or not.
“You do not want them sitting wet and still for a really long period of time as it can cause root rot. If you don’t want to add these small holes, just put a little pedestal fan in front of them once you’ve watered them if it’s a little bit of a cooler day,” explained the content creator.
The orchid grower also keeps her plants in a medium that mimics what the plant would experience in its natural environment.
She said: “In terms of the medium, I keep them in a mix of small-sized bark, some charcoal, and some coconut husk broken up into small pieces. It helps to keep a little bit more of the water retention, hence them sort of living in cloud forests or rainforests, as they don’t like to try out fully but don’t like to be waterlogged either.
“What helps with the mimicking is the holes in the pots as it means the roots can have better access to air.
“The roots should have some access to air in between waterings and them to dry out a little bit. It shouldn’t really take more than a week and a half for the medium to dry out enough that it needs watering again.”
