What Changes Need To Be Made For Winter Care Of Orchids
Winter Care of Orchids from www.orchids-plus-more.com
Where you and your orchids are located will effect how you need to prepare for the winter care of your orchids. Most Southern areas do not need to take special precautions for
winter care of orchids except when a frost alert is in place. For the enthusiast, hobbyist
or orchid lovers who grow their orchid plants outside during the warmer months
this article is for you.
We are primarily going to talk about the lighting, watering and temperature
changes that will affect the growing orchids. During the winter season we adults
feel the effects of less light and cooler temps giving rise to feeling lethargic
or lazy. Orchid plants will also be effected. Orchids need a certain amount of
light and temperature to grow normally and the winter season can change that. A
significant number of plants will have this as a normal period of dormancy or
rest needed to get ready for the next budding period.
Light
What about the natural light for the winter care of orchid plants? The days are shorter and the nights longer so
plants that need moderate to high light intensity may get short changed. This
means that orchid plants like Cattleya, Epidendrum, Dendrobium and Oncidium may
possibly need some artificial light. The high intensity orchids need about 12 to 14
hours of light during their growing season and less than that puts them at a
disadvantage for generating buds and blooms.
It is only in the extreme northern US latitudes that we don't find at least 14 hours of
daylight. The intensity of the light may be diminished because the sun is lower
in the atmosphere during the winter. So if your plant needs more light you may
need to move them from an area of where they used to get bright diffused light
to a sunnier area of the home. The use of grow lights is not out of the question
either especially for those plants requiring high light intensity like Oncidums
and some Phals. Lighting is an important aspect of winter care of
orchid plants and if the plants do not get enough they will not bud.
Watering
Let's change our attention to watering. The winter care of orchid
plants usually means
less watering because there is a needed period of rest. Instead of watering
twice a week try watering once a week or instead of watering once a week we
need to do it every 10 to 14 days. Now this changes if your home has low
humidity, in this case you will need to water more often. The normal humidity
that orchid plants love is between 40 - 80%. Most homes have about 40 -50 %
humidity. If your home does not you may need to use humidity trays. These are
metal or plastic trays that are filled with pebbles and then about 1/2 with
water.
Temperature
The winter care of orchid plants cannot be complete without mention of the
required temperature. Since most orchids need temps between 55 - 80 degrees F,
the plants in the middle and northern US need to come indoors. There are certain
things we need to bear in mind. Normal home temperatures are usually good for orchid
plants but we need to consider that if we keep our home temperatures low due to the
high heating bills we may need to add some warmth during the day to the plants.
It is not good to keep them at a constant 60 -65 degrees, they do need times
with temps higher.
Be careful of the setting as well, a window sill in the day time may be
wonderful for the plants but at night it may get too cool. In order to protect
the plants use a curtain as a barrier to the cold. On the other hand the window
sill can also burn plants if it gets too hot. By the way this damage also occurs
with lack of water and over heating of the orchid plant.
The most common signs of cold injury include injury to the plant leaf which
can be seen as pitting marks, large sunken areas or the eventual discoloration
which can lead to a brown leaf. The amount of damage varies considerably with
the cold injury. If a plant is frozen you will notice this rather fast after
thawing. The dead spots on the leaves as well as the flowers and buds is easily
noticeable.
Fertilizing
Just a quick word about fertilizing, as this period is usually
one of resting the need for fertilizer diminishes as well. You should stretch
out the fertilizing to be twice as long as you would during the summer. For
example if your routine for fertilizing was once a week in the summer than the
winter care of orchid plants says that it now should be once every two to three
weeks.
I hope that you have found "the winter care of orchid plants"
helpful. If so please net me know. If there are any other suggestions for topics
please let me know by sending your suggestion or comments.
This article was published in our newsletter for January 2005.
