How we water our orchids by Jenny and Terry Dark

Although we only have a small collection, we found that the amount of water we used on our orchids was unacceptable with the current water shortage.

We were watering using an ordinary garden hose with a trigger gun that offers different spray patterns including a mister but we found that much of the water ended up on the ground and often resulted in some plants getting a lot of water and some missing out because they were in a hard to reach location.

There had to be a better way to keep the orchids hydrated whilst using a minimum amount of water.

We decided that recovery of as much of the water as possible should be incorporated into any system we developed.
In the end we opted for flood irrigation of the plants by introducing the water into a closed container in which the orchids were placed.
Only enough water to effectively achieve the goal is placed into the container. The plants are left for a couple of hours to ensure that water has achieved maximum penetration into the media.

The water is then drained into a holding tank to be treated using a combination of filtration and chemicals to prevent build up of algae and bacteria between waterings.

Care is also taken to monitor the pH and amount of dissolved salts in the water.

As a result we only use about a sixth of the water we used prior to the new technique. We have also observed fewer waterings are required, the plants are healthier and we have fewer problems associated with overhead watering. We also only use tank water.
We have also noticed that we have far more flower spikes this season.

Spraying is still done to help keep down the pests such as two-spotted spider mite etc that like dry conditions under the leaves.

The containers we use are plastic trundle boxes that have a hole drilled in the bottom to accept a plastic fitting to permit drainage into the holding tank.

How I grow my orchids by Shaw Hurwood

My orchid house effectively measures 5m x 5m x 2.4m high and is literally crammed with many different types of orchids.

The roof has opal Laserlite® with retractable 70% fawn shade cloth that is open from Anzac Day (25th April) through to Melbourne Cup Day (the first Tuesday in November). These are approximate dates, but easy to remember. The remainder of the year i.e. Melbourne Cup Day to Anzac Day, the shade cloth is closed.

The house faces east with full-length clear plastic roller-blind and 70% shadecloth roller-blind for summer sun. The top 800mm is an open area on the North & West Sides, with walls being the neighbour’s fences and the south side is my house wall.

I have a fogging system on timer (when allowed by water restrictions) under the roof, and as I don’t really get much natural air movement, I have an oscillating fan running almost all day. In extremely hot weather I run an evaporative cooler on the Masdevallias or any other plants likely to get heat-stressed.

I grow, or attempt to grow, a mixed variety of orchid genera comprising:
Dendrobiums, Sarcochilus, Laelia, Paphiopedilums, Zygopetalums, Promeneas, Cymbidiums (which I am slowly giving away to my daughter), Dockrillias and Masdevallias, plus a few oddments as experiments.

Most of my orchids are grown in coco-peat and are performing satisfactorily. The proms, cymbids and zygos are still in small-to-mini bark, but I will eventually also repot these into coco-peat as it doesn’t require as much water as bark.

I water once a week in winter and twice a week (or as required) in summer. I water with mains water, but on proms, masdevallias and sarcs I use tank water (the rain collected from the roof of the shadehouse). I fertilise twice a month with a variety of fertilisers depending on the growing or flowering season.

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