Written by: Learn4Life Instructor Hani Louis
One of the most popular orchids to grow in your living room is the Moth orchid or better known as the Phalaenopsis Orchid. These orchids are very common and can be found in your corner store, grocery store, supermarket, garden centre, and even in your Shoppers’ Drug Mart store.
These orchids produce a long stem and at the extreme top end flowers start to develop. The lowest flower opens first, followed by flowers above it opening gradually. The outstanding property of these moth orchids is that their flower stalks keep looking stunningly beautiful for almost one or two months!
These orchids have a few requirements, firstly, they need a bright light setting – keep them close to a window exposed to bright light for at least 6 hours daily. Avoid having them in a sunny location as direct sunlight will scorch and burn their leaves.
The second requirement for Moth orchids is ample humidity. Orchids’ native habitat is in warm, and high humidity climates. Orchids grow well in the hot and humid Caribbean countries, in the far East, such as in Indonesia, the Philippines, and Thailand. Orchids grow well in Hawaii where the weather there is also constantly hot and humid. To replicate high humidity conditions in our Canadian living rooms we need to spray them with a mister every few days. This can be tedious. An easier method is to have your orchid pot in a tray with about 1 or 2 cm deep water. Make sure that the bottom of your orchid pot is not submerged in the water as the roots need air to breath. You can have your pot resting on nice pebbles in the water. Keep an eye on the water level in the tray and, when it has all evaporated, add some more tap water.
Some people place an ice cube on the pot surface of the orchid. This allows the ice to thaw slowly thus watering the orchid gradually and slowly. As orchids do not grow under cold and icy conditions I, personally, do not like this method.
The ideal water for your Phalaenopsis orchids is distilled water, next is rainwater. Phalaenopsis orchids need a slightly acidic medium with a pH ranging between 5.5 and 6.5. As distilled water is neutral with a pH of 7.0 it would be beneficial to add 1 or 2 drops of vinegar to a liter of distilled water. Rainwater is slightly acidic so there is no need to add any vinegar. Of course, you can always use regular tepid tap water for your orchids.
Moth orchids need to be planted in a special orchid mix as ordinary potting soil will not do as this will cause water to remain in the soil around the roots and prevent air circulation which will, ultimately cause the roots to rot and die. The special orchid mix to use for your orchids consists of a mixture composed of pieces of bark, small chips of charcoal, perlite, some coarse sand, tiny stones, and added orchid specific fertilizer. The pieces of bark and charcoal allow air to flow around the roots and let extra water drain out. The perlite helps to retain water thus helps in keeping the moisture level balanced in the pot.
Many of the orchids sold in Toronto are grown in plain sphagnum moss. The lightness and porosity of the moss allow the roots to “breathe” with air circulating inside the pot.
An easier method to grow your moth orchid is to simply take it out of the sphagnum moss, rinse the roots well, then place your orchid in a glass jar or vase with about 2 cm of water in the bottom as you can see in the picture.
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The middle orchid, a mini moth orchid, is growing in sphagnum moss
while the two big moth orchids on either side are growing in water.
A drawback to growing your orchid in water in a glass jar or clear vase is the possibility of the water turning green with algae or partially rotting roots so you might have to remove your orchid, trim any rotting roots, throw away the water, wash the jar, and then replace the orchid in the clean jar. Of course, with this method and also if your orchid is growing in orchid mix or in sphagnum moss you still have to add some fertilizer once a month or two. Speaking about fertilizers, the main ingredients of all fertilizers are indicated by the N P K ratio. N stands for the nitrogen content; P stands for the phosphorus content, and K stands for the potassium content in the fertilizer. The nitrogen N content of the fertilizer is to assist the growth of green leaves. The potassium or K is for root development and plant health. As phosphorus P assists in flower development, so choose a fertilizer with a high middle number such as 10: 15: 5. I like to use a concentrated liquid fertilizer which comes in an N P K ratio of 3 : 10 : 2. It is easy to use, I just drop 7 droplets in a liter of water then use this water to fertilize my orchids.
After a few weeks the very first flowers that opened on the stalk start to wither and drop. This is normal. Even after all the flowers have fallen off keep the stalk on your plant as sometimes it branches out and starts to develop flowers. The stalk should only be cut off at the very bottom once it has dried out and became brown in colour.
Growing and enjoying Phalaenopsis orchids in your home is an easy task as long as you follow the basic requirements of light conditions, humidity, and care. Orchids can live for many years, the yellow-flowered orchid is 20 years old! Best of luck in growing your orchids.
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The same three moth orchids two months later, the flowers on the first orchid have all fallen, part of the flowers on the middle mini orchid have fallen, while the flowers on the third orchid are at their peak