How to care for indoor orchids

Indoor orchids need care

Indoor orchids are quite demanding plants. They need a lot of light to grow well, and especially to flourish. What’s more, they must be in pots and in suitable substratesOtherwise, your health will deteriorate.

As you are interested in having them beautiful, then we will tell you how to care for indoor orchids to have everything under control.

Light and Shade

The cattleya is a terrestrial orchid

Indoor orchids should be placed in a room where there are windows through which light from outside enters. The lack of light is a problem for them, as it causes the leaves to weaken and “hang”, and they cannot produce flowers. For this reason, it is extremely important that they be placed, for example, at the entrance of the house, in an interior patio, or in any other place where there is a lot of light.

But beware: do not put them by the window, because they will burn. For example, I have them on a table, more than a meter away from it. In addition, if you have more pots in the same piece of furniture, you must ensure that your orchids are in front of the plants that are larger, so that they can receive the light they need.

Humidity

Our protagonists are originally from tropical forests, where it rains frequently and where the humidity is very high. Thanks to this, its leaves remain green, since they can absorb the water droplets that land on them. Inside homes, this humidity is usually low, and this is a serious problem, since they dehydrate and turn brown.. How to avoid it?

Well the first thing to do is find out if the humidity at home is high or low. To do this, we recommend buying a domestic weather station, which will also help you to know what the maximum and minimum temperatures are, and thus you will be able to know how they react to climatic changes that occur in your home. There are very basic and cheap ones that cost less than 15 euros, such as this.

Once you know what it’s like, you can take action if necessary. For example, if for a week it stays above 50%, it means that the humidity is high and therefore, you will not have to do anything. But if on the contrary it is lower, we recommend you do any of these things:

  • Spray the leaves with rainwater, distilled or reduced in lime, once a day.
  • Place containers of water near the plants.

Irrigation

Phalaenopsis

Related article:

Learn everything you need to know about watering orchids

If we talk about irrigation, it should be moderate. Rainwater or water with a low lime content must be used, since if it is irrigated with very calcareous water, the leaves could turn yellow. But how should they be watered?

gotta do it pouring water on the groundnever to the plant, and until it comes out through the drainage holes of the pot. But we must be careful if we have put pine bark as a substrate, since as it barely absorbs water, we must add little so that it does not end up on the furniture.

Soil or substrate

Indoor orchid care is difficult

It will depend a lot on whether it is terrestrial or epiphytic:

  • Terrestrial orchids: we can use coconut fiber that you can buy here!, or soil for acid plants such as this. Likewise, the pot must be colored and have holes in its base so that the water can escape.
  • Epiphytic orchids: we will use pine bark, and we will put them in transparent plastic pots with holes in their base. You can buy the complete kit here!.

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If you want to help them flourish, it is interesting to fertilize them with a specific fertilizer for orchidsAs this. It is not necessary to use others, since their concentration of nutrients is too high for these plants, so much so that if we fertilize them with any of them we could cause nutritional problems, and consequently, their health could weaken.

Pot change

Although it is true that orchids are relatively small plants, sometimes you have to plant them in larger pots so they can continue to grow, especially if they grow roots through the holes in the pot. In addition, it is also done in the event that the soil is very worn, or if it is suspected that there is a problem with the roots.

But how do you do it? A) Yes:

  1. The first thing is to prepare the pot. Remember that if it is epiphytic it must be transparent, and if it is terrestrial, colored.
  2. Then, introduce some orchid substrate into it.
  3. Now take the orchid out of the pot, and look at its roots. If it’s an epiphyte like Phalaenopsis, remove as much pine bark as you can. If you see any black or moldy roots, cut them off.
  4. Finally, plant it in the pot and finish filling it with substrate.

Indoor orchid problems

There are a number of problems they may have, which are as follows:

  • Leaves lose firmness: if they remain green, it is because they lack water.
  • Old leaves turn yellow and fall: they may be because they have come to an end, and in this case the rest of the plant will look good, or due to excessive watering.
  • Brown spots on some leaves: they are usually burns. Avoid putting it right in front of the window.
  • Does not bloom: It may be because it lacks electricity and/or water. Learn More.

We hope that now it is easier for you to keep your orchids indoors.

How to care for indoor orchids

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