Bitterroot Restoration

Orchids are among the most spectacular of all flowering plants. They come in an infinite variety of colors, shapes and sizes and many make great indoor house plants. They can also be extremely fragrant with luscious scents do coconut or chocolate. They range in size from a 2" to 5 foot. Orchids are easily distinguished, as they share some very evident apomorphies. Among these: bilaterally symmetric (zygomorphic), many resupinate, one petal (labellum) is always highly modified, stamens and carpels are fused, and the seeds are extremely small. Orchids generally have simple leaves with parallel veins, although some Vanilloideae have a reticulate venation. Leaves may be ovate, lanceolate, or orbiculate, and very variable in size.

Orchids can make great house plants if you pick the right one for your home. Orchids can be divide into two groups - monopodial or sympodial depending upon their habit of growth. Monopodial orchids such as Phalaenopsis, Renanthera and Vanda have a main stem which countrieas to grow year after as Cattleya, Cymbidium have a main Stem which terminates growth at the end of each season. A new shoot then grows from the base forming it's own bulbous stem called pseudo-bulb which eventually flowers. The pseudo-bulb or thickened stem are very useful devices for the storage of food and water and function like bulbs.

Cymhidiums and many other orchids, such as cattleyas, can be grown outdoors during frost-free months in Georgia. They also like an abundance of moisture - but with good drainage and plentiful root aeration. However, do not plant tropical /greenhouse orchids outdoors in your garden soil. The soils are too dense to allow the roots to survive. In addition to the epiphytic orchids, there are also grounds orchids or terrestrial orchids which grow like ordinary plants with their roots in soil. Most of the temperate zone orchids are terrestrial and tropical orchids are epiphytes.

A recommended care and maintenance routine of Orchids:

• Morning: – check all orchids and provide them with water if necessary.
• Mid-morning: – spray greenhouse floors.
• Midday: – mist the orchids if necessary (especially on those ultra-hot days.)
• Mid-afternoon: – mist again.
• Late afternoon: – check all orchids to ensure that there is no water left on any of their leaves from earlier watering.
• Weekly: – add orchid fertilizer as required. Check for any pests and diseases and treat accordingly. Stake all emerging flower stems.
  

Requirements of Growing Orchids:

• Light
• Humidity
• Watering
• Ventilation
• Manuring
• Propagation
• Pests and Diseases

Light

Indirect sunlight is ideal for orchids. Seedlings requires less than adult plants. Very poor light tends to produce weak plants and retards flowering.

Humidity

Humid warm atmosphere is most essential for the growth of most of the tropical orchids, which do not have well established root system. It is a good idea to have a water tank or pool in the center of the orchidaria to maintain humidity, which should not be less than 30% at night and 80% during day time, The plants should be watered 2-3 times a day and should not be allowed to dry up during hot climate. Plants in active growth require more water. Similarly plants in baskets require more water than those in pots. Care should be taken to water the plants with a fine spray by using standard nozzles and not to hit the plants with powerful jets of water. Plants which are freshly potted should be watered very sparingly till the new roots appear and watering should be gradually increased.

Watering

Watering is the most important factor in orchid culture. If you grow the plants in pots suspended in the air, they will dry out more rapidly than bench grown plants and will need watering more frequently. Orchids potted in bark require more frequent waterings than those in most other potting media, just as plants in clay pots require more frequent watering than those in plastic pots.

Orchids may be grouped into three categories according to their moisture requirements.

• Low Water Use: Cattleyas, Laeliocattleyas, Brassolaeliocattleyas, Oncidiums, Miltonias, and Odontoglossums are ephiphytes or "air rooted" orchids, with built-in "water tanks" or pseudobulbs. They should be allowed to dry out slightly between waterings so air can circulate between the epiphytic roots. Water every five days or so. In the heat of mid-summer, water may be needed every three or four days. During the short, cool days of winter, increase the time between waterings to 10 to 14 days. If you do err in watering, make sure it is on the dry side.
• Moderate Water Use: Phalaenopsis, while also epiphytic are monopodial and do not have built-in tanks for water storage, but store some water in their leaves. They require watering similiar to ordinary house plants, but more frequent waterings than orchids with pseudobulbs. Water enough to keep the potting medium from becoming dry for more than a day or two.
• High Water Use: Paphiopedilums and Haemeria orchids are semi-terrestrials or terrestrials (meaning "earth-rooted"). Unlike the preceding groups, they do not mind "wet feet." They like an abundance of moisture and the soil can remain damp for many days without any negative effects. Many terrestrial orchids are potted in peat based media which will naturally hold more water than the bark mixes.

Ventilation

In greenhouses, a small fan should be run continuously to circulate the air. A window left ajar in all but the coldest of weather may also be adequate to provide proper ventilation indoors. Airconditioning may harm orchids because the air is much too cold coming out of the unit. Keep orchid plants out of cold drafts and away from heating vents.

Manuring

In nature, orchids obtain their supply of inorganic nutrients like calcium, magnesium, iron, potassium, nitrogen and traces of manganese, boron, copper, zinc etc. from the tree on which they are growing and also from atmosphere and decaying vegetables and dropping of birds. However under controlled conditions they have to be supplied with all these major and minor nutrients. Taking into consideration the special need of different orchids, a large number of fertilizer mixtures, both solid and liquid, are available in market. Liquid fertilizers are much more quickly absorbed and can be applied more frequently. As the orchids are slow growing, slow release fertilizers like osmocote can be used to get very good result. Usage of fertilizers should also depend on stage of growth. During vegetative growth, large quantities of nitrogen are required while during flowering, nitrogen should be reduced and amount of phosphate increased.

Some people has been getting excellent results by using slow release fertilizer mixtures (NPK 20:20:20) with trace elements and coconut water (20-25 %) applied every week for three successive weeks followed by a 10:20:30 (NPK).

Propagation

Orchids like other Horticultural crops, may be propagated either sexually or Asexually. Since most of the commercial orchids are highly heterozygous they are not raised through seed and are propagated through vegetative means to get true-to-type plants. Conventional methods like cuttings, division of shoots or Keikis, are followed along with mericloning through tissue-culture techniques .

• Cuttings: Orchids like Aerides, Arachnis, Epidendrum, Renanthera, Phalaenopsis, Vanda and Dendrobium can be propagated by cutting. Orchids cutting are usually more bigger and should posseses one or more roots. Cutting are usually potted in propagation beds or directly in pots after treating the cut ends with fungicides to prevent rotting. Cutting of genera, like Aerides, Arachnis, Vanda etc., are very hardy and can be directly potted in pots, whereas those of dendrobium and Phalaenopsis need special care to root and should be potted in propagation beds. The propagation of orchids through cuttings is getting popular again and some of the nursery men like to propagate their orchids through cuttings to get uniform plants. The percentage of variation through this method is almost nill as compared to in vitro propagation through tissue culture. Further some orchids like Anaectochilus respond more to vegetative propagation through cutting than any other method. Most of the sympodial orchids, like Coelogyne, Cattleya, Dendrobium and Cymbidium, are propogated through this method. The method involved consists of dividing large clumps into smaller units. However care should be taken not to divide the plants unless there are 8-10 pseudo-bulbs. Dendrobiums which are very fast growing can be divide every year.
• Off-shoots and Keikis: In some monopodial orchids like Ascocenda and Phalaenopsis, Keikis or off-shoots emerge frequently on the main stem.. This usually happens when the apex has lost its effectiveness in suppressing axillary buds. In most of the commercial orchid nurseries topping of the stem is commonly practised to induce Keikis formation. Induction of Keikis can also be induced through the use of cytokinins which force the dormant bud to develop into keikis.
• Aerial shoots: Most of the dendrobiums produce aerial shoots or bulbs on old back bulbs devoid of leaves. They usually arise on the upper part of the back bulbs and grow out slowly. These aerial shoots take 90-120 days to develop roots. At this stage, they are detached along with the portion of back bulb and potted as independent plant. In genera like Goodyera, Rhizomes gives off special lateral branches which turn up and produce aerial shoots. When they are properly rooted they get detached from the mother plant and establish separately.
• Other methods: In few genera, like Peristylis and Nervillia, the roots are produced from above the tubers, each of which ends in tubercle. These small tubers produce new plants the year after. Vanda and other monopodial orchids can also be multiplied by air-layering or morcotage. A cut is given through the stem 20 to 30 cm below the apex and most sphagnum moss is wrapped around the cut portion. The rooting media is kept moist and once the root are formed, the layer is removed from the mother plant and potted in small-sized pots.

Pests and Diseases in Orchids

Orchids have few insect pests or diseases if properly cared for. It is important to have a problem identified before attempting control. Wiping leaves with a warm, soapy, wet cloth is sufficient to eradicate insects like mealy bugs if you have but a few plants in the house. Be careful because many insecticides can damage your orchids. Read the label to see if the pesticide can be safely used on orchids specifically. It does not matter where you cultivate your orchids, indoors, outdoors, in pots, in a climatically controlled greenhouse environment, you will at some stage need to deal with pests and diseases. Prevention is often better than cure and will go a long way in prolonging the life of your orchid as well as its blooming period. As a first step it would be best practice to:

• Buy orchids from a reputable nursery or garden center. (Carefully grown plants are usually resistant to bacterial and fungal diseases and most likely free of pests.)
• Where possible, place newly purchased orchids in a quarantine area before integration with the rest of your collection. (Or at least apart from your existing collection.) Until you are confident that the new plants are disease and pest free.