How to Care for Warm-Growing Orchids

Warm-growing orchids, including vandas and phalaenopsis, prefer nighttime temperatures between 60 and 65 degrees F and daytime temperatures between 70 and 85 degrees F. Here's how to take care of these plants.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Gravel
• Misting Spray Bottles
• Gravel
• Hygrometers
• Orchid Fertilizers
• Plant Light
• Plants
• Plants

1. Give orchids a humid environment - between 30 and 40 percent humidity. Bathrooms and kitchens are usually good, humid environments.

2. Increase humidity in the environment by setting the orchid pot on a tray filled with gravel and water; this helps raise the humidity around the plant.

3. Give orchids bright but not direct light. Place the pots on a shelf by an east- or south-facing window, or under a skylight.

4. Grow orchids under a wide-spectrum fluorescent light if you don't have enough light from windows.

5. Spray the orchids with a fine mist of water daily.

6. Water orchids in pots that are less than 8 inches in diameter twice a week. Water orchids in pots bigger than 8 inches once a week.

7. Fertilize weekly using half the recommended amount of specially designed orchid fertilizer.

8. Repot orchids approximately every two years (see "How to Repot Orchids," under Related eHows).

Tips & Warnings

• Use a device called a hygrometer to measure humidity.

[cameramaam]

on 5/9/2008 Placing a gravel- and water-filled tray in the home is an excellent way to promote the growth of fungus without changing the humidity even one little bit.
A vanda, in a pot, in an east-facing window will not only never, ever flower, it will decline in vigor for years until it finally dies.
Vandas and phalaenopsis require fairly opposite care - aside from both being heat-tolerant, they have very little in common with regards to growing conditions.
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