orchids anyone

[fostermum]

hi i was given an orchide by my daughter as it was suffering failure to thrive with her, ive never had one before but its going mad, has triped in size in 6 monthes, how do i slow it down, look after it, feed ect, can i take cuttings off it as it has lots of stems with leaves half way up?

My dad has been growing orchids for as long as I can remember - unfortunately he's just gone to Australia for a month!

What sort is it?

I think you can split the plant but I'm not sure about taking cuttings. I can't recall my dad ever doing this (my involvement was mainly limited to watering and caring for them when mum & dad ent away!). It will probably slow down when it's not in whatever its growing season is.

I don't know how to slow them down

BUT our 2 thrive on neglect.

1 is from Hawaii and is 13 years old and flowers every year or sometimes every other year at Christmas

2 is 1 year old and so hasn't had a 2nd chance to flower yet.

1 has been in same pot since we got it as they like to be pot bound.

My mum repotted hers and it died.

It does have loads of roots coming upwards and it only gets watwered when I remember which isn't very often once every 2 weeks,

I sometimes spray it with water and put in clear plastic bag in sunshine to make very humid,

I have no idea if you should follow my example but it has worked for ours

One thing to be careful of is not to get water down in the crevasses where the leaves join the plant or at least ensure that it dries out. This can make the plant rot otherwise.

A lot depends on what sort it is. Overwatering is far far worse than underwatering though - a lot of orchids grow on trees rather like mistletoe so they don't have soil at all. I know a lot of dad's are potted in chipped bark & moss rather than soil.

YES SD ours is in volcanic ash

That was the prob my mum had as well as repotting she bought some orchid compost/soil and they did not like it

BTW I only leave them in humid bag thing for a couple of hours

I did in the past wash the leaves with milkywater again I have absolutely no idea whether that is right

Perhaps someone who knows about them better than me will correct me, SD?

All I know is it has not harmed our one.

mine lives on the tumble drier,gets waters when i remember and havent repotted it yet but its growing to big for elcove havent a clue what kind it is,it has white and mauve flowers and leaves are in twos thats about all i can tell you