Getting Started: Your First Orchid

A Beginner's Cultivation Guide

The foundational concepts in this guide are adapted from a classic series authored by Stephen R. Batchelor for the American Orchid Society Bulletin during the 1980s. These timeless insights were originally compiled into the comprehensive handbook, "Your First Orchid: A Guide for Beginners," published by the AOS.

Expand each section to find links to the articles regarding the topics below:

General Orchid Information

Orchid Culture - the Proper Approach

I must confess that I underwent a crisis of confidence when the Editor asked me to write a series of cultural articles for the beginner. Had that much time really passed since that day I enthusiastically purchased my first orchid, a cattleya orchid... read entire article

Growing Outdoors and in Windows

With some ingenuity and persistence, conditions conducive to the growing and flowering of orchids can be achieved anywhere - from below ground level to the tops of tall buildings, inside under entirely artificial light, or outdoors in a more natural setting... read entire article

Growing Under Lights

It is hard to imagine sun-loving plants like orchids flowering under the relatively low light intensities of conventional fluorescent tubes. But flower they do. What fluorescent lights lack in intensity, they can compensate for in daily light duration and in numbers... read entire article

Nomenclature

Beginning and inveterate orchid growers alike are constantly being offered either seedlings or mericlones as possible additions to their collections. Both are available either in flasks, community pots, or individually in two to... read entire article

Propagation on a Small Scale

Sooner or later, every hobby grower reaches that point where they ask the question "How can I propagate my plant"; or some variation of it like "Can I make more plants from cuttings?" Orchid hobbyists have several simple... read entire article

Orchid Growing Essentials

Light and Temperature

Best flowering generally occurs under higher light intensities of longer duration that leads to the accumulation of food reserves needed for flowering. Cooler temperatures at night, when respiration continues while photosynthesis... read entire article

Air Pollution, Air Movement, and Humidity

Potted orchid roots require oxygen derived from the air pockets or well-aerated water present in a porous medium, because the uptake of water and nutrients (in addition to root maintenance and growth) is a process which demands energy... read entire article

Watering

Most orchids, particularly the epiphytes, have evolved to withstand dry conditions to some extent. Unlike other more tender plants, orchids don't usually cry out that they need water by wilting in a dramatic fashion. Instead a prolonged period of... read entire article

Nutrition

Essential elements for plants are usually divided into two groups. Those needed in relatively large quantities are called the macronutrients (nitrogen, sulfur, phosphorus, potassium, calcium and magnesium) and those elements... read entire article

Fertilizer

Soluble salts are at once a bane and a blessing in orchid culture. They can be present in dangerously high concentrations in water supplies and potting media, and yet they are what constitute conventional fertilizers, forming a salt when the water... read entire article

Growing Media

Healthy roots are essential to orchids. Without a substrate conducive to root establishment, growth and function, an orchid cannot absorb the nutrients and water it requires. A growing medium should be firm and yet well aerated... read entire article

Repotting

Organic media decompose into humus, a material, by itself, unfit for orchid roots. In a decomposed medium roots rarely have adequate oxygen to survive and function. Repotting must occur before significant media decomposition takes... read entire article

Orchid Pests & Diseases

Scale, Mealybugs & Aphids

Scale and Mealybug, who among us can say that they have never had an infestation of mealybug or scale in their orchid collection? Very few, I suspect! Surely among the most common of orchid pests, these closely related creatures cause... read entire article

Mites, Slugs and Other Nuisances

Far smaller than scale, mealybug or aphids, and requiring a hand lens (10x-20x) to be directly seen at all, spider mites and false spider mites treat orchid leaves like pincushions, and in large numbers can cause considerable injury... read entire article

The Ruinous Rots

Nearly every orchid grower has had some experience with black rots, whether they readily admit it or not! Because these rots are so lethal to plant tissue, and spread so quickly, I would venture to guess that more orchids have been lost to... read entire article

The Flagrant Fungi

The typical orchid leaf, at some point in its lifetime, becomes spotted or damaged in some way, usually a result of infection by one of the many pathogenic fungi in the conventional growing environment. While rarely lethal except to the... read entire article

Victims of Virus
Are we all victims of virus? I wonder as I write, sniffling and sniffing, coughing and sneezing, suffering from a frequent viral complaint! Is there no cure for the common cold? Are there no remedies for orchid virus? Unfortunately not... read entire article

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Getting Started: Your First Orchid

A Beginner's Cultivation Guide

General Orchid Information

Orchid Growing Essentials

Orchid Pests & Diseases

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