Taking care of orchids is not as simple as it might seem. These plants grow differently than others ; their roots , for example, tend to rot quickly if not cared for properly.
Just that, is that what’s happening with your plants? Don’t worry, we have a system for you that will give you beautiful and healthy orchids all year round. First of all you need to get a 5 liter plastic bottle which you will remove the cap from and on which you will make a fairly large square opening (consider that our plant will have to fit inside).
At the bottom of the bottle, you need to create drainage holes using a small knife. You can instead pierce the bottle cap and insert a wire or a hanger inside it which you will eventually need to place your orchid wherever you prefer, even hanging it from the balcony.
At this point, we take our orchid out of its pot and begin removing the old planting material and then cutting the damaged roots. In the meantime, let’s prepare this mixture which will serve as a natural fertilizer for our orchid.
In a container, add 500 ml of water to which we will add two cloves of garlic previously crushed in the mortar. Let’s mix everything. We filter the water which in the meantime will have absorbed the antiseptic properties of the garlic and with a cotton ball that we have immersed in this solution, we begin to clean the leaves of our orchid.
Why do we do this step? To ensure that our plant is protected from fungi effectively : the smell of garlic and its properties are able to act as a fungicide.
At this point, we put the roots of our orchid in the water and garlic and leave to soak for 15 minutes. In the meantime, get some pine bark that you can buy at nurseries.
Let’s move on to the final step. Take your previously sectioned transparent plastic bottle again and insert a sponge cut into small pieces inside , the classic green or white ones that you can also find at florists.
Then add the pine bark and finally your orchid , the one you left soaking in water and garlic. Cover the roots again with pine bark . Then water the soil with the same solution of water and garlic in which you immersed your plant.
This operation must be repeated once every two weeks . You will see that by doing so, your orchid will flower and remain with healthy , robust roots all year round.