Change in watering regimen

A little background…
In July, 2018, my wife and I had to evacuate our house due to an approaching wildfire. After 5 days of being away we were allowed back home, fortunately, to an intact home. I did not have an automatic watering system and fully expected to return home to a greenhouse full of dead plants. Surprisingly most of the plants were in decent shape and showed no, or little, signs of stress. I then realized that not all of the plants, even the mounted ones, required daily watering in the summer.

Following the 5 day absence I stopped watering daily. Over time I have continued to increase the watering interval. California is in severe drought so I have stretched the watering out to 4 or 5 days. I have an evaporative cooler and a single mister on a timer to keep the humidity up to 40%+.

You can imaging that not all of my orchids have appreciated this change in watering. Some have died, some very stressed and declining, but others are doing perfectly fine. I will list the observations I have made.

Those doing fine with summer watering intervals of 4-5 days
Most Dendrobium … exceptions: moniliforme, hekouense, nakaharae.
Gongora
Miltonia spectabilis … currently blooming
Most Bulbophyllum … exceptions: hirundinis
Epidendrum
Barkaria
Philodota cantonensis
Vanda / Ascocentrum
Tolumnia
Cattleya labiata … 3 sheaths currently forming buds
Meiracyllium trinusutum … blooming now
Coelogyne kelamensis … new leaves are smaller
Barbosella australis … looks better than ever
Ancistrochilus rothschildianus
Schoenorchis scolopendria
Dendrobium bigibbum … currently blooming beautifully
Acianthera polystachya
Angraecum distictum
Lockhartia lunifera
Epigeneium triflorum v. orientale
Pleurothallis sarracenia
Eria aporoides
Lepanthopsis astrophora
Ornithocephalus
Brassavola nodosa
Mediocalcar decoratum (in moss)

Some that are doing poor
Most Pleurothallids … some exceptions mentioned above
Restrepia … all look bad, some have died
Maxillaria … mixed results
Bulbophyllum hirundinis
Dendrobium moniliforme, hekouense, nakaharae
Cryptotus elatus
Coelogyne nitida
Zygopetalum maxillare
Kefersteinia
Paphiopedalum
Schoenorchis gemmata
Microterangis
Zootrophion
Aerangis bioloba
Aerangis monantha
Trichosalpinx chaemolepanthes
Gastrochilus japonica
Ceratostylus philippinensis
Mediocalcar decoratum (on mount)
Lepanthes calodictyon … died

There are numerous others in both categories.

I am not suggesting that anyone else do what I have done but I felt it was interesting enough to share. I eliminated my lawns about 10 years ago and have my landscaping on drip irrigation. Watering my orchids less and shifting to species that can tolerate less water is just another water conservation effort that I’m willing to try.

 

Marni, within the city limits we are limited to 3 days per week for landscape watering. Outside the city, some of the water districts have severe rationing. Many private wells are going dry.

I have taken upon myself to use as little water as possible. 44 years ago when I moved to California most winters were wet with an occasional dry winter. It has reversed now where winters are dry with an occasional wet one. I hope I’m wrong but I believe this is the new normal.

For the past 5 years I have been volunteering, 2 days per week, at a local non-profit nursery that grows and sells CA native and other drought tolerant landscaping plants. It is amazing how many people are now coming in to get plants because they are removing their water hog lawns.

 

Marni, most of my plants are mounted on cork, tree fern or sticks. I may take some plants off mounts and put in baskets with moss to revive them.

Some of the ones already in moss or moss mixes are doing poorly such as the Restrepia, Pleurothallids, Kefersteinia, Zygopetalum (in coconut fiber/basket), Paphiopedilum.

fyi… my Restrepia chocoensis is in a 2” terra cotta pot with sphagnum moss and looks great. Surprised me.

 

I’m continuing with the reduced watering schedule. Currently watering every 4-5 days. As mentioned before some are doing well and others not. A few have surprised me how well they do. Others more predictable.

Here are some quick snapshots of plants blooming today.

Angraecum distichum
Bulbophyllum tingabarinum
Bulbophyllum pardolotum
Pleurothallis strupifolia
Miltonia spectabilis
Dendrobium bigibbum
Barbosella australis

 

The wet wall, exhaust fan, new door are installed. Now I’m slowly going around and replacing a lot of the old polycarbonate siding, where needed. Everywhere I take off siding I also find that I need to replace or brace rotting wood. So it’s slow and I work on it when time and motivation allows .

 

Are you talking about less air movement, pots vs. mounts, misters? Something else?
The wet wall provides constant humidity and more consistent temperatures. I have a single mister on a timer to boost humidity but I’ve had it for years. So far no cultural changes and I haven’t switched mounted to pots.

Any suggestions?

 

Marni and Ray, thanks for the info, ideas and suggestions.