Who doesn’t love having a beautiful plant on a piece of furniture or on the windowsill at home? Orchids are fascinating, exotic and refined plants that decorate the interior of our homes. However, in most cases, they need some care to survive and thrive in our homes.
One of the first important things to do is pruning , which is done after flowering and allows the plant to regain strength for the next buds.
Orchids – Source: spm
Why prune?
Orchid pruning helps plants avoid disease and encourages new blooms. Once the weakest and most damaged parts are removed, the plant focuses on growing the rest, and removing dead tissue prevents pests or fungi from taking hold.
When ?
Pruning is done after flowering. Home-grown orchids typically bloom once a year, but flower buds can also bloom twice under the right conditions.
As ?
The first condition is that the tools used are well disinfected: wash your hands well and, if you use gloves, rinse them as well and wash them with disinfectant. It is above all the blades of the pruning shears that need to be carefully cleaned and sterilized: you can rub them with isopropyl or ethyl alcohol, or even pass them over a flame for long seconds (and use them only when they are very cold), or both.
You can work on stems, leaves and even roots.
Stems: Look at the various flowering stems, which then branch out from the main stem. The green ones, which feel firm and hard to the touch, should not be touched unless they have buds. Look for the node below the lowest flower and cut just above it (less than two centimeters above the node), this is a way to encourage the production of new flowers on this stem. If, on the other hand, they are brown and dry, without any more texture and wrinkled, then remove them completely, leaving only a few centimeters at the tip.
Leaves: Dead leaves usually fall off on their own, but you can help them by pulling them very gently or cutting them with a sharp blade. You should also intervene when diseased appear, to prevent the disease from spreading to the rest of the plant.
Roots: This is the intervention to avoid, unless you are confident or have gained some experience. Orchids are epiphytic plants, which have aerial roots. For this reason, we often see them coming out of the pots and emerging from the substrate. You should never touch them, as they help the plant absorb nutrients, and cutting them exposes the specimen to diseases and various problems. If you want to reduce the root system, you can only do it with perfectly sterilized utensils, and you can only cut a small percentage of the roots.