These two are my first Phalaenopsis orchids I got about one year ago.

Like pretty much all of my other orchids, both phal and other types, I saved them from the trash for 1€ and then cared for them properly.

I will do another post soon once they're in full bloom, with a small guide on what I've learnt so far.

One thing I noticed is that they look way cooler imo when you just let them do their thing. I apparently really just don't like the way they are forced to grow when you buy them.

In nature, they attach themselves to tree trunks meters above ground and grow sideways.

Ever killed an orchid by spilling water on the crown? Too bad. Where they grow in nature, this happens daily, and they like it!

When they grow upright like we force them to, water can't flow anywhere and they get crown rot.

I don't rotate them and they search their way to the sun to suck up every juicy delicious photon. That way they get enough energy to bloom like crazy!

Oh, and when we speak about blooming. Flower spikes. Why the hell should I stake them?

Again, most orchids available grow on trees. Not in grass. They have literally ZERO reason to grow upright like they do in supermarkets.

They just grow towards light. Sure, you can force them again with wooden sticks to grow just like EVERY other stupid flower on this planet. But WHY would you?

They have this natural grace and the individual flowers grow in a beautiful arch downwards.

Orchids in general are just so cool and I find them even cooler when they can play out their amazing characteristics!

Calatheas. They have the reputation for being literally impossible to keep alive. And if you manage to at least not outright kill them, they look super sad. Crispy leaves, no growth, and more dead than alive. You also just didn't like the plant to begin with, because it always has been super fuzzy about everything.

Into the trash it goes!

No... wait!
Maybe reconsider the bad reputation.

I find them actually not hard at all to cultivate successfully.

Let me explain.

Substrate

Let's begin with the soil.
That's the first thing you did wrong. You used dirt.

Marantacae, the whole class of diva plants, where all those Calatheas, Marantas, Ctenanthes and whatever words with red dots below belong to, are native to rainforests.

They literally need daily rain showers, or else they throw a tantrum and die.

So, just water your plant all the time...right? NOPE. You will kill it with root rot, because soil needs dry periods for proper oxygenation.

So... skip watering? Yep. But do it 5 minutes too long, and the plant gets crispy and again land in the trash.

And now, what else?

✨ H Y D R O ! ✨

Give them some LECA clay balls and let them sit in an inch of nutrient solution.

I plan to post a guide/ experience report on semi-hydro soon for more details.

With that method, they are constantly hydrated and you literally never have to worry about root rot or fungus gnats. Also no more guesswork thanks to the water level indicator!

They need to be watered every two weeks or so and that's it.

Air humidity

I've read a lot that you'll need at least 70, better 80% RH, which is basically only achievable in terrariums and greenhouses, and DAILY misting, or else they get burnt tips.

That's total BS imo!

They are fucking houseplants. They need to survive in normal house conditions, often 50% or way lower, or else they shouldn't have been born as houseplants.

Burnt tips are only a problem if they live in soil. Forget to water once, and they'll burn. This happens in soil all the time, and in hydro rarely. Just don't let the indicator drop below zero and you'll be fine.

If you have high RH that's great. Then they don't crisp up quite as fast and extreme. As long as there's enough moisture around the roots even 30% RH is absolutely fine.

Survival strategy (just in case!)

You may now wonder: how do they survive in nature when they're THAT much of a diva?

Answer: POTATO 🥔

You see those bulbs? Maybe they remind you of arrow root if you have already seen one. THATS BECAUSE IT'S THE SAME FUCKING THING. (almost)

Their survival strategy is basically:

• "Oh, comfy here!" (Good conditions with moisture and stuff)
• Literally explode with growth and pump out as much leaves as possible
• Get as much light as literally possible somehow
• Convert light into small tubers (those potato thingies that contain starch)
• "Oh, everything sucks now, where's my fucking rain?"
• Literally die in the most unfashionable way possible (suck up all water and nutrients from the leaves and get it into the potatoes)
• Wait until
• "Oh, comfy here!"
• ...
• Repeat.

Basically, leaf damage is normal. Normal, but not what we ever want. Keep everything consistent!

Lighting

People say Calatheas are """""Low Light Plants""""". Buuuuullshit.

What the heck means "low light"?

We live in fucking concrete caves. Even the darkest shadow outside (in a bush or whatever) is like 10x brighter than your window.

They have adapted to grow on rainforest floors with "very little" light. But they still need some.

Sheer curtains are great for that. They reduce the incoming direct light, and diffuse it.

If the leaves are getting dark green, or the pattern fades, it's too dark. Give them some light.

They need the energy to create new tubers, where new leaves also sprout from.

But don't overdo it. Unfiltered sun is too much for them.

Give them a bit of light, and they'll survive. But if you give them lots of diffused light they'll literally explode with new growth!

Water quality

One last word about watering. I personally use reverse osmosis or rain water as a base, and always add a bit of hydroponic fertilizer every time.

I never "water", I "refill the nutrient solution".

You don't need RO water, but I highly recommend it to you. It will make your life easier, trust me.

If you use tap water (if you have clean drinking water of course, no chlorine or whatever!) flush the reservoir every few times maybe to avoid mineral accumulation or nutrient lockout.

Calatheas are amazing imo! They look stunning, and they have relatively low light requirements because they tilt themselves automatically towards light sources.

I hope you found it helpful and maybe you'll like them soon too!

EDIT: a small overview of my collection. Most of them are ~1 year old, often less, and started from a small plug :)

Little flypaper carnivores ❤️

Pinguicula esseriana

Foreground: Pinguicula “estrellita”
Background: Pinguicula moranensis f. orchidioides

Pinguicula cyclosecta

Left: unknown ping (possibly moranensis?)
Right: Pinguicula “mehitable”

She hunted!

Drosera ultramafica x spatulata

She’s currently sending up four separate flower spikes, the flowers bloom for such a short time I have yet to actually see one open!

Running into mixed messages while reading about whether mulberries can be grown indoors or not. Does anyone know if they require their cold periods to live and function, or will they be healthy but simply not make fruit? I'd love to grow a berry bush or a similar sized ornamental shrub inside, but I do not have access to an outdoor space to give it chilling time. Has anyone done this before?

Heliamphora sarracenioides x minor Black Burgundy

Heliamphora have a reputation for being difficult, but I’ve had good luck so far growing on a windowsill, even in my very dry climate. She gets lots and lots of light!

Bonus utricularia sandersonii and u. calycifida in the background

Some plants react to the sun much like humans do, "getting a tan". It's called sun stressing!

For this picture I kept one of Scylla's "mouths" in the shadow (indirect light), so it shows its natural green colour, but I made sure that the other "mouth" enjoyed as much (direct) sun as possible.

The plant is not upset about this experiment at all. It keeps pushing "mouths" like crazy.

Cross-posted from The Eternal Playlist: https://lemmy.blahaj.zone/post/35664600

Bonus plant raps by Rocco Elliot:

Bad Move - https://youtu.be/kHi-WddFPbU

Big Leaves Only - https://youtu.be/CEJqMnue-EQ

Watering Day - https://youtu.be/wcD9dG_kyuU

Propagatin' - https://youtu.be/CW1CsVvLt-k

Nursery Rhymes - https://youtu.be/m2_QKF3T7g0

Just Me & My Plants - https://youtu.be/mePj_vjS-j8

Talk To My Plants - https://youtu.be/tDaGJtnC4XE

Plant Sauce - https://youtu.be/t_h7W1pQMzM

Stressed Out (Prayer Plants) - https://youtu.be/LQ0xunrJzBw

Cross post from !hydroponics@slrpnk.net

Link to video where you can see it freely floating :)

I have no idea where to put it but I couldn't say no

This is already the second flower right now, and there are even more buds forming!

Most were painted with acrylic paint, and the ones with tree leaves are made with glue and napkins

After the repotting and new environment stress, it initially lost all pitchers, but has formed new ones half a year ago. Now, it is thriving and still has the problem, that every pitcher has no digestive liquid inside, even when still closed.

From what I've read, they are about 1/3 filled when the lid is still on and that's where the juices are the most concentrated. But they should also be able to both form or suck up new liquid/ water, so even when some of it is lost somehow, it should be able to produce enough to digest prey, or if it "rains", they aren't diluted too much.

Well... mine are even "born" empty. The plant has a rough time catching flies on its own. They don't dry up and die or anything, they just are empty and unattractive for insects.

Conditions:

• Very high air humidity, most of the time about 70-80%. Again, I don't see any pitchers drying up all at once or any other issues. The plant is happy.
• Relatively high light. For houseplants very high. SW-facing huge window (northern hemisphere), but behind a curtain. Diffused. On sunny days, I get ~400 ppfd
• Substrate: LECA, semi-hydro
• Fertilizer in substrate: 1x every month or two 1 mS EC hydro nutrient solution, refilled with RO water. The EC is sitting at about 0,3-0,7 mS most of the time. I noticed much faster growth rates when fertilizing a bit, because in nature they are also getting some nutrients from the soil. But I keep it pretty low to encourage pitcher formation. I've seen a few yellowing bottom leafes (nitrogen deficiency) already, but they are relatively rare.
• Feeding: most of the pitchers are ignored from my side. I filled them up with said nutrient solution a while back from time to time, but I don't do that anymore, because there's enough active growth. One pitcher tho is filled with bugs I gave the plant, and when I see this pitcher dried up, I drop a bit of water in there to aid digestion. Just a bit, because in nature it probably rains in them too?

Pictures

The plant itself

New pitchers

The oldest pitchers are getting consumed, but a lot of new ones are forming

Active pitchers, that have caught a few fungus gnats, and one that I used a while for active insect feeding