Keeping track

[koshki]

Hi all,
I've gotten so much good advice here, and it just occured to me that I'm going to need some kind of system to keep track of what to do when to my orchids. I've learned that some of you folks flush the plants thoroughly every *4th* time you water, or alternate feeding or repot, etc.

How do you know what to do when? What system do you use to keep track?

Thanks,
Koshki

[orchidlover55]

Well, alot of it has to do with where you live. If you have them inside of out. Your weather has alot to do with it.Including your humidity.Also it matters what size pot it is in and what the medium is. Or what kind of orchid you have. So I will do my best to help you with all that said.
I don't know if everyone even does the same thing at the same time, I don't think so. So all I can tell you is what I do. I live in Alabama and the weather has been 85 during the day and 70 at night. I live on the River and it is very very humid here almost unbareable. So that does help with orchids . I water my orchids once to twice a week according to the weather if it is dry or wet. I am not the best when it comes to fertilizer. In fact I have been a bad orchidmama. I was fertilizing every two weeks and I still should but I have not. If I fertilized them the next week I would flush them out really good. I don't really have a system I can't keep one because of the weather here but when I do yes the following week after fertilizer then I do flush them out real good. I hope I helped you a little bit , there will be other geeks along soon

[patticake]

Just as when I was going to be a new mother, (25 yrs. ago) I read everything! I then tried different suggestions that made sense to me, and used what worked for me. It's the same way with orchids. Use what seems to work for you!

[koshki]

Thanks for the input, but I think my question was unclear.

What I'm really after is this: do you use a calendar? Or notebook or check lists? Note cards for each plant? Stuff like that. I have a good memory, but it's short, so I need help keeping myself organized!

[patticake]

Sorry...Some keep notebooks with special notes on watering and dormancy, etc.- Some put stickers on the pots with actual notes on those. I kind of wing it. I'm not organized to do the notes. ( I was the same way in school years ago) I just go with the flow... What ever works for you! There's no set way!

[maria1971]

I umm.....have a fertilizing calendar/schedule. It's actually a chart separated by weeks and exactly what fertilizer/rooting hormone etc. I need to be using that particular week, tracked by date, and ratio per gallon.

I use the 3 weeks on, one week off ,rotation, and use a different fertilizer/additive per week. It's worked great since I usually forget what I used and at what ratio the previous week.

I cross reference with a perpetual orchid care log that I have.

[mehitabel]

I'm with patticake: I've learned to forgive myself for not being perfect

To be serious, I should add this: the best system I could figure out for watering was to put only plants that need the same watering interval together. Then I put the day of the week on a plant label and leave it on the tray. That way, there are several windows that only need checking for water every week or so, and one place only where mixed needs require checking every couple of days. Saves enormous amounts of work and indecision.

I don't grow any orchids that require dormancy or other special treatments.

[Stelios]

Every time i get a new orchid i add it to my mygarden application on Iphone along a photo, description, cultural advice (from books and orchidgeeks members tips) and other info. I then schedule/track cares and make sure each time the status of the plant changes i will update it's data or add some growing tips. This helps me to organize the cultural info and keep a track on the history of plants in the long term.
e.g. i add the repot date and make a to do item for the next repot

However as the app does not support reoccurring to do lists i have a calendar (i use ical) so that it will help me keep track of the water schedule of the plants. Some are watered every week, others every 4 days and others every 2nd day. So every morning 11am i have an alarm on my phone or laptop that tells me what i have to water. However before watering i check and if a couple of plants are to be held dry for a day i change the reoccurring even for them.

I am now trying to find the best way i could make a spreadsheet or dynamic database so that it will help me collect more data (temperatures, humidity etc.) and hopefully by processing them get better at growing them.