Question
Jim,

A friend of mine told me yesterday about a method that his mother utilizes which is very practical and has yielded great results for her.

She takes a 5-gallon bucket and dips the entire orchid into it, leaves it there for 5 seconds or so while the water makes its way through the entire plant and then takes out. This way, she makes sure the entire plant is getting wet and the result is an "even watering".

I think that makes sense to me, I can also see that one can re-use the water for a couple of weeks maybe. It would definitely be a water saver and even a fertilizer saver.

Let me know your thoughts. BTW, I am in Orlando, Florida as you may remember from my other postings.

Have a great day,
Angelo

Answer
Hi Angelo,

Sorry for taking so very long to respond to your question, my mother was in the hospital and I'd been spening a lot of time going back and forth, etc.  

While dipping the orchid (pot and all) into a bucket of water is fine, I would not keep the bucket around after watering the orchids.  It would be better to dump the water in your garden and refill it each time you want to water the orchids.  There are several reasons for not keeping the water, the main one being that you will probably get algae growing in it plus possibly some other things you don't want.  The effectiveness of fertilzer weakens over time once it has been mixed in water.  To save on water you could only fill the bucket half full and add more as needed as you go along.  

Maybe one of these ages I'll make it out to Orlando for Disney World, Universal Studios, etc.  I've never been east of the Mississippi!  

Hope this has helped.

Jim Kawasaki
San Jose, Ca.