Will Misting Your Orchids and Orchid Flowers Kill the Plant?

Should you ever mist your orchids? 

We grow orchids naturally attached to an epiphytic tree in our Rainforest! 
They are misted twice a day!
Click the photo for more information

 

I had a wonderful visit recently from a couple who drove over 200 miles to see our Exotic Rainforest.  Like a lot of us, these people are orchid nuts.  During our visit the couple asked if I misted my orchids.  Seems a well meaning orchid grower near their home had told them that misting orchid flowers and the orchid leaves would kill the plant and flowers.  And they were led to believe that hot temperatures and high humidity would kill the plant as well.  I've heard this so many times I wanted to laugh out loud.  So will it?  Can you mist your orchids?  Does it kill the plant?  Do orchids hate heat? 

Well, let me ask if you've ever been to a real rainforest.  I don't mean the Florida Everglades either!  I mean a real rainforest.  Have you?  I'd be willing to bet, that well meaning grower who passed along this information has never seen a tropical rain forest!  Well I have.  A bunch of them in Central America, South America, the Caribbean, the South Pacific and Southeast Asia.  Most of them have temps reaching the high 90's and near 100% humidity most of the summer!       

A person I exchange email with owns an orchid nursery in Panama.  One of the best orchid rain forests in the world is in Panama.  It's in the wettest portion of Panama and it rains every day almost 365 days a year.  The ground is always muddy.  It's sticky hot!  Every single tree, every tree, has lots of orchids growing on the sides of the trunk.  And there are always orchids in bloom with perfectly beautiful flowers.  Always!  So I ask, if misting your orchids will kill the plant and the flowers how in the world are there so many orchids in bloom in this and all other rainforests around the world?  Has God figured out a way to make the rain magically miss every single flower and leaf?  The answer is obviously NO!   

If you go to a tropical rain forest and watch it rain on the plants you'll quickly see the orchid plant is designed to funnel the water toward the roots.  That's because almost all of the orchid types we love to grow do not grow in the soil, they are epiphytes and grow on the sides of trees.  Those leaves were designed to do several things, one of which is to capture light and the other is to funnel water!  The roots simply cling to the tree and dangle in the air.  So the plant has to deliver as much of the rainwater as possible to those roots because they can't soak it up from anywhere else!  The roots then transfer it to the pseudobulb (in the case of orchids that have pseudobulbs) and then store it for use as needed by the plant.  The leaves are quite efficient at funneling all the rain they possibly can down to those dangling roots!  And much of the time in the rainforest jungle many plants are in full bloom!  Guess what?  The rain does not kill the flowers!  it makes them grow and be more wonderful! 

We lived in Miami, FL for over 20 years.  There are large orchid growers with thousands and thousands of orchids all over South Florida.  We grew our orchids in the back yard, in the rain!  Almost everyone in that area grows them in the yard!  And virtually all of the commercial growers have overhead misting systems to water their plants!  Many water 4 or 5 times a day for 5 to 10 minutes at a time.  And they don't stop misting when a plant blooms!  That's why they have so many fat orchids in bloom and why people like you and me pay them high prices for their beautiful orchids!  Getting water on your orchid's leaves and flowers will not kill either!  If it would there wouldn't be any major orchid grower anywhere using this watering technique! 

So the next time a well meaning orchid person tells you to only water the potting media of your plant and to do it only every 7 to 14 days just ask yourself:  Does God grows his orchids that way?  Did He create them to grow that way?  Guaranteed, He doesn't and didn't!  He gives them lots and lots of water and they thrive better than any orchid grower on earth could imagine!  That's why orchids live in a RAIN forest!  And by the way, we mist our orchids almost every day, especially during the summer, with the exception of only the winter when we water 2 or 3 times a week!  True, a leaf dies every now and then but that is natural.  It has nothing to do with getting water on a leaf!  Every orchid flower you see on this website has had water sprayed on it daily during its life!  Some show water drops in the photo!  And we sometimes have flowers live for 2 months!  It's just a myth.  An old wife's tale.  Don't believe everything you hear about orchids.  Check it out.  And use your common sense.  By the way, there are mountain orchids that do love cooler temps.  If you grow those cool temp types don't try to do it in rainforest hot condition.  But most orchids love it and they also love rain!

Sorry, that one is just a myth.