Kathy,
I'm not criticizing your procedure. I'm just surprised that you do this every day. I also wondered what good a little spritzer to the top of the medium really does if the roots are down below. My instinct tells me to leave them alone most of the time. With all the flowering you get you're obviously doing something right. I still don't understand how you can soak them - ever - inside the house. I've asked this question before when I was faced with having them all inside because of the cold.
Is everyone here watering daily? The best I've ever done is maybe twice weekly.
With my vandas outside in the trees, I water the roots as they are exposed to the sun and wind all the time. I haven't bothered in many weeks though as it's not been very warm yet and we've had our share of rain. Normally it's much dryer here in the winter. Crazy weather this year. They look fine at this point despite the cold.
Many orchid growers here use only aliflor which dries out quickly as the summer water runs right through. They need to water often if it doesn't rain all the time. I use a mixture of bark, aliflor, charcoal and perlite with plenty of packing material in the bottom of the pot. In the summer rains I have the orchids under some kind of cover otherwise they'd never dry out and rot. (I've been there) So I guess I'm adverse to too much care with watering and rather have a medium which retains some moisture. It's all a matter of preference I guess.
I have an orchid here which MUST have a wrong label. Take a look maybe you recognize the plant. It is labelled Lc. Lorraine Shirai x Blc. Oconee 'Mendenhall'. Or am I wrong? I tried to get a better dark red by editing as the flower is a real burgundy but doesn't show in the picture. Reds seem to be a problem with my camera skills.
