How should I water an orchid then?
Well….. that’s a good question and I’m probably not the best person to answer that ^^; as I killed my one orchid and I’m struggling with my 1 year old pair of another batch right now ((damn, where’s a list of garden tumblrers that specialize in orchids when I need one…. I’m going to have to fix that in the near future)). I mostly only know how NOT to water them.
BUT, from what I’ve vaguely gathered from forums (correct me orchid lovers that follow me if I am mistaken with the information I am about to give. I’m still a horrible newb at orchids. They are my gardening kryptonite) you water it normally like any other plant weekly (okay time-based water routines are bad, so I would assume instead you should water it juuust before the planting media and roots entirely dry out?) then you dump out the excess water after it’s gone through the media, to avoid rot. Then during the week the plant’s roots and media are misted to try to prolong the moisture for the orchid (YOU MUST AVOID MISTING THE FOLIAGE OR GETTING IT WET, as it’s supposedly easy to rot by mistake). It can be a tricky balance between avoid it rotting and avoiding it drying out, but the mind adapts to getting that balance right once you figure it out ((I haven’t though OTL damn)).
And finally, the other trick I recall is that you water should be lukewarm and IF possible, minimal to no salts (some give their orchids distilled water to solve that issue) or fertilizers, as they do not tolerate salt build-up like other plants such as succulents.