Home - Garden
How A Potato Can Help You Propagate Orchids More Easily
By RACHEL CRAFT
A simple potato is the unconventional tool you can use to propagate your orchids. You can make orchid fertilizer from potatoes, or you can propagate an orchid inside a potato.
Orchids are sensitive to fertilizer burn, so they prefer regular feeding with a diluted fertilizer. This is why many home gardeners use natural ingredients like milk or potatoes.
Potatoes contain vitamins that orchids need, like potassium, calcium, and magnesium. To release them, boil some potatoes with the skin on since it contains most of the nutrients.
You can also peel the potatoes, soak the skins in water for a few days, drain the water into a container, let it cool, then use the water to fertilize mature orchids or cuttings.
To propagate orchids by cuttings, cut a stem with an eye, seal the ends in pruning seal to prevent root rot, remove the sheath over the eye, and keep it moist in a clear container.
Fill the container with bark and moss, dampen it with potato water, and close the lid. Like a mini greenhouse, the container traps moisture, while the potato feeds the cutting.
You can also make a hole in a potato, fill it with rooting hormone, and insert a cutting. The potato supplies it with water and nutrients, so it will grow roots and can be planted.