MICRO ORCHIDS

To start, we will have to establish what “micro orchid” actually is. Many growers will consider any miniature orchid or small orchid as micro orchid, just because they are unaware how microscopic some orchid species can be. 

So, what are micro orchids? Among 30k plus orchid species found around the world, there are thousands that will fall into a micro orchid category. We separate orchids into 3 categories – micro, miniature, and small orchids. Micro orchid plants would be the adult orchid species that reach anywhere between 0.1 – 0.5inches in leaf spam. Many of these orchids are creepers, trailing plants covering tree trunks and branches. When talking about micro orchids, we are not referring to bloom sizes but rather to their actual leaf size. Categorizing plants into different sections like micro orchids helps growers and hobbyists when choosing proper size plants for their setups, terrariums, and other growing environments. If you are looking for very tiny orchid plants for your small terrarium setup or glass orb, micro orchid is the way to go.

I would like to clear another misconception about micro orchids – size of their blooms. Many growers think that micro orchids will have tiny little blooms, some impossible to see with your naked eye. This may be true for some species, but others will surprise you with a huge bloom compared to actual plant size – there are micro orchid species that produce blooms larger than the plant itself. 

Where do you start when choosing your new micro orchid? First, prepare your setup – the size of your new orchid home will determine what size orchids you are looking for and how many micro orchids you can actually fit in. After your setup is ready, you must consider growing conditions – what will be your temperatures day/night, is there added light, fan for air movement, what humidity will you be able to provide for you micro orchid babies. All these are crucial for choosing the correct plants – none of us wants to be disappointed by choosing the wrong micro orchids for our environments and watch them slowly die. 

Depending on your temperatures, you select cold growing, intermediate growing or warm growing micro orchid species. There may be a mix of all if you can provide mild day temperatures in 70’s and night drops to 60’s or even 50’s. It is very important to read and research before you purchase your new orchids – it will be very hard to grow warm/hot growing species when your temperatures at night are in low 60’s or 50’s, the same way it would be impossible to grow cold growing species under temperatures above 70F constantly. 

Humidity is another key factor when choosing your micro orchids – there are some species that tolerate lower humidity between 60-70%. These are plants that like to dry out between waterings so good air movement will be crucial for successful growing. They can be grown in terrariums or other simple setups, or just hanging on your windowsills. Other micro orchids will require high constant humidity – and as such, they must be grown in setups that can guarantee these conditions. Even within the same setup you can achieve slightly different conditions for your micro orchid – usually, bottom of setups where there is a layer of some media and/or moss provides much higher humidity. It is also further from light. These conditions will be perfect for micro orchids like Lepanthes, Pleurothallis, Barbosella, and others. The top of the setups provides much drier conditions with brighter light and better air movement – here you can place micro orchids that like brighter light, lower humidity, and stronger air movement like Dendrobiums. 

Last but not least, light – providing correct lighting for your micro orchids will be another important ingredient for successful growing, and blooming. You can do anything correctly, nailing temperatures, humidity, air movement but your micro orchid is still not doing well or blooming – and all is caused by improper light levels. Some orchids love shade, others prefer bright light. Position your new micro orchid babies according to their requirements. In many cases we can see an issue in just a few weeks – when orchid leaves are turning deep/dark red (red on the bottom part of leaves is usually normal) – this is an indicator of too much light. You should reposition your orchid away from the light source to help it grow healthy and bloom. Some micro orchids will not show any signs, they’ll grow looking healthy but never bloom. This can be caused by light levels as well – too much or too little light can cause a lack of spikes/buds. 

To sum it all up – micro orchids are fully grown, adult size orchids bringing a lot of joy to those who fell in love with them. Many of us are looking for micro size plants due to lack of space, some want to enjoy growing orchids indoors, others want to add micro orchid to terrariums with frogs or other amphibians – and these creeping orchid species are excellent choice. Whatever your reason is, we would love to invite you to the charming world of micro orchids. Join us on this journey and do not hesitate to ask any questions before you purchase your first micro orchid plants.