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Be aware that rain water can be loaded with nutrients and minerals.
If you want to play it safe, get reverse osmosis water.
If you want to use rain water, filtering it over (suitable) peat and/or living Sphagnum would be good.
If anyone suggests using a Brita filter or the likes, ignore them. Not suitable.
Carnivorous plants are, compared to the other 300-500k non-carnivourous plant species on earth, incredible rare evolutionary specialist. They do have special needs. And they are fickle beasts. But that’s part of their appeal, isn’t it?
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The most common killer of orchids in the home is improper watering. Watering without giving the roots the chance to dry out causes them to rot; rotted roots don’t provide water to the plant, so paradoxically the plant dries out because it has no viable roots.
The way to think about growing plants is to envision their native habitat. In nature, most orchid roots hang on the bark of trees, where they dry out daily, then the monsoon waters them the next day. But daily watering is hard, so for convenience we humans stuff the roots in a pot, and fill it with chips of bark that dry slowly. But if the bark is too fine, or is incorrectly mixed with contaminants like black dirt, it stays too m o i s t. Or as the bark ages and decomposes, it starts retaining water too long.
Ideally, you should replace the bark when you purchase the plant (they are often raised in the cheapest media, not the optimal media), then every three years after.
Stick your finger down into the bark mix. Water it the day it feels dry inside the pot, which should be about once a week. Using R/O filtered water, if you have it, mix it with a half-strength orchid fertilizer like MSU. (Weakly, weekly.) When you water, use at least enough to allow the water to flow through the pot, then let it drain.
Most orchids prefer the same conditions as people: 50% humidity, warmer days, cooler nights. Finally, avoid bright or direct sunlight.
Of course every genus and species has its own requirements. You should be able to find good advice from a reputable orchid seller, or on line. Check aos.org for help, too.
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I think that endangering a whole species should come with a noticeable punishment, but my point is, he did probably not single-handedly threaten these plants with extinction, and anything to discourage him from such actions in the future should suffice.
obviously he should have colluded with Russians while doing it if he had wanted a shorter sentence.
The poacher who kills the next-to-last white rhinoceros is no better than the poacher who kills the last white rhinoceros.
No one person ever intends to cause extinction. But when there are only a handful of colonies remaining, the destruction of one is a very significant step in the wrong direction. When we as a society say “stop taking these plants”, that’s because we’re at the point where only a half dozen people could actually kill what little remains.
It’s not like he’s innocently taking one plant for his house without thinking too much about the species. He took hundreds to sell, implying he’s in the business. Everyone in the trade knows they’re protected; poachers like this guy know what they’re doing is wrong.
I’ve been watching sh!t like this happen for decades in the orchid world. There are laws and international treaties all over to try to slow down the destruction of endangered species by restricting trade. There are ways to legitimately farm raise and sell them; no one has to resort to poaching.
Poachers need to be stopped, not scolded.
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