Cork pieces as medium

[boytjie]

General question: has anyone experimented with using cork as a medium? I have a Cattleya peckhaviensis x schilleriana, and due to this variety's need to dry out quickly after watering, I was toying with putting it in a wood basket with cork chunks (approx. 1.5" wide) as the only growing medium. I'd be interested to hear others' thoughts.

Stephen

[tucker85]

I used that exact technique with this cattleya. It's in a wood basket with large chunks of cork. It's been in this basket for about two years. It's grown extremely well and I've had no problems with it at all. In fact it bloomed three times last year.

[boytjie]

Looks like some pretty darn good results to me! Thanks.

[Ray]

Stephen,

Be VERY aware that a medium in a basket and the same medium in a pot will perform entirely differently. The fact that cork in a basket dries very quickly may extend its longevity. Your idea of large chunks will help, too.

As a caveat...

Several years ago (about 20 or so, I think) ground cork was the "new wave" in orchid potting medium. It was readily available, cheap, very well graded, size-wise, and held moisture well without being soppy. Unfortunately, it - in pot culture, anyway - it apparently harbored quite a microorganism population, and in what seems to be an "overnight" phenomenon, went from an open, airy medium to a root-suffocating, slimy sludge.

[littlefrog]

Can't be twenty years ago... or maybe it is. Sheesh, I'm getting old. I remember the ground cork thing vividly, it was a really good idea that didn't hold up to the real world.

I have grown using old wine corks in slat baskets before. This works pretty well if you drink a lot of wine (I've switched to wine in a box... *grin*).

Rob

[boytjie]

Originally Posted by littlefrog

I have grown using old wine corks in slat baskets before. This works pretty well if you drink a lot of wine (I've switched to wine in a box... *grin*).

Rob

Oh, I definitely drink enough wine. Time to start saving the corks.

[vmax3000]

I have had great success using wine corks as medium for growing some of my drier growing plants.

As an aside, one of the reasons a cork is presented to be smelled is not for the wine, but for "freshness" (as in not infected or fermentation to the point of vinegar)! I seem to recall the cork infection also affected the vintners, hence the move to synthetic corks.

Good growing to you in this experiment.

[CTB]

I mount on cork slabs they seem to be great, is this the same?

[Ray]

Same material - yes. Same form - no.

Slabs hold up very well, as do wine corks, probably because of the fairly small surface area. Gring the stuff into smaller chunks and you expose more of the interior porosity and increase the surface area mechanically, so allow a lot more "hiding places" for the critters that decompose it.

[CTB]

Thanks!