First Cymbidium - overwintering advice please!

[Pippa]

Hello everyone, I had to visit the garden centre today, and on the way to the till, a £4 cymbidium just happened to 'fall' from the reduced table into my trolley

I have two questions.

1) I usually repot bargain orchids as soon as I get them, but I know cymbidiums are best repotted in spring, so would you advise waiting till then?

2) I know Cymbidiums like a lot of light over winter and I have two potential places for him - one will have more fluctuating temperatures than the other - better to have fluctuation or not?

Any other comments/advice gratefully received.

[rbarata]

one will have more fluctuating temperatures than the other - better to have fluctuation or not?

I think it's best if you share with us the temp values.

[Pippa]

One place will be fairly steady between 14-17 day and night. The other will go from around 10 (not below) to 20.

[rbarata]

I presume the units are Celcius.
I would opt for the 2nd. How is the light in both places?

[jcec1]

I agree about the second location. The best place to grow them in a house is if you have an unheated porch, temps may even be lower but they do really well in them.

[Pippa]

Light is pretty much the same in both places, maybe a bit more in the place with the lower temperature drop. Good light for most of the day - it will be too strong in summer, but I can move him then.

[rbarata]

So, I think you already know where to put it.
Now, lets talk about the medium...from the photos it seems there's soil in the pot together with something else. What's the medium?

[Pippa]

It looks like a kind of coir/coconut fibre mixed up with bark.

[rbarata]

Do you have them at the rain (when it does)?
My Cymbs are outside, in a north (but bright) balcony.
Prevalent winds here are coming from north or west so they get every storm nature throws at them. The medium is coarse medium/large bark only (the ones with medium size bark took a lot more time to grow as fast as the others with larger bark.
The extreme temps are between 40 ºC (sometimes over that) and avg 8 ºC (occasionally bellow freezing).
Considering this, they don't care if I take care of them or not, they grow and bloom anyway.

Repot time is after blooming is done, which is spring/begining of summer.

[Pippa]

No, it is indoors now. We are in winter here in Wales, with some hard frosts and snow already. I will put it outside in the spring.