mam ..... thanks for clarifying. It's quite possible that the rot might have been due to earlier times.
I forgot to load a pic that shows one of my favourite catt orchids, in quite a large pot of scoria. The whole pot is filled with scoria. I can water the sides pretty much every day - and nothing bad will happen.
I spray some water - a little bit - toward the middle too --- just to wet the roots a little bit ---- as totally dry roots will probably never have a chance to get any bits of fertiliser or nutrients into it. But I find it's not necessary to wet the centre every single time of watering.
As long as the temperature is nice, and I get some nice gentle air-movement most of the time in the growing area, and the pot has enough moisture inside it to keep the roots working nicely ------ and also as long as the roots don't drown due to stagnant water that hardly moves within the medium, then everything will be just fine.
In the pic below, I put a regular soft-drink can in the pic ----- just to show the relative size of the pot of scoria.
I actually have shallow orchid pots too with lots of holes that I could easily use for this orchid. But I purposely grow this orchid (one of my favourites) in this particular large pot to indicate that it's always possible to grow regular sorts of orchids even in large deep pots. Just have to roughly have an idea of what the water is doing inside the pot in the various regions, and a way to achieve the conditions we need.
Apart from the watering ----- also monitor the temperature levels and lighting levels. Roots and plant being too cold and wet can be bad. And also see whether or not there is gentle air-movement in the growing area.
Google drive link (bigger pic) :
Pic link
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