Repotting after just repotting

[Denizf]

Thanks Roberta,

I would like to try LECA, it seems the best to avoid over-watering based issues. I’ve got more reading to do on this board, there’s a lot of great knowledge gained from experience.

[tmoney]

howdy,

we went thru the same process as you. finally settled on mixing our own media. it takes a tiny amount of work and soooo worth it. plus, from my calculations its cheaper if you can find the right shop.

we mix 3 handfuls of medium sized bark, about 1.5 of medium / large leca pellets, and 1 handful of sphagnum pulled into small bits. then, in a cook pot, blast the mix with water in the sink and agitate. drain off dust and small particles. repeat rinse/agitate/drain cycle about 3 times till water runs clear. then it sits on the counter until it is used up and make up a new batch.

true, this is more time consuming, but i have never had such good medium in my plant life! and admittedly it feels a bit more professional (even tho most nurseries use sphag for reasons).

anyway, find you a good orchid supply retailer online and go to town. for our small collection of orchids, a 2.5 liter bag of each lasts us for awhile but you might want to get 2 of bark right up front if you plan on getting more orchids (nothing worse than planning a big repot session only to find you ran out of bark)

finally this way you can also customize your mix to uit any particular orchids needs....

edit to add that we are also still learning, so thi is just a general experience to share. the proportions we have landed on thru trial and error, and what works in our apartment conditions with how we water may not also suit your conditions and schedule. just wanted to add that

[Denizf]

Thanks tmoney,
That sounds like the smartest way to go. I’ll be looking into gathering the supplies I need.
Cheers!

[Denizf]

Greetings! My supplies finally arrived and I used your method tmoney to repot. They have nice airy pots now too. As I feared, there were plenty of dead and decaying roots that needed trimming and the sh***y miracle gro medium was still soggy after almost 2 weeks.
Thanks to all for the advice! Hope I get it right this time around.

[tmoney]

nice!! while i am reluctant to make garuantees, i can pretty much guarantee that thi medium will be better than miracle blow

tinker a bit to find your appropriate watering schedule, but as reference we water once a week, and let them sit in the cache pot full of water/fert solution (up to top of medium) for about 15 minutes. drain thoroughly so they arent sitting in any water. flush with plain water once a month or so

our temps and humidity vary, but are average i would say. best of luck!

keep us posted on their progress!

[bil]

OK, the lessons I have learned with phals teach me that you can grow them in anything or nothing, as long as you get the watering right. I always advocate to beginners and lazy people that they use an open media that does not retain water in a wide, shallow pot. Media that retains water like moss, or some of the dire muck they sell in bags with pretty pics of orchids on them are better left to experienced people who know their subject and have the time and patience to give those complex mixes etc the time they need. Mine, they are in coarse bark with the fines sieved out, well, you could water them every hour on the hour and they wouldn't turn a hair. I like it like that. Someone really took me to task for saying that you can grow them in anything so I shared with him the secret of my special media. For some reason it upset him and he blocked me. Anyway, here's a pic of my special mix, see if you can guess what it is. I get 3 pairs of spikes out of it every year..

[Roberta]

Not too clear, but looks like newspaper is involved... which is reasonable, absorbs water and then dries out. Not elegant, but does pretty much the same thing that large bark or loose, fresh sphagnum or mounting do. Phals just don't like to be soggy...

[Denizf]

That is hilarious (the broken glass)!! Yes, I’ve seen setups where they have literally no media, just dangling naked off a wall, in that case they just needed a lot of ambient humidity and spritzing - more like how they would be found in the wild.
I’ve had a good read of the sticky post on watering, so I’ll go with the wood skewer method to determine watering needs. I’m in Ontario, wood stove in winter and no AC in summer, so the climate in my house is about to change drastically.
Thanks for the input and the laugh!

[bil]

Originally Posted by Roberta

Not too clear, but looks like newspaper is involved... which is reasonable, absorbs water and then dries out. Not elegant, but does pretty much the same thing that large bark or loose, fresh sphagnum or mounting do. Phals just don't like to be soggy...

No, that Phal is potted in broken glass only. Some idiot got all huffy when I said you didn't need a fancy mix and could grow them in anything even broken glass. He said `i was an idiot, so I decided to prove him wrong.

[estación seca]

A succulent grower I knew said you could grow cactus and succulents in shredded rubber boots if you watered properly.