Organic vs non organic potting mix

[Katachka]

Is it better to use organic potting mix for repotting phal?

[rbarata]

There are a lot of mixes made up of organic matter.
Can you be more specific?

[Louis_W]

You can grow a phal just as well in SH as you can a sphagnum moss. It just depends on your watering habits and environment. There is no real answer here

If you have had the plant for a while and it's growing ok I might suggest you repot it into the same thing it's in now.

[Katachka]

I was just wondering if Organic Orchid potting mix is more beneficial for orchids, mainly because I purchased a bag of Better Gro mix that came with fungus gnats. I guess what I’m really wondering which orchid potting mix is sterile. Thank you for your thoughtful responses.

[WaterWitchin]

I googled "organic orchid potting mix" to see what you might be talking about. Most that came up I personally wouldn't pot an orchid in. Cheap stuff and too many fines. For example Black Gold or Miracle Grow or Better Grow.

If you want "organic" I'd go with a quality bark, like Orchiata. After that, it depends on your environment and culture as to what size bark or what to mix it with such as sponge rock, scoria, leca, a little sphagnum, etc. I saw some mixed bark on the Home Depot website called "Organic Orchid Potting Mix" being sold by "Perfect Plants." It looks good, but you'd have to buy it and have it in hand to know for sure.

Caveat: I don't grow in organic medium anymore. When I did, it was a mix of Orchiata and some of the other add-ins I mentioned and different size barks depending on the orchid's needs.

[Louis_W]

Personally I grow in Semi Hydroponic which isn't exactly sterile but it has less of that kind of thing. You might like it. Ray the inventor of the technique is an active member of this forum. Here is a link to his website if you aren't familiar with the technique.

Semi-Hydroponics Basics

[minicoerulea]

No potting mix is sterile.

Fungus gnats got into the mix during storage; eggs hatch in under a week. This could happen to any mix, though might be more likely to happen at a non-specialty vendor who isn't going to be so concerned about selling clean product.

If you're really concerned about bringing pests in with potting media, the media can be baked or microwaved long enough to get its temp up to about 200F for ten or fifteen minutes. That will kill whatever hitchhikers are in it. I'm not recommending you do this, but it does work.

"Organic" potting mixes don't have any "chemical" fertilizers added and so can be used in USDA organic gardening. Whether that's something an orchid grower wants is up to them.

That's different than the distinction that orchid growers tend to use, using 'organic' to refer to media that used to be alive (bark, moss) and 'inorganic' to refer to mineral (lava rock, stone chips) or synthetic material.

[Katachka]

Thank you for the information! Very helpful.

[Dimples]

I like using bark because it’s easier for me to find a secondary use for, and worst case old bark gets tossed into the yard. The inorganic materials have to be replaced eventually too, and I don’t really want to mulch my yard with leca or lava. Much lighter to store bark in bulk, too.