brassavola in coir?

[missann]

I have re-mounted it on a piece of cholla cactus and it looks very nice there.

Ross-yes I do understand root structure. To clarify what I mean by "crappy roots" I mean, they have been dead so long that they almost fell right off, and were totally brown and beyond the point of mushy to totally hollow. I can't believe how big some of those in the pics are. I wish I could just buy a small division from someone with a plant like that. I mean, if mine really is blooming size, it surely will have little tiny flowers in proportion to the leaves. I can't believe the website was charging 15 for those. Luckily I got the "special," so I bought 10 plants and got screwed on all of them. hehe. No, it turned out ok though because one of the cattleyas I bought had heat damage, so I get to keep it and they are sending me a new one and they are pretty big.

Oh-I don't think the wood is treated with anything. It is just a naturally dark wood. It is ugly though, so I have taken all the plants off of them and either put them in pots or remounted them on other stuff.

Thanks for all your help, you guys. I am not a total beginner, but I wanted to post my q in this forum because I am new to growing b. nodosa.

[Sandy4453]

Coir is great, I use it as an additive, sometimes more than others, depending on the alliance but I would highly urge you not to use this for your Brassavola. This gets wet and heavy over a short time and no matter how much perlite you add, it'll suffocate the roots on this or any Catt. and quickly. Anything is almost better to use than this for this kind of orchid. Standard bark mix is good but you'll probably need to do a repot in 2 years and watering will depend on where you're growing it. I've had the most success with LECA. I'm using Hydroton but any LECA or Dyna-rok has proven to be outstanding for these and Catts. This is my personal opinion. You can grow your orchids in almost anything but coir....you're gambling...IMHO.

[Sandy4453]

Just another option you may want to consider. This is my B. nodosa. I got it a couple of years ago and kept it in it's orginal pot....no medium whatsoever. When I bought this, it had already suffered the effects from Hurricane Wilma so cosmetically, I've seen better looking but the flowering on these, makes up for everything! The best! I water the roots (growing down into and all over the pot) every other day. It blooms all year long, here in Fla.

If you decide to pot it, it can do really well in no medium at all.

[Serge]

Brass. like that. just like i did with L.
It seem that on a coconut fiber, he will take just the right amount of water needed.

Serge