What is your Oncidium potting medium?

[Paul Mc]

I have two questions. The first one is what do you guys pot your Oncidiums in?

The second question is a bit more specific. I have two baby oncidiums and I do not know what to plant them in. The nursery I got them from came in spag moss. They seem to be doing fine this entire year in the moss, and I left it there because they were outside and may have easily dried out. I also figured it would help the roots, but now I'm curious if this is true or not.

[Judi]

I use an Oncidium potting mix from Repotme Oncidium and Seedling Classic Orchid Mix . I have had good luck with it. The only time I use moss is if I have a chid that needs special care because it has few or no roots; but then I change the moss after 6-9 months and I re pot in potting medium after roots have grown.

[nutgirl]

I have mine in Semi-Hydroponics. Even the little ones with fine roots do well.

Maureen

[got ants]

I use this medium... BOS Mix: fired clay pellets, Sponge Rock, Coconut Chips & Charcoal

I initially had them in clay pots and kilt more than what I have until I got sage advice from Tom @ BOS to grow them in baskets. It seems they need to dry out quickly.

[thakshila smith]

I plant them on coconut coirs only. But feeding and watering done.
My dear Aunt put some used tea leaves on top of the pot I didn't disagree with her bec I didn't wont to hurt her.
Nothing happened to it.
The roots are grow not inside the pot but along outside of it.
I have seen a pic some time ago here in O/B and my plants now grow like wise.
Do not dig plant into the pot keep on surface of it. You need a bigger pot.

[thakshila smith]

Have a look at these roots. They look very happy.
Here I have never seen people using moss for orchids . Wood charcoal , coconut fibers or smoked tiles , and earthen bricks pieces
are used. Bye.

[Paul Mc]

Very intresting thakshila smith, and love the pictures.

And Judy, it is too funny that I bought the exact same mix before I posted this. It's also good to know that I wasn't off my rocker to think potting them in sphag was a good idea, lol...

I will have to google BOS now as well. And as for hydroponics, I've read some on it but as a newbie I'm still unsure of it.

Anyone else?

[tucker85]

My best results with oncidiums was in a high quality long fiber sphagnum moss. Here in Florida you need to repot every year because the sphagnum breaks down and compacts. I also had good luck with coconut husk chips. Because of our extremely wet summers (I grow outdoors) I've had to switch to LECA. The oncidiums grow but not as well as they did in sphagnum or coconut.

[jenmonkey]

I've got my Sharry baby and Rosebud Oncidiums (Oncidium? Oncidiae? Well anyway...) in S/H as well, but to be fair, I just bought the Rosebud in bloom and immediately transferred it to S/H, and my Sharry baby had to have major surgery after she started rotting from what I think was a fungal infection.

Both plants have dropped some blooms on the initial repot, but my Rosebud is now blooming off the second spike and many of the flowers on the first spike are still lovely. As for my poor amputee plant, I had three spikes on the plant, one of which only gave four flowers. Those all dropped after the repot. After I removed two p-bulbs and quite a bit of brown mushy tissue, doused it in Physan and rubbed cinnamon in the open wounds, the two remaining spikes started blooming! I was really worried because one of the spikes came from the base of the worst of the p-bulbs that I had to remove, so i figured that one would die off, if not both of them. But they are both blooming beautifully and there is no sign of a spread of the rot. I'm going to spray with Physan every other week just to be sure, but I'm very happy with the results of S/H overall. I'm in the process of switching all my plants to S/H, in fact.

Oh, this rot and repot thing was all happening 2-3 weeks ago, and they've already recovered. So, yeah. I broke all the rules (don't repot in bloom, don't significantly change media while in bloom, don't do surgery while spiking, don't soak roots in Physan solution) and those little guys are just invincible!! Love my Oncidiums!!

[got ants]

Originally Posted by Paul Mc

I will have to google BOS now as well.

Actually BOS stands for the name of my local orchid supplies... Broward Orchid Supplies.
Broward Orchid Supply Home Page

It's a wonderful mix, airy, organic materials, and good drainage, but holds nutrients.