Swiss cheese-type pots - good or bad?

[JanS]

Hi All!

Local gardening stores and Home Depot sell "special orchid pots" - glazed ceramic pots with swiss-cheese-type holes all over them, alternately different opening shapes like stars moons, etc. They are considerably more expensive than similar pots without the holes. I assume the idea is to provide better aeration.

Over the years I have bought 3 in different sizes, but I can't say I like them that much: 1) The holes are quite large so I had to put plastic window screen netting inside the pot to not have the orchid bark fall out. 2) Even with the high humidity in my greenhouse, the holes tend to dry the potting medium out very fast from the outside in, so root growth is limited toward the edges of the pot.

Anyone had better experiences with these pots? or is it just a marketing gimmick? I have a really nice orchid in one of these that I recently bought and put in that pot just 'cause it was available but now am thinking of repotting it into a "normal" pot....

Thanks for any insights!

[silken]

I have several of these. Mine also have the drain dish permanently attached which makes them quite impractical for actually planting in them. But I do use them for ornamental purpose. When an orchid is in bloom I bring it into the house and display it in one of these pots. Quite often they are top heavy with a tall bloom spike and these pots help keep the plastic pot from tipping over while in bloom.

[JaneEyre]

I do the same thing Silken does, just use them as a cachepot for stability and display of my orchids. I tried to actually have a phal potted in one of these but watering was impractical as it has a saucer permanently attached so I had to keep draining the pot in the sink for over an hour.

[The Orchid Boy]

I once potted 2 noid phals in these pots in straight sphagnum moss. They worked great.... until the roots touched the glaze. Any root that touched the glaze shriveled and rotted. I soon repotted them into other pots. They would have been fine for me if they were unglazed, and I grow my orchids under T5 lights and my humidity is not that high. I'm thinking of having a pottery maker that I know make me 1 or a few unglazed orchid pots. He has really neat special methods for "making" the clay and such.

[flexdc]

If there are no permanent saucer in the bottom I think these could be ideal. But most of them do, so I also only use them for ornamental purposes.

[gardengirl13]

These are what I use. I mix the orchid mix (bark, perlite and charcoal with spag moss and yes it does come out of the holes a bit, but the moss helps keeps it in. I worry about overwatering so the holes kind of make me think it's better. I can stick my finger in them to test how moist everyone is. I do notice it dryer on the outside and more moist int he middle, but with even watering and allowing to dry, it seems to work well. I wouldn't use them with bark only though, I think they would dry out way to fast on me. Most of my holes are smaller holes, or slits. Maybe that makes a difference. Not problems with the glaze and roots that I've seen so far. A couple have the drip tray right up against the bottom others have it about 1/2" below it with "legs" keeping the main part above. They seem to work well for me. The ones with the closer tray I really keep an eye on to make sure there is no water in it.

[Bud]

I dont like the glazed clay pots....but I inherited a couple of them that I use as a cachepot nowadays....I drill holes on the ordinary clay pot if I have plants that need the roots aerated....
I also have celadon and glazed stoneware pots that works just fine....just dont let the aerial roots touch the glaze as 'The Orchid Boy' have discovered; they shrivel and die

[JanS]

Thanks for all the informative responses. For the most part it seems these pots don't work that well, which was my original experience, and after the first few responses I repotted everything I had in them. I think they just dry out too fast from the outside, which effectively greatly reduces the "good", moist bark volume within each one to just the center portion.

I am intrigued by the two posts mentioning root demise when the touch ceramic glaze. That's weird! has anyone else experienced this? I guess your old clay and plastic is the safest way to go...

[WhiteRabbit]

I've used these a couple times with no problem. Guess it depends on the type of orchid and yoyr environment. I had a noid Catt intergeneric hybrid and a noid Phal do ok in them. Mostly I use them as cache pots tho ...

[The Orchid Boy]

They have these in various shapes and sizes and colors at my local Menards. They are selling for about $3 to $4 each. I wish they worked well but they don't for me.