New Restrepia Antennifera

[surtees]

Hi guys, I just bought my first orchid. A little restrepia antennifera and it is in a small plastic pot which you can see from the picture and I was wondering what medium to repot it in. At the moment I have standard potting mix, sphagnum peat moss and perlite. Can I use any of these to repot it or will I need to buy a new potting mix from my local garden store? It will be repotted into a small glazed ceramic pot (I think its 10cm diameter). All help would be appreciated as this is my first orchid, I usually grow tropical indoor plants

[RosieC]

Welcome to Orchid Board and the world of orchids.

I grow Restrepia in moss in a porous clay pot. They like to be kept more most in the warmer growing season, not wet but not drying out either. In winter they seem to like being kept a bit drier.

I often get the change over wrong and start getting wrinkled or dried up new growths at the beginning of the season

I've seen them grown in a mixture of moss and perlite and done that myself in the past, but the last few times I've forgotten to add the perlite when repotting and they've been fine without.

[surtees]

Thank you, I shall mix up a blend of half sphagnum moss and half perlite like I did for my carnivorous plants. How would I go about repotting though? With all my other plants I have gently removed the plant from its pot (squeezing gently on the side to loosen the soil on plastic pots) and then rinsed the roots, placed in pot and packed soil around root and then water them till water runs out the drainage hole. Would this be a good method to use or is there a better technique for orchids?

[RosieC]

It sounds like a good method. Usually we gently remove all the old medium from the roots and wash them. Then gently add the medium arround the roots while holding it in position. The only thing to bear in mind is that orchids don't like the medium packed tightly, so while it should be tight enough to hold the plant in place it should not be packed down really tight.

---------- Post added at 12:09 PM ---------- Previous post was at 12:07 PM ----------

One other notes, the roots on these Restripia are very very fine, but I've found them to be stronger than you would expect for how fine they are. If they fall to bits easily then there is something wrong, however it's still worth being very gentle with them.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Do not sit the Restrepia in water. Sitting epiphytic orchids in water will rot the roots out over a period of time. They are not bog plants, even though they appear to be grown like one in cultivation. They grow on trees in mid-elevation, moderately cool, evenly moist (not wet), tropical rainforests in the wild.

The temperature range they grow in is typically 12.8 C - 32.2 C (55 F - 90 F).

Humidity of 60% - 70% is fine, although they can handle it much higher than this range. If they are grown far more humid, you must water less.

The amount of light they should receive is typically bright shade to moderately bright indirect light.

Here are links to how they grow in the wild:

IMG_1383 Restrepia species in situ at Ecuagenera Reserve - Ecuador - Ecuagenera Orchid Tour | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Restrepia contorta | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

Aside from moss, they can even grow in small grade wood chips quite well. Growing in CHC will work too, but watering schedules will have to be adjusted.

Yes, their roots are thin, and that is natural. Just as many other orchids that grow on trees, (orchids that grow on trees are called epiphytes), the roots can photosynthesize when exposed to a light source. Many epiphytic orchids have chlorophyll pigments in their roots.

Note: The word epiphyte translates into -

"epi" = surface
+
"phyte" = plant

[Discus]

Welcome to orchidboard and orchid growing - a Restrepia is certainly a departure from the stereotypical start with a Phalaenopsis.

I also grow mine in sphagnum/perlite; it also has a chunk of EcoWeb sitting under the middle of it (I thought I could keep it damp enough with ecoweb alone, but I was wrong). It's in a net pot and it kept fairly damp year round.

Best of luck with it.

[surtees]

Hi guys, thanx for all your replies and advice and I have just repotted my orchid in a spag moss/perlite mix with a couple of gravel rocks on the bottem to stop perlite from falling through the hole. I have set up a hygrometer next to to it to measure the humidity it will get in its new home. here are some pictures.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I would recommend a much, much smaller pot size than the one you have now. Orchids don't grow like many other potted plants do. The pot size thing has a lot to do with how much water the potting media retains and how balanced the amount of water the roots are receiving compared to amount of air the roots are getting is.

Remember, Restrepias may grow in fairly moist areas, but they still grow on trees with their roots exposed to air. This means that the roots have to have a fairly decent amount of air circulation in order for them to be in healthy working condition.

Too big a pot = a potting media that is retaining too much moisture for the orchid's roots to handle in the long run due to the amount of potting material that's in the pot = root rot over a period of time.

I recommend down sizing the pot to the dimensions of 5 cm x 5 cm x 5 cm.

[surtees]

that was the smallest pot I could buy. and I am used to keeping plants moist but not wet. I learned patience when planting carnivorous plant seeds. I will be using a spray bottle to moisten the potting medium rather than a water battle to water it and I will be misting every couple of days just to keep the moss moist. plus I have perlite for extra drainage and air circulation. I hoping this will work.

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[RosieC]

This looks to be potted very deep to me. I would usually expect long stems with leaves on top, not leaves right down at the moss level. Is this how it was before?

---------- Post added at 09:10 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:04 AM ----------

This is a different restrepia, but shows what I mean about how I grow them higher.