New to cymbidiums?

[rbarata]

Originally Posted by Cym Ladye

Rbarata's comment can be translated to "studied neglect"!

Well, maybe due to age I'm forgetful. About laziness, often I'm guilty of that sin (age is not an excuse here).
As soon as I noticed cymbs could live and grow well without my attention, my sins grew bigger.

[Orchid Whisperer]

I put my only Cymbidium outdoors nearly year round, with the sole exception of weather below freezing.

My medium is based on medium bark, charcoal, with roughly 10% municipal compost. You could probably substitute bagged composted cow manure for the 10%. Mine blooms very well, in winter.

[Lilsuzi]

Originally Posted by rbarata

Well, maybe due to age I'm forgetful. About laziness, often I'm guilty of that sin (age is not an excuse here).
As soon as I noticed cymbs could live and grow well without my attention, my sins grew bigger.

My neighbour grows some beautiful ones, leaves them outside in large pots year-round. Morning sun. Even this year, being pretty cold (about 10 frosts), they have some lovely blooms now.

[Cym Ladye]

Originally Posted by Orchid Whisperer

I put my only Cymbidium outdoors nearly year round, with the sole exception of weather below freezing.

My medium is based on medium bark, charcoal, with roughly 10% municipal compost. You could probably substitute bagged composted cow manure for the 10%. Mine blooms very well, in winter.

I am a bit hesitant to recommend cow manure for orchids, but if you want a compost to hold the moisture to add to the bark and I use 20% #3 perlite, I would suggest a bagged redwood compost, but at no more than 10%.

[Dollythehun]

Cymbe Lady, Did I do bad by potting mine in Repot me Imperial Cymb mix? It was peaty.

[Cym Ladye]

Originally Posted by Dollythehun

Cymbe Lady, Did I do bad by potting mine in Repot me Imperial Cymb mix? It was peaty.

It all depends on your temperatures and humidity. I am not familiar with RePot Me but I suspect it is primarily bark with other things added. I have found that most bagged mixes are good for Paphs and other terrestrial orchids but often are not "open" enough for the larger epiphytes. That said, Cyms are very forgiving as long as their roots do not get water logged with no air.

Try it for a while but just realize that you may not have to water as often if your humidity is high and you find that the roots are staying too wet. Most orchid growing is by trial and error and we all go through periods of experimenting with just about everything!

[mimigirl]

Cymladye, I purchased my first cymbidium last week. The vendor said he lets the pots sit in a tray of water. Is that right? Thank you

[Keithj]

There is no way I'm any kind of expert as I bought mine in the last six months or so but this seems wrong to me. I have one flowering-size plant and two much smaller ones, probably two years to flowering. I'm treating them like most of my other orchids and only watering when the compost feels slightly damp. The big plant has four new growths that are developing extremely well and the smaller ones are growing but much more slowly. They're in a heated conservatory that gets down to around 12C/54F overnight at the moment and peaks at around 20C/68F during the day.

Keith

[Dollythehun]

From the OB, and Roberta in particular, I learned to grow them in cymb mix (which is bark and who knows what else w/o looking it up). They are heavy feeders and drinkers. I use time release in addition to weakly weekly feedings. I water heavily and if the water stands in the saucer, so be it. I've been very successful to date. You might look up how Kim @Fairorchids grows his.

[Roberta]

Whether you can get away with letting it stand in water is dependent upon your conditions, how fast that water gets drawn up. In summer, with long bright days, might work in a fairly open bark mix. I have found that Cyms need to drain - they like to be moist but not soggy. I water heavily and frequently, so mine would not be happy sitting in water. If they are in a peaty mix that retains water, depends on how often you water.