Maxillaria rufescens potting media

[avian]

Purchased this orchid at the SB Orchid Show this past weekend. It's bare root with some sphagnum wrapped around the root ball. I am going to pot it. What would be the best media for it? Should I just leave the sphagnum around the root ball and add more or clean that off and try kiwi bark or kiwi bark mixed with sphagnum. When I've researched online I've seen either sphagnum or bark listed as acceptable media.

TIA

[Roberta]

For those bare-root plants, you'll find that the sphagnum isn't very intimate with the roots - it's just wrapped around the roots to keep them going during shipping until they can be repotted. I have found that Maxillarias, especially the smaller ones, do best in spaghnum in a basket under my conditions. The goal is a fairly moist, but airy medium. How you achieve that in your conditions may be different than in mine.

[Clawhammer]

Great species, one of my favs, I have the typo and yellow versions. I keep mine in medium bark and water every day or two. Sphag would probably work better if you can't water as frequently as I do. They don't want to dry out completely. Wonderful sweet fragrance and is pretty strong. Quite vigorous.

[avian]

Thanks for the advice. I removed and tossed the spahgnum that wrapped around the roots and decided to go with a fine bark/sphagnum mix. Not a lot of humidity here and want to be careful to not overwater so I thought the mix would be the way to go. I will try to water every 2 to 3 days but will check the media daily to make sure it is not dried out completely. I had some other Maxillaria in sphagnum and they rotted and I think I was watering too much. I am more careful now with the ones that are potted in sphagnum.

I looked the orchid up online before I purchased it and I thought it would do OK here and is supposedly an easy grower. I liked the flower and the fact that it is fragrant.