Bletilla potting medium help!

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

One growth is typical.

It's most likely blooming sized.

Shipping bareroot when it's dormant won't harm it. Even if it's barely coming out of dormancy, nothing bad will happen.

I wouldn't use sphagnum moss as a potting media. What'll happen is that it will slowly rot out after one growth cycle.

There's no need to cheat with a terrestrial orchid like Bletilla. They're so easy it's like growing a spring bulb. Why take chances?

[Becca]

How do I know if it is dormant? It has nice set of green leaves on it...does that help?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

It's broken dormancy.

If it's dormant all you'll see is an undeveloped shoot on top of the stem tuber. It's what some people call a tooth or a nose. I like the description of tooth better, because it would look like a conical tooth similar in shape to the tooth of a crocodilian.

[Becca]

Anything special I should do since it has broken dormancy? I got the potting medium tonight but had an emergency with my cat and have to go pick him up from the vet and won't have a chance to pot it and it is bare root.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

You can put it on a wet newspaper.

I forgot...

It may not bloom for you this season. Don't worry about that.

[Becca]

Thanks for the help Philip! I'll just keep my fingers crossed that it doesn't croak on me. After getting home from work, and the kitty emergency I finally had a chance to asses the root system. It's pretty sad looking...good thing I did pay much! The seller had a 100% feedback so I am surprised. It isn't worth the negative feedback or bugging the seller since it was only 99 cents. I paid for it with another 99 cent orchid...my total with shipping was around $12.00 for everything....I guess that is what I get for being a cheap-o!

[Becca]

I've been so busy I am just getting around to potting this tonight. Should I whet the mixture before potting? Or pot it and then wet it? Also is it possible to over pot this if this is usually able to be potted in gardens?

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

You can choose to wet the soil or not during or after potting, it's up to you.

I find it easier and faster to pot plants up with the media dry, then water when I'm done.

Don't worry about the roots right now. Even if you bought them here, they would've looked crappy anyways.

Just fit the plant in a pot that's just a little larger than the root mass and you're fine.

Potting media that has proper drainage is much more important than pot size with many terrestrial orchids.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

BTW, you'll find that there are quite a few terrestrial orchids that don't have massive root systems and it's perfectly normal for them.

Some terrestrial orchids don't have roots at all or the roots are significantly reduced not only in number, but in size as well, and it's normal for those species!

With Bletilla, their root system doesn't consist of that many roots.

[wtamuboi]

Have them growing outdoors in Houston. They do just fine with the heat, and ours are actually blooming much better this year after getting snow (yes, snow in Houston!) several times this past winter.