The power of scoria (lava rock)

[DirtyCoconuts]

Holy bleep Batman

I will just say I propagate monstera delicious and a variegated one and aladsonii (sp?) all from cutting.

The variegation seems to either come through for not.

They reroof easily in FWC and then I plants them



Those prices are truly insane

[SouthPark]

Definitely DC!

Just noticed something fishy with that bidding.

The bidding is meant to end 20-Dec .... and the seller apparently cancelled all bids, and then reset the start price to 1 dollar, followed by ending the bidding. Somewhat fishy going on here.

Listing link

[Fuerte Rav]

Hey SP, thought I'd hit the jackpot this morning! I was walking through our deserted nearest town to go to the bank and looked over the edge into a sunken plaza where all the cafes and restaurants are still closed, ghost town feel to it, litter blowing around etc and thought I'd found my pot of gold!
I climbed over the security fence , went down the stairs and went for a closer look................
But no, twas not to be



From 2 levels up I could have sworn it was a variegated monstera.
However deserted the plaza was it was nice to see that someone is watering all the plants 👍

[SouthPark]

oh geez fuerte ------ those two are equally beautiful! Excellent pick up! Also - it's amazing how you get those adventurous places there like that ...... like out of a movie!!!!!!

[Fuerte Rav]

Back to your original topic SP!

I finally took the plunge today and repotted an orchid into lava rock.

This is one of the very first orchids I bought (NOID Phal) and I've wanted to repot for about 6 months but there had been no sign of new roots so I'd held off. I repotted into bark soon after I bought it 2-3 years ago but last year it developed crown rot and I thought I'd lost it. Happily it put out another basal growth that has grown very vigorously and I've just been waiting on some new root growth. 2 recent soaks in Kelpak did the job.
I took the existing root ball out of the pot and started removing loose bits of bark and then discovered why the roots hadn't been too happy. It still had the original plug of compressed moss in the middle! I can only guess that I originally repotted it before I read all of 'Phal abuse stops here'!
Anyway, got rid of all the broken down media and gave it a good soak in Kelpak and repotted in a terracotta pot using the lava rock. It was easier than I had expected to work with. The plant had got very top heavy in it's plastic pot and feels so much more secure now. I've left it to rest/dry out any damage to roots overnight and then I'll water with Kelpak in the morning and fingers crossed!
It hasn't started a new flower spike yet this year but there are 4 new branches on old spikes so I'm hoping for some bloom soon if it hasn't got too stressed.

[DirtyCoconuts]

Looks nice!

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Fuerte Rav

I finally took the plunge today and repotted an orchid into lava rock.

Nice one fuerte!

I took these pics an hour or so ago, just for re-assurance. It will all be good and ok.

The first pic is of a straggler flower (the flower facing the camera) that opened just yesterday - while all the other flowers on that spike had been opened for quite a while now. And the spike is producing more buds - coming out the ends of the main spike, and also producing a secondary spike.

The other phal is doing something similar too ----- producing spike extension from the existing spike toward the end of its long round of flowering.

This is only for assurance that the phals can grow in scoria no problem at all.

The last pic just shows where I water (using my spray wand). I just water the outskirts ..... spraying lots of water into the pot outskirts.

I also spray a little bit of water (but not that much) toward the centre (if the leaves aren't blocking) ..... just so that some roots toward the centre can pick up or gather any nutrients that might be hanging around in the scoria. The central regions of the pot definitely don't need to be dry or completely dry.

The two phals are doing nicely in the tropical conditions here.


Google link (Pic 1 link - higher res)



Google link (Pic 2 link - higher res)



Google link (Pic 3 link - higher res)