Ridiculous Potting Medium Ideas

[Leafmite]

Originally Posted by WaterWitchin

I've used Matala mat, both the coarse and the fine, for both mounting and cubed up in a pot. Matala mat is a type of pond filter material but not "flexible" like Eco web and some other types of filter material. Have experimented with almost everything Estación Seca mentions, except lava rock. Go figure Leaf Mite. It is on my experiment list.

Have always avoided lava rock because I had to dig out a ton of it in a previous house where the former owner had it in aaaall the landscape beds around the house. It was a mud/rock/clay nightmare mess to remove and re-amend the soil for actual flower beds. That was about 45 years ago, and I couldn't imagine being able to dig it out now. It was also a curse when I had the water garden business and folks would use it as filter material.

Probably the most oddball things I've experimented with were sandstone broken up, clay pot shards, hedge tree chips, sea glass pebbles, and my favorite weird... sweet gum balls from the sweet gum tree. Weirdest mounts so far have been a cow skull, deer skull, deer antlers, and goat horn. I don't highly recommend any of the oddball stuff as something to put a whole collection in. But it's sure fun as experimental stuff.

Lava rock is not perfect as there is the dust (never let that dust get into your plumbing...rinse outside or in a bucket that is dumped outside) and it is sharp so when orchids are first potted in it, it is best not to move the pots until the roots are established (staking and wiring helps, too). It also needs flushed regularly as it is not being replaced every year or so. I did not have many options when I first started growing orchids and there it was...everywhere and very cheap. I like that it does not decompose, continues to allow good air circulation, and roots can grip onto it.

[alecStewart1]

I think traveling around the internet the "weirdest" thing I've seen is when people grow stuff more or less like it's a lithophyte. And I'm not talking lava rock / pumice, just like regular rocks, "river rocks" or those polished aquarium rocks.

I mean, Pinguicula I get, because a lot of them are lithophytes. Some people I've heard use chicken grit, limestone pieces, perlite and maybe some sand for their Pings.

There's a subtype of Pings that grow on pure gypsum in nature, one of the most known probably being Pinguicula gypsicola. So people who grow them will just get bags of gypsum and mix it with some sand and perlite, maybe vermiculite.

Orchids it's feels a little odd, though. I guess it some ways it makes sense: rocks don't really hold on to water, so they'll dry out much quicker which is good if you like watering every day or your plants like going from wet to dry. Plus depending on the size, you can get good aeration around the roots. I've heard some people have grown Neofinetia falcata lithophytically (<- don't think that's a word).

I've seen a few pictures of some Asian Cymbidiums where the top of the mix are those polished/painted aquarium rocks, which looks a little weird.

[Diane56Victor]

I've bought orchids from a hardware shop in Australia thst are planted in something that looks like plastic or rubber. The first plants I bought like that I thought it was a seedling mix and my first thought was to get them out of it. However I have been assured by an orchid grower who supplies nurseries in Australia that its excellent stuff and that I could up pot without removing any of the material.
First two pics are when its dry, last one is just after watering, as you can see root growth isn't affected at all.
I've got Den phals, Cattleya and Nobile in this media and all seem to do well. I've seen Cym seedlings in the same stuff.

[Blueszz]

A while ago I bought a Den. Berry 'Oda'.

I couldn't see the potting medium because of a layer of moss growing on top of it.

With a skewer I found out the medium was dehydrated. Assuming the medium was bark mix as it's most often here, I watered the plant by submerging the pot for a second.

A week later I felt that the pot barely lost weight which made me suspicious. Wondering if it was all sphagnum the Den. was planted in.

I needed to repot because the medium stayed wet way too long. And when i pullend the plant out of it's pot I found almost pure potting soil.

See pictures:

Amazing that the roots looked good!



With flash


Btw: repotting didn't harm the flowers at all.

[MateoinLosAngeles]

Originally Posted by Blueszz

when i pullend the plant out of it's pot I found almost pure potting soil.

I was visiting husband's family in Michigan and when he mentioned that I grew orchids, his aunt brought me her Phalaenopsis and asked me what she was doing wrong since it had only grown a tiny leaf and no spikes in two years.

She had it potted in potting soil.

[Blueszz]

Originally Posted by MateoinLosAngeles

I was visiting husband's family in Michigan and when he mentioned that I grew orchids, his aunt brought me her Phalaenopsis and asked me what she was doing wrong since it had only grown a tiny leaf and no spikes in two years.

She had it potted in potting soil.

I know, that’s why it made me wonder how the roots from this Den could be in such good shape, also the ones in the center. First time I found something that seems to be potting soil. Something to watch for in the future.

[MateoinLosAngeles]

Originally Posted by Blueszz

I know, that’s why it made me wonder how the roots from this Den could be in such good shape, also the ones in the center. First time I found something that seems to be potting soil. Something to watch for in the future.

For this Phal the soil was so compressed due to under watering that it had taken the shape of the pots and the roots had grown around it, I think it was so seldomly watered, and the plant was under such low light, that it had massively slowed down its metabolism and surviving on ambient humidity and the little water it got. But since the potting soil was compressed it probably was hydrophobic and when watered it didn't get sufficiently waterlogged to suffocate the roots. Probably the care and amounts of water it needed to thrive wouldn't have allowed that set up to last for long.

However, must say that a product that used to be much more popular with orchid growers were peat blocks and there's a gread of peat moss called "chunky peat." The chunky peat is very fibrous and I've received non-orchid plants from high quality nurseries that used it, it looks and feels great and maintains a structure similar to coco husk chips, so I can see how it might work for some. I use tree fern fiber for my Phals to amazing success, best medium I've ever used for Polychilos. The peat blocks I've seen are square pieces of mud that look much more decomposed and dense, however, they somewhat maintain the structure and space between blocks. Possibly offering aeration. I think the risk of these media, however, is that they probably lack longevity and eventually compress too much or might be too susceptible to overwatering. I would also be concerned about the high level of decomposition potentially creating too much of an acidic environment or being too rich and retaining too much fertilizer for orchids to survive. Probably that's why they aren't as popular, especially given how well orchids grow in bark and sphagnum moss.