baskets are better than clay pots?

[Andrew]

For the size pot you're talking about, I'm not sure that the increased porosity of clay or net baskets would do a lot to prevent dead spots in the centre of the mix. You may want the 50cm diameter to give the roots more space to grow but do you need the 50cm depth? Have you considered a 50cm squat pot? Alternatively you could place an upturned 30cm pot in the centre of the 50cm standard pot to displace the stagnant mix at the centre of the pot - using an upturned net pot would allow for greater air exchange but unless you line the base of the pot with sphagnum or similar you'll find your peat : perlite falling through the netting.

Regarding your mix, personally I don't like using peat : perlite mixes for Neps. I have problems with peat mixes getting too heavy in medium and large sized pots. Nep growers in my area seem to favour sphagnum, usually mixed with coarse fillers like orchid bark to stop compaction as the mix ages. I've seen very healthy Neps in 30cm standard pots grown in this mix.

[rafflesiana]

Originally Posted by Andrew

For the size pot you're talking about, I'm not sure that the increased porosity of clay or net baskets would do a lot to prevent dead spots in the centre of the mix. You may want the 50cm diameter to give the roots more space to grow but do you need the 50cm depth? Have you considered a 50cm squat pot? Alternatively you could place an upturned 30cm pot in the centre of the 50cm standard pot to displace the stagnant mix at the centre of the pot - using an upturned net pot would allow for greater air exchange but unless you line the base of the pot with sphagnum or similar you'll find your peat : perlite falling through the netting.

Regarding your mix, personally I don't like using peat : perlite mixes for Neps. I have problems with peat mixes getting too heavy in medium and large sized pots. Nep growers in my area seem to favour sphagnum, usually mixed with coarse fillers like orchid bark to stop compaction as the mix ages. I've seen very healthy Neps in 30cm standard pots grown in this mix.

Eh, my problem is right with the depth of the pot, the width is just to host more plants. Many species and mines in particular (tuberous, with a deep vertical rootstock), send down a vertical root, and they stop growing as soon as this root meets an obstacle. Other species just send the roots out of the bottom holes, some others will rootbound without caring too much.

Anyway, the idea of the pot in the middle is nice, I might use that for the next basket. In these days I decided to just build another basket, as for some reason it seems to work better than clay. A few months will be needed to see if it actually works, and possibly summer months.

Yes, my Australian friends use sphagnum mixes, but that's because with your wonderful weather the plants are much more vigorous and they will appreciate wet composts, as they will dry in a matter of 1-3 days. If I pot my plants in sphagnum+bark, they will stay wet for a month
Highland species seem to favour sphagnum, here too. Don't forget that in their natural habitat these plants usually grow in plain sand (especially the species I grow), clay, less often in peaty soils, nearly never in plain live sphagnum. It's a good compost, but in the wild it will submerge young seedlings.