Growing Cattleyas in pure sphagnum

[ArronOB]

Hi. I’ve typically grown my cattleya and Oncidium alliance plants in bark, in mesh pots - my aim being to maximise airflow around the roots.

Today I repotted some tiny cattleya hybrid plants which have been growing in pure sphagnum moss, which is fairly tightly compacted into plain plastic pots. Their root growth is amazing! It’s got me wondering. It’s even more amazing because they have been growing indoors over winter in a west facing window (nb. Southern hemisphere) so conditions are harsh. They alternate between being adequately hydrated to bone dry on a cycle of about 3 days. It still hasn’t stopped them.

So I’m wondering, what has been peoples experiences growing these two alliances in pure sphagnum?

Cheers
Arron

Ps. I know there’s lots about this subject on the web, but I ask here because I want the opinion of people I trust.

[wisdomseeker]

Decided to take a brief break from my weekend plant chores, and stumbled upon your post.

I was just beginning the process of re-potting a mini Lc. cross (that had been growing in sphagnum) into a mesh pot, using bark as the growing medium. I too have had good results with root growth. My routine has been similar to yours... a cycle of being hydrated to bone dry, in about 3-4 days.

I'm low on sphagnum at the moment (saving what I do have on hand to re-moss a couple of mounts), so I will continue to re-pot this one in bark - but now you have me thinking to myself: if it ain't broke, don't fix it.

[AnonYMouse]

It's not my choice of media but I do have a couple of plants in sphag. One was a tiny division of a Liparis and the other is a Neo I was too lazy to repot after acquiring.

There is nothing wrong with growing in sphag moss. Commercial growers do it very successfully.

The downside is their longevity. I choose other media because I hate repotting!

[SouthPark]

It will definitely work. At the moment, I only grow Fdk plants in fairly tightly bound spaghnum in plastic pot, with the spaghnum surrounded underneath and around the sides with scoria.

As Anonymouse mentioned - one possible drawback is longevity.

But if it works very well for your area and for you, it's definitely good to stay with it. As long as the growth parameters stay properly controlled, which you appear to be getting correct, then that's excellent.

[AnonYMouse]

Other superficial reasons I dislike sphag:

Looks like a pile of isopods
smell
dust

...

[Ray]

When I had a greenhouse with close to a thousand plants in it, my media assortment included probably everything you can think of, plus maybe a few you haven't. Now that I'm back to being a windowsill grower, it's either LECA in S/H culture or sphagnum.

Yes, it has a short lifespan, but if you replace it regularly, it's easy to do. I don't think it has a bad odor at all, but maybe that varies. It IS, to some degree, naturally fungicidal, too.

I'm going to begin another thread on a related subject, so as to avoid hijacking this one.

[ArronOB]

Major negative not mentioned is cost - although it may be more affordable elsewhere.

Another neg is it will require a different watering regime to the bark-potted plants, which my Growing situation doesn’t really allow.

Cheers, and thanks for the reply
Arron

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by ArronOB

Major negative not mentioned is cost - although it may be more affordable elsewhere.

Orchid growing of sought-after prize orchids is a costly affair. This is an accepted negative.

Of course, I'm just kidding! You're right. Relative cost is a consideration here.

Also agree with the watering regime. This is why I have been staying with volcanic rock for most of my big-enough catts, dend, paphs, angraecum, oncid, and vanda. I can just water them almost every morning - just watering the surface. Some grow fully outdoor, most growing semi-outdoor (patio roof, but still gets most of sun coming through - although I do move certain plants into more protected spots - ones noticed to not handle the light as well as others).

I water nearly every morning. Every few days or so, I will give a full day break in watering - to allow the volcanic rock media to get dry, or quite dry. This likely helps with cutting down on unwanted issues occurring inside the pot.

I can definitely understand that making best use of water can be important. So I'm all for just keep going with what works - this includes using pure spaghnum.

As always, the growth method is a choice, and factors will include just choice itself, with some other things like number of plants we grow, types of plants, watering/fertilising regime, cost, part of the world we live in etc.

I think it's quite awesome how a lot of orchids can adapt to or handle certain kinds of media that growers aren't shown or taught that could be used. The growing of catts and other orchids in tightly bundled spaghnum is definitely workable.

[Roberta]

Since it's all about meeting the objective of a wet-dry cycle, sphag is as good as any other medium if that's what the plant gets. So no surprise that it can work on Catts, especially little ones. In a larger pot it tends to stay wet for too long. But the little ones dry out fast. I use it for lots of things in baskets - again, watering frequency and air movement allow the plants to dry out. An advantage, especially in net pots (plastic baskets) - it doesn't fall out of the holes the way bark tends to do. So, no reason not to use it just because you're potting Catts... You just may have to approach watering a bit differently than you would if it were bark to get the same effect.