What mix do you repot Phrags in?

[DirtyCoconuts]

Do it. A repot for SH is exceptionally easy and of no stress to the plant

Go on eBay and order a set of diamond carbide hole saw bits. Should be about $15-20 American. They are not quality but will let you drill 100s of vases with different sized holes

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by camille1585

I'd rather stick to a traditional organic mix since I have no experience with the inorganic media that Phrags do well in (S/H and rockwool) and I'm hesitant to experiment on a rather expensive plant...

I grow my Phrag. Grouville and Phrag. Elizabeth Castle in 5 mm average diameter scoria ----- pots much larger than these plants. I water the outskirts of the pot each day, and these phrags are doing great. It's ok to water these ones further in too, as they can handle fairly wet roots. Their leaves are actually perfect and they continue to grow new leaves. This is in north queensland Australia tropical conditions. These two have never been attacked by anything. They seem to be pretty tough. The media actually does dry out sometimes. Absolutely no problem encountered.

I think ----- use whatever works well for your location, conditions/situation ---- or what had been working nicely. My growing in lava rock pieces for all my paphs and phrags were actually for a test - out of interest to see how they would do.

The other 'phrag-like' (- eg. paphs) plants I'm growing in scoria (also doing very well) ----- include: Paph. Saint Swithin 'Jill', Paph. Wossner Black Wings, a Paph. callosum, and Paph. vietnamese.

Like most of us ----- we don't like to lose/harm any orchid (even 'inexpensive' ones).

When I was 'testing' - I kept a close eye on them. It's no longer a test anymore. They're now a part of the usual watering routine for all my orchids.

When I was on holidays for 10 days, the automatic watering device worked excellently on the phrags - that I got from ebay ----- "Automatic Drip Irrigation Kit Plant Self Watering Can Timer System Indoor Garden". There are other sorts out there, probably just as good.

[SouthPark]

Just posting up some scoria 'mix' pics (mix pix!). 100% scoria.

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by SouthPark

Just posting up some scoria 'mix' pics (mix pix!). 100% scoria.

Great looking plants! Your success with scoria has always make me curious to try it, and earlier this year I had looked around to see where I could buy some here. The answer is nowhere, unless I buy online, in bulk, with the corresponding shipping costs... Which reminds me that I completely forgot to have a look around stores when I was visiting my family in France this summer, I might have found some there!

[estación seca]

Not many volcanoes in France... the scoria would need to be shipped from southern Italy or the Canary Islands.

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Not many volcanoes in France... the scoria would need to be shipped from southern Italy or the Canary Islands.

The mountainous area in the center of France (Massif Central) is actually a chain of extinct volcanoes, and there are a few companies that extract scoria there. (Some are in the region of Volvic, a well known brand of bottled water). My mother lives not far from that area, so I would expect that it can be more easily found than here, with a limited environmental impact since it doesn't have to be shipped so far. My idea was to only get a couple liters of it, just as a test with a few plants that would do well in it. I'd never use scoria on a larger scale.

[DirtyCoconuts]

That volvic is good water

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by camille1585

earlier this year I had looked around to see where I could buy some here. The answer is nowhere, unless I buy online, in bulk, with the corresponding shipping costs... Which reminds me that I completely forgot to have a look around stores when I was visiting my family in France this summer, I might have found some there!

Camille --- That's ok! Scoria definitely has some nice advantages ----- but the way you potted (with some bark) is absolutely ok too .... absolutely fine. A mix of bark, and perlite (and even optionally adding in some charcoal) is a typical and excellent mix used by so many growers for phrags.

Fear not with using large pots (but not excessively large so as to waste too much media and water - but oversize can have its advantages for sure).

For the watering, you can easily start off with heavily watering the portions of media out towards the sides of the pot, where orchid roots are initially not appearing (or less of them appear to begin with). The idea is to still make the humidity nice and high enough within the pot - but doing it by making use of the media on the outskirts of the pot the wettest.

For phrags, it is generally quite ok to have media closer in to the plant damp (moist) ----- and phrags can handle that and can do well with moist roots most or all of the time. I have noticed that short temporary dry-out of a media won't hurt phrag roots - temporary, not overly long term dry-outs of media. That's what I have noticed anyway for my two phrags -- which are just part of the regular gang now among my orchids.

What I will do soon (and had never done before) is to do a video to show just how I water my orchids. Each grower has their methods - including the nurseries - but we don't always get to see how we all do our watering. I'll get around to doing a video and post a video download link through say google drive, or even youtube.

If I didn't have scoria here, I would very happily shift to bark/perlite (or even bark/perlite/charcoal). Just keeping the watering under-control is pretty much all that's needed.

The rest of the conditions (good temperature and lighting and some gentle air-movement in the growing area) should be just fine in your growing area - as you do an amazing job and amazing work already with your orchid collection over there.

Camille - have you come across this document here before? Some nice details seen in that one. Depending on growing conditions, the sphagnum is probably not essential - but is ok if used appropriately. Nice phrag pics in there!!! (link)

Forgot to mention ------ very nice phrags you have too over there that you're growing!!!

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by SouthPark

Camille --- That's ok! Scoria definitely has some nice advantages ----- but the way you potted (with some bark) is absolutely ok too .... absolutely fine. A mix of bark, and perlite (and even optionally adding in some charcoal) is a typical and excellent mix used by so many growers for phrags.

Fear not with using large pots (but not excessively large so as to waste too much media and water - but oversize can have its advantages for sure).

For the watering, you can easily start off with heavily watering the portions of media out towards the sides of the pot, where orchid roots are initially not appearing (or less of them appear to begin with). The idea is to still make the humidity nice and high enough within the pot - but doing it by making use of the media on the outskirts of the pot the wettest.

For phrags, it is generally quite ok to have media closer in to the plant damp (moist) ----- and phrags can handle that and can do well with moist roots most or all of the time. I have noticed that short temporary dry-out of a media won't hurt phrag roots - temporary, not overly long term dry-outs of media. That's what I have noticed anyway for my two phrags -- which are just part of the regular gang now among my orchids.

What I will do soon (and had never done before) is to do a video to show just how I water my orchids. Each grower has their methods - including the nurseries - but we don't always get to see how we all do our watering. I'll get around to doing a video and post a video download link through say google drive, or even youtube.

If I didn't have scoria here, I would very happily shift to bark/perlite (or even bark/perlite/charcoal). Just keeping the watering under-control is pretty much all that's needed.

The rest of the conditions (good temperature and lighting and some gentle air-movement in the growing area) should be just fine in your growing area - as you do an amazing job and amazing work already with your orchid collection over there.

Camille - have you come across this document here before? Some nice details seen in that one. Depending on growing conditions, the sphagnum is probably not essential - but is ok if used appropriately. Nice phrag pics in there!!! (link)

Forgot to mention ------ very nice phrags you have too over there that you're growing!!!

You grow some fantastic looking plants with your method! Given that I grow my plants exclusively indoors, soaking is what has worked best for me. With the watering wand method I'd have to somehow deal with the run off. With larger pots I either use a coarser mix or invent a net pot in the bottom to make an air cone, and the media generally seems to dry out evenly.

Thanks for that document, it's an interesting read.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by camille1585

You grow some fantastic looking plants with your method! Given that I grow my plants exclusively indoors, soaking is what has worked best for me. With the watering wand method I'd have to somehow deal with the run off. With larger pots I either use a coarser mix or invent a net pot in the bottom to make an air cone, and the media generally seems to dry out evenly.

Thanks for that document, it's an interesting read.

Most welcome Camille. This is the fantastic thing about forums like this, where we can so conveniently share the information and methods, such as the method you mentioned - soaking. Indoor growing often requires avoiding getting water all over the place!

When I use the watering wand in the semi-outdoor area, I do accidentally spray some water outside - which would be a no-no indoors hahaha. Definitely understandable. I think that if I did it indoors, no matter how careful I would be, I'm pretty sure I'd get some water into regions where I don't want it. Soaking is a good approach for indoors.