Happy I tried moss!

[Ferns Daddy]

How would moss work out in areas with high humidity in the summer, we can have 3 or more week of high humidity in the summer, if I keep my orchids in the house all summer I wouldn't worry but I like them out on the patio in the summer

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by Ferns Daddy

How would moss work out in areas with high humidity in the summer, we can have 3 or more week of high humidity in the summer, if I keep my orchids in the house all summer I wouldn't worry but I like them out on the patio in the summer

Should do fine in summer outside. The heat really dries things out quickly, so your plants shouldn't rot. If you are worried about it being too we, put something large and porous in the bottom of the pot, like osmunda, LECA, wine corks, etc. and then use spag in the top half of the pot.

[Ferns Daddy]

Thanks for the reply I have lots of wine corks I can use

[Call_Me_Bob]

Moss has been a life saver for me as well! I stayed away from it when I just started growing orchids, but as I have grown for a few years now I am more cofortable with the plants. For my Phalaenopsis especially moss is awesome, because they dry too quickly in bark for my lower humidity levels in winter. The moss allows me to have more time between watering.

Originally Posted by Ferns Daddy

How would moss work out in areas with high humidity in the summer, we can have 3 or more week of high humidity in the summer, if I keep my orchids in the house all summer I wouldn't worry but I like them out on the patio in the summer

I wouldn't worry about it. Just adjust your watering habits accordingly. If the humidity is high, still wait until the moss dries enough in the center before watering again. It will take longer than in the winter, so be aware of that. But if you are aware, just wait to water until they are appropriately dry!

[isurus79]

Originally Posted by Ferns Daddy

Thanks for the reply I have lots of wine corks I can use

I love that this style of growing combines two hobbies into one!

[Ordphien]

Originally Posted by Leafmite

I grow my cyncnoids, bulbo, and burr. Nelly Isler in moss, some orchids in bark, some in red lava rock, and some mounted. Whatever makes the orchid happy!

Indeed...
Whatever makes the orchid happy...
Some of them are rather prissy though

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

[Ordphien]

Originally Posted by Ferns Daddy

Thanks for the reply I have lots of wine corks I can use

What a coincidence! I do too...
Seems I'll have to keep up my supply of thus vital media.

Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

[Ordphien]

Originally Posted by Call_Me_Bob

Moss has been a life saver for me as well! I stayed away from it when I just started growing orchids, but as I have grown for a few years now I am more cofortable with the plants. For my Phalaenopsis especially moss is awesome, because they dry too quickly in bark for my lower humidity levels in winter. The moss allows me to have more time between watering.

It's the opposite for me kind of.
In my house bark takes forever to dry..
And it dries unevenly.
I add sphag to it not to keep it moist, but because it allows for even drying.

Sphag on its own seems to dry very quickly on my home.

Actually I'm not sure what I have is actually Sphag moss. It doesn't look or act anything like the Sphag moss I seer used to often anywhere.



Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

[Moirae]

I think sphagnum moss gets a bad rep a lot of the time because nurseries really pack the moss into those plastic pots and that's fine under their conditions but then we buy them and often find ourselves with too wet roots that eventually leads to root rot (and possibly the traumatic loss of our first orchid ) and get turned off by even the idea of sphagnum.

My first two phals got major root rot around Halloween 2011, one I moved into a bark mix afraid of more rot and the other (a rescue) got crown rot and died after a failed sphag n bag. When spring came and I started getting a few more orchids, I removed them from the plastic sleeve they came in, pulled out some of the moss from the center and plopped them into clay pots until I stopped being paranoid about bud blast/loosing blooms and I could completely repot them. No rot and they dried out quick enough and did well enough that when it was time to repot, I just replaced the moss with fresh less tightly-packed moss. The one with root rot moved back into sphagnum too and it grew three leaves during the summer and is currently swelling with little buds and branches .

Of course, sphagnum won't work for everyone, but I hope that people don't get turned off from it because of one or two bad experiences because it might open up the possibilities of what they can grow in their home . I'm still new to the whole orchid thing so I have been using both moss and bark mix as well as clay or plastic pots so that I can determine exactly what I can and can't not use in my conditions as well as what works best for me.

I've gotten over the trauma of losing my rescue orchid to too much sphag and bought another "rescue" about 5 months ago. This time, I learned from my mistakes and repotted right away into a smaller container and threw away all the extra moss. It lived this time and it just started forming its first bud on a new spike and is now pushing out a second spike.

My current rescue/mystery orchid. If I didn't repot this one, I'm sure I would have killed it because look at all that excess sphag it came with:

[gingersmommy]

I purchased the "five-star sphagmum moss' from repotme.com. I have to say it is much different than the moss that the plants from the grocery store come in. It wets very quickly and stays wet longer. I think that used with lava rock will be a good mix for me - stays moist but allows air flow. The ones with the moss that I got at the store would not fully hydrate to the core, even after soaking for a long time. I learned this when I went to report them. Plus, I think straight moss is too dense to provide air flow. My center roots were black and/or rotten.