Shredded cedar - opinions?

[estación seca]

Some seedlings from Carter & Holmes arrive in shredded cedar bark. The ones I've moved to larger containers, or to S/H, have decent, but not amazing, entirely healthy root systems.

Some seedlings have obviously been in the material a while; it is more tightly packed, with a darker color than the fresh stuff. These seedlings have roots almost entirely on or near the surface, so they topple out of the pot easily, which is a management issue. Still, the roots are all healthy.

What are people's opinions on shredded cedar for orchids? Seedlings? Adults? Moister-growing? Dryer-growing?

[Orchid Whisperer]

I suspect that is their cypress potting mix. They sell it on their website. I haven't tried it but I think it would be good for plants that want finer and more water-retaining medium (maybe Cymbidium, Coelogyne and Paphiopedilum).

I would also be curious what others think of it, if they have tried it. Also, does it require soaking or other special treatment to get rid of any resins, etc? Also, would natural cypress landscaping mulch work as well for a potting medium?

[Ray]

When I lived in SC, there was a primarily phalaenopsis nursery called Jemmco in St George SC, near Charleston. The owner was an engineer who worked for Westvaco, who owned a lot of the local timber lands. Whenever they were harvesting the soft pine for pulp, and they ran across a cypress, he would have it chipped for potting medium, and used it with no treatment. It lasted forever, but I found that the plate-like, flat chips stacked too easily if used alone, so held too much water. Mixing with spongerock seemed to be OK.

As to mulch, why not give it a try?

[Orchid Whisperer]

Ray, I think I'll have a good look at the cypress mulch next time I'm at the hardware store. I think what I've seen includes both bark and wood, both shredded (but I need to look again).

If I use it, I will mix in something that is somewhat inert, like sponge rock/styrofoam/charcoal, to open it up a bit & reduce the amount of water held.

[SFLguy]

I just started using a cypress mulch mix for Paphiopedilum.
I already use it for a non orchid (Nepenthes) that needs to stay at least moist (often grown in live Sphagnum) and it barely degraded

[estación seca]

What Ray wrote about compacting is what I saw. I suspect that is why some of the seedlings didn't penetrate deeply with their roots. The material wets easily and dries quickly if it's fluffed up.

[gnathaniel]

Shredded cypress seems like a good medium, but personally I stay away from it because of the cypress mulch industry's destruction of wild populations of Taxodium distichum. I love bald cypress trees and would like to see them around in significant numbers in the future. Just my two cents...

[Orchid Whisperer]

gnathaniel - that's an interesting point. Although baldcypress is commercially planted and grown for the purpose of timber etc., I had not considered that some could be harvested from wild stands.

Added later: After reading up on it, it does appear that more cypress is wild harvested rather than planted. Thanks for bringing his to our attention gnathaniel! Unless a cypress product is specifically labeled as sustainably grown, I'll avoid cypress.