Just received cattalya and vanda foam at bottom of pot
 

Hi there! I just got my cattalya and vanda. They look a little sad: some yellow leaves. There is some foam at the bottom of the pot: styrofoam bra it’s to help with drainage I guess. Should I remove it and repot in a slotted pot? With the foam? Without the foam?

By the way here’s what I’ve ended up doing with the vanda. I’ve elevated the plastic basket on some cork pieces and put it in another slotted pot. Hopefully that will help trap some humidity in there. It’s going to be watered once a day and left on my windowsill

If the styrofoam compresses up and blocks the drainage holes, then 'maybe' could just skip that styrofoam.

Maybe just big-size rocks (but not too flat on the sides that is - maybe lava rock/scoria) down the bottom of the pot could be better than using the styrofoam. But depends on the the purpose of that styrofoam down at the bottom. If it was working just fine, then ok.

I think the purpose is to improve drainage.

If they're not plugging up the holes, then should be ok.

The water was having a hard time coming out of the bottom of the pot. So I re-pot with some big lava rock pieces on the bottom and coarse bark plus a little tiny bit of spagnum moss around the cattleya. It’s the same potting mix I use for the oncidium and it seems to work for dry climate. I didn’t bury the lower pseudobulb because I didn’t want it to rot but now the whole thing seems pretty lopsided. Should I leave this bottom pseudobulb exposed and just keep this orchid like it is or pot it deeper?

Nice choice with putting lava rock at the bottom instead.

For catts, it is probably unnecessary to add bits and pieces of sphagnum. But if it works for you, and continues to work nicely - then no problem with that MM. Just sometimes - if regular (not-adapted) catt roots stay wet due to sphagnum pieces keeping them wet, then those particular roots can go gray/grey mushy etc ----- running out of O2. But if no problem ----- then ok.

As for the rhizome level ...... I think you have got it absolutely right there.

Such as shown in the potting of this orchid at 4:40

Click Here

When I pot up Cattleyas, I like everything but the roots to be on top of the medium and I have my medium higher/lower where the pseudobulbs are higher/lower (I use lava rock as a medium so this is very easy to do).

Ok guys. For our next expirement: growing a vanda and a cattalya in a windowsill in the dry Northern California mountains. The grow light has not arrived yet so hopefully they will be happy with the sun exposure. Humidifier is on the roots. Lots of spam below the vanda basket, but it is elevated above it on wine corks. Let’s hope nothing rots and everyone is happy. Hopefully they will be happy.

Spam?