Orchids potted in sponges - what to do
 

Some of the phalaenopsis orchids I have acquired are potted in what appears to be sponges. These tend to hold water for quite awhile, and my watering routine is not the same as for my other orchids. Should I leave these "sponged" orchids as they are or repot with orchid medium, moss, etc.?
Thank you in advance.
Elbie

I've bought orchids in this type of media. I have been told by a wholesaler orchid grower that its a really good media. This wasnt the seller I bought the plants from. He was just speaking as a wholesaler grower of orchids.
He also said when repotting I could just drop the plant and attached media into the new pot and add the new media.

I left Nobile Dens and Cattleya in this media for a few months and they have done well.
Others that were taken out of the sponge type media have also done well.

The main difference I found was having to be careful about watering those in the sponge media as it did hold water for a long time in my situation. I expect for a wholesale grower this could be beneficial as a money and time saver.

As I can be an enthusiastic waterer I decided to remove this media type and use my normal type. I've only got a few left in this material now, just waiting for new roots to show themselves and I will have them all transferred into bark and perlite.

One thing to be aware of, the roots are firmly in this media and can be quite a task to remove it. Move too fast and you can lose some roots.

repotting orchid from sponge
 

Thanks for your reply. I know what you mean about removing the sponge. I have on now that I want to repot in media but am afraid of hurting the roots. I will take it slow.
Elbie

When removing the old medium, you don't have to get it all. Just remove what you can get off easily, where it is stuck to roots, leave those bits, The roots will adapt to the new medium, eventually that stuff will fall off. But as long as there is not a lot of it, won't really affect the watering regimen much. Same applies to plants in sphagnum. You don't have to get them completely clean to gain the benefits of the new medium.

By "sponges" are you referring to Pafcal?
 

My guess is that the little sponges are pieces of Pafcal, a planting medium invented by Toyota Suntory. It's designed to hold 70% air and 30% water. I would think it would be ideal for many kinds of orchids. I planted a Cattleya in a mix of Pafcal and Leca this morning. We'll see. I have several Hoya plants in Pafcal, and they are thriving.

As long as there is plenty of air at the roots, and growing conditions are correct, most orchids do fine with moist roots.

I suspect it's just inexpensive foam plugs that are so often used for ex-flask seedlings.

That Pafcal stuff looks interesting, but I suspect it would have the same potential pitfalls as Grodan rock wool cubes.

The Pafcal "chip" is literally a sponge, as is the Grodan cube. When watered heavily, they become completely saturated, so the only air in the system is the space between them. For terrestrial plants, that's not an issue, but for orchids, I'd be looking to add a second phase, to "up" the airiness.

Is Pafcal just sponge?
 

I hope you are wrong about Pafcal being the same as a sponge. A lot of engineering (or at least hype) went into its development. It is supposed to be different from sponge material in that 1.) It holds water uniformly, instead of letting the water sink to the bottom. and 2.) It doesn't collapse on itself or become compressed. It will be fun to see.

I know nothing about Pafcal other than reading about it here and then looking it up. Haven't used it. Having said that, for anything epiphytic I'm with Ray... I think it would need a supplemental medium. Like LECA perhaps. Might have to get some and see how it pairs with semi-hydro instead of Grodan cubes and LECA. If it doesn't make my hands itch and performs the same...hmmmmm.

Well…they SAY is is sponge-like, but claim it to be 70% air. Perlite (sponge rock) is about 85% air.

They also say it is meant to be a substitute for SOIL. It looks like a very interesting material, but at $36/lb, maybe not all that interesting.