hydroton
 

I took out my Oncidium from it pot and i was shocked. :shock: my mom who repotted my Oncidium, put soil as it potting media. no wonder it was dying. anyway I read a thread that said hydroton was good for Oncidiums. i was wondering on what eveyone else's opinion about and what other potting media there is that good for oncidium. right now my orchid is hanging and drying out from the long exposure to moisture just for over night. anything else that might improve it health please tell me about it. thank you

Oncidiums need to moist to keep the the leaves from doing that accordion pleat thingie

so if you use them, do it in semi hydro or plan to water very often

or, what i do, is fill the pot halfway up with hydroton, then fill the rest of the way with sphagmum or coconut husks. that way i can leave it in the saucer with water like semi-hydro or just water several times a week

I use Sun Bulb's Special Orchid Mix. Picture at the following link: Sun Bulb

It works fine for me. sometimes i put a little spagnum at the top of the pot if i have problems with the medium drying out too fast. I use it for almost all of my orchids. I bought a big bag of it at the local Lowes and it's lasted me a while.

Storm - there are two things to keep in mind:

1. There is no medium that is "right" for any orchid. It depends more on your growing conditions and watering habits than it does on the plant itself.
2. What works for one individual grower, may be horrible for another, because of those differences.

Read this: Choosing Potting Media

Hi ray, sorry to bother, I have a question. I am fairly new at this forum, and I am going through different old posts. I had always issues with growing cattleyas and oncidiums at my balcony in Miami. Cattleyas always died from over watering till I got one mounted, which is doing great. Oncidiums lived for several years, bloomed every year, but I see these big plants going just down and dying at the end. I think it was again water control issue. I found recently here that some people are using hydroton balls to grow orchids in. I did order hydroton hydrocorn balls and I am planning to repot my 2 oncidiums into it. They are very healthy now, I just got them few months ago, still blooming. I want to keep them alive and thriving later, so I am going for hydroton. Any suggestions? I am going to keep an eye and water when necessary. How does it work with plants in hydroton balls and fertilizing? Can I still use seaweed to boost root growth? This is totally new for me, so I am planning to start only with maybe 3 orchids and see how it goes, all my orchids are grown outside at the balcony in Miami. Many thanks for any advice.

Hi, Tommy.

I think the key is to understand that the potting medium is present to provide mechanical stability to the plant, and for water and nutrient storage. Beyond that, changing the medium should have no effect on what you give your plants, maybe just how concentrated and/or how frequently.

If you're growing in LECA in a traditional culture methodology, I highly recommend frequent watering with very dilute fertilizer.


Ray Barkalow
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Many thanks Ray, I was thinking just that. When I started with the orchids, years ago, I was always thinking different potting medium carries different benefits to different orchids. In a years I did realize, it is just pretty much always the mix that best gits the orchid roots, and storing water. Some are holding water, for those needed constant moist medium, some are fast drying, for the ones that can not stay in moist medium too long. So I will go ahead and try it. I have one cattleya seedling I got yesterday in Home Depot, went there only to get some supplies and found this gorgeous orange color, I have never ever bought these, thinking who is even watering them when they are always hanging on the side, in plastic bags, but when I inspected one yesterday, it looked pretty good, and it was even bigger than ones I did order from online sellers for much more than $11.99. This one will be the first testing baby, and than oncidiums. After I see how it goes, maybe I will use Leca even more:-) Many thanks once more for the help

How long did your oncidium stay in the dirt? and how do its roots look like?

It all depends on the condition of the roots.
If roots are fine, the plant should adapt well. If not, then it can be a long road.