orchids and decay

[DirtyCoconuts]

I will start this conversation with a HUGE acceptance of a principle that i think we should all accept to make the conversation more focused....people grow orchids for different reasons.

if we all agree about that, i really only want to talk about two types of growers...the hobbyist and the 'orchids in situ' person. I know a LOT of people grow for shows and competitions. i am not interested in that perspective because the form of the orchid and the appearance are not part of this conversation....same for the commercial grower.

so,

what do you think about decaying materials? in the medium, on the medium and on the plant (leaf drop, not part of the plant rotting)

i was thinking about the idea that most of these plants get fed when water washes decaying material off the tree (comments by Ray and E.S. in the microfauna thread) and that made me think about the major issues that can appear in orchid medium and how having MORE decay and not less might be the key.

I am going to remove the idea of the medium itself decaying, this is not what i mean...that robs the plant of airspaces and changes the growing conditions....i am thinking like adding some leaf litter or thin and long mulch or small amounts of compost.

if you had a bioactive growing area where the microfauna are eating the mold and fungus and the orchid is soaking up all the resulting nutes that seems like a win.


I will add at this point that i FULLY understand why indoor grower might be leaving the conversation at this point lol


In a tree there would be all sorts of dead stuff, leaf drop and poops (bird lizard and bug) as well as the resulting byproducts of their decomposition. So instead of adding probiotics for them to just run off after a small amount hits the roots, would it be more effective to make an environment where they would thrive along with other microfauna? the clear answer would be yes if there was not a trade off or negative to this and i am not seeing one as long as the material you added for the purpose of decay was not full of disease but i can think of a lot of ways to avoid that


thoughts?

---------- Post added at 08:45 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:43 AM ----------

oh, i wanted to clarify that this is not the same topic as the microfauna thread so please don't debate the benefits there...i want to focus on the element of FEEDing those elements and making as close to a sustaining system as possible