I planned some heavy pruning and hauling to the curb this week. I wound up having a mole removed from my scalp yesterday, and the surgeon told me not to get hot and sweaty for a few days. So I decided to repot orchids.
Most of these are plants I thought could tolerate most of our winter outside, in a large plastic bin, close to my front door where the pack rats would be less likely to predate. I brought the box in during cold spells, but we wound up having almost no frost last winter. I left them out too long when it warmed up in spring, and lost some very small Cattleya seedlings that were in the box.
The majority are plants our club sold after receiving them from assorted people who no longer wanted them. Some were Cymbidium seedlings or mericlones from a speaker last fall. A Den. kingianum alba and Eulophia macra came from the Huntington during the 2019 Succulent Symposium.
The "Oncidium makai" I mentioned in another thread is in the two pots of perlite seen at the very top of the photo. The only growth with leaves is from before I got the plant. It is unusual it hasn't started growing yet this spring; maybe the repotting will help. Two old back bulbs were hanging by a dead rhizome, so I cut them off and put them into another pot. Each has healthy rhizome attached. They aren't in very good shape but are still firm throughout. I don't expect either to grow, but you never know.
Many I am putting into very large particle horticultural perlite. As top dressing I put a sprinkle of potting soil on some, like the Cymbidiums. Water runs straight through this perlite and does not pool.
I am also trying the large particle perlite in S/H with a Cattleya Burdekin Wonder 'Lakeland' mericlone. The LECA I can get here floats, so I don't think the perlite floating will be any more an issue with S/H.
The plant I really wanted from our club sale was Miltassia Kauai's Choice 'Tropical Fragrance' AM/AOS. I had one that was eaten. I really like the fragrance. Intergeneric Oncidium hybrids are available in waves; once they disappear, it may be a long time before you see a clone again. This plant was in a typical 3.25" pot with packed sphagnum moss. Today I picked it up plant and saw scale. That's why it hasn't pushed new growth, whereas all the other Oncidiums have. I pulled off all the moss and am letting the plant dry completely outside. Then I will give it a dip in a dilute dish soap soaks to kill bugs, and repot. I inspected the other plants in that box, but found no other scale. I will keep looking, and I will put these plants in a different spot.
Today's repots
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