NOID Oncidium... potted in regular dirt?

[meliana]

Hi All,

I'm new here... but I've been lurking for a while :-) -- I've had phals for a couple years with decent success and decided a few days ago to foray into oncidium territory. So I picked up this lovely and quite healthy NOID from Trader Joes with a subtle floral fragrance. On first inspection at the store it seemed to be planted in fine bark, but when I got home to check things out more thoroughly.... it seems like it's just in normal potting soil, with a good deal of peat, sand, and vermiculite mixed in.

Excuse my total lack of knowledge about oncidiums and the like: is this normal?? Is it ok? Is it sustainable? Surprisingly the root system seems pretty healthy. It's tough to tell how well-draining the medium actually is, since the poor little guy is so root-bound. My gut feeling is to repot it in bark, but I also don't want to do anything immediately, since it's flowering and seems fine otherwise...