Orchiata order...is the bark ok?

[Ray]

Originally Posted by greenpassion

Oh great. I've been pre-soaking my Orchiata bark prior to repotting! You'd think there would be instructions on the bag NOT to pre-soak! Have I hurt my orchids Ray?

No, you have just extracted some of the beneficial calcium and magnesium.

[mBluebear]

Where do you guys get the perlite from? Can I get it from home depot? Thanks

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by mBluebear

Where do you guys get the perlite from? Can I get it from home depot? Thanks

The perlite that comes from places like Home Depot is usually very fine - designed to be a soil amendment, useless for orchids. You want bigger chunks, around 1 cm or so. You may have a nursery supply place in your area that has the larger sizes, or I expect that you can find it online (it doesn't weigh much, so shipping would not be bad) In the US, I would get #2 for small plants (about 1/2 cm) and #3 for most of the rest. (I used to use the #4, which would be around 2 cm or 1 inch, for Catts and such but found that it didn't mix very well with the large bark, which I now use by itself with no problems).