| Just Bark and Rain Water
Hi everyone,
I don't know about other members in the UK, but every orchid I buy is potted in bark; bark and nothing else but bark. I did buy some potting medium from a specialist grower which included some perlite and some other brown powdery content (probably peat). I only recently used this but I'm not too keen, I was very careful, as this is the first time I have repotted, but ended up with perlite in the base of a couple of leaves and it's a devil to get out (even with the paint brush I use for brushing compost from plant leaves after repotting). I did get one lot out but ended up scratching the leaf so left well alone. The plant seems to appreciate being repotted so fingers crossed.
I have noticed that many of you use sphagnum Moss because of it's moisture retaining properties but wonder whether this is suitable for our climate in the uk.
Also when watering a friend advised me to submerge the whole pot in a small bucket for 30 minutes or so, and this seems to work for me. Also I use rainwater as an elderly gentleman in the garden centre told me he used nothing else for his orchids. They don't seem to have suffered any ill effects from this and let's face it; rain is something we have plenty of in the UK at the moment.
So just now it's bark and rain water: Should I be doing anything different??  |