Cym sitting for my mom

[ChampagneOrchid]

My mom left the country for 4 months and she put me in charge of her garden. I noticed that she had ten HUGE Cymbidiums spread through out. All of them are bursting out of their pots and potted in dirt!
I have repotted four of them so far and have had good success finding plenty of live roots and new growths.

Each of the first four seemed to have had a natural split in the orchid rhizome, which while I was repotting resulted in 12 orchids were I had 4 before. All have atleast 4 big bulbs, long green leaves, and plenty of roots.

I repotted using peanuts at the bottom of the pot and coarse bark soaked in water.

My questions are...

Do you guys think the repot will shock the plant?
Should I be a bit more cautious with the remaining plants? ( I don't want to be responsible for a garden sans orchids!)

How did these guys survive in dirt?

Thanks in advance for your time!

Cymbidiums must be put in the dark cooler shade when newly repotted and easy on the water...let a week pass before watering ....the roots will have to grow and get acquainted to the new media...dirt?!?! What do you mean: it was potted on an ordinary tomato seedling media? You did well then cause they want to be in a well draining media, they don't want stagnant water on the roots.

[ChampagneOrchid]

Anky,
It looked like potting soil, it definitely wasn't bark or coco chips or anything else commonly used for orchids. One of them had absolutely nothing but a gigantic ball of roots underneath a small layer of potting top soil.

It is in the high 80's right now and will be for another week. Should I still wait a week to water?

The plants are tucked away in a shadier spot than were it is usually, so that's covered.

I was just wondering if by some crazy way the cymbidiums got used to living in potting soil, and would reject the bark mix.

[gabi_borza]

I think the cymbidiums, unlike the epiphytes, are a bit more tolerant to the regular potting soil. That is probably why the roots didn't rot. But I think you did a good job repotting the plants. They will recover nicely, since they are not so picky about repotting.

Wait a week. You are in Los Angeles, you have the right humid atmosphere for the roots to get used to the media...allow it to breathe first

[katrina]

I don't grow a lot of Cyms but I do know that now is not the ideal time to repot. Typically, the best time is in the Spring after flowering. Most will be setting spikes...or would be setting spikes...this Fall and the repot might cause them to skip the next bloom cycle. MIGHT.

Many Cyms are semi-terrestrial....I know they are used as landscape plants in parts of CA and they seem to thrive in gardens so I don't believe the "dirt" is that big a deal. I pot mine in a mix of regular potting mix and chunky bark...they do just fine.

We have some Cym experts on the forum so hopefully one of more of them will see this soon and chime in. Some of our Aussie Geeks are gurus when it comes to Cyms...I'm sure they'll be of more help.

OOPS -- I used to pot w/a reg potting mix and bark...last repot I switched to reg potting mix w/chc. No reason other than I didn't have any bark but I had plenty of large CHC.

[Hummer344]

Well, I am no expert buttttttt, when I repot my cyms, I put them back in the environment they came from. In my case, direct sun in the morning then bright light the rest of the day. I water them right after potting to settle the potting medium then I don't water them for a week mayby more depending on the weather. Works good for me.
Put some of them in shade and some back in the place where they were found. See what works for you.

[orchids4me]

Hi when I got mine they were in a soil mix with bark. These guys are water hogs.... Another member on here Amersault she grows her Cyms in sother cal in soil and hers are gorgeous and huge! I recently repooted all mine in charcoal bark perlite and coir mix with a touch of worm castings and I got 5 new growth on one alon about a month later. Using a bark mix alone will require more watering in the summer because they are water hogs so make sure she knows when she retuns about the change so she can adjust her water regimine. A month will show how they are handling the new media for sure.

[ChampagneOrchid]

Originally Posted by orchids4me

Hi when I got mine they were in a soil mix with bark. These guys are water hogs.... Another member on here Amersault she grows her Cyms in sother cal in soil and hers are gorgeous and huge! I recently repooted all mine in charcoal bark perlite and coir mix with a touch of worm castings and I got 5 new growth on one alon about a month later. Using a bark mix alone will require more watering in the summer because they are water hogs so make sure she knows when she retuns about the change so she can adjust her water regimine. A month will show how they are handling the new media for sure.

Thanks so much for reminding me of this. She won't be able to keep up a steady watering regimine (mom's getting older), so I went over there and took away some of the bark from around the root ball and added E.B. Stone Orchid Mix (Fir Bark, Lava Rock, Red wood compost, and sand) around the root ball so it will help in retaining moisture. This mix is holds much more water than the bark but not nearly as much as potting mix. I will try this out for a while and see what happens.

I am about to harvest some of my castings in a week or so, I will add that to the cyms when it's ready too...

Thanks so much for all the help, geeks!

[orchids4me]

Originally Posted by ChampagneOrchid

Thanks so much for reminding me of this. She won't be able to keep up a steady watering regimine (mom's getting older), so I went over there and took away some of the bark from around the root ball and added E.B. Stone Orchid Mix (Fir Bark, Lava Rock, Red wood compost, and sand) around the root ball so it will help in retaining moisture. This mix is holds much more water than the bark but not nearly as much as potting mix. I will try this out for a while and see what happens.

I am about to harvest some of my castings in a week or so, I will add that to the cyms when it's ready too...

Thanks so much for all the help, geeks!

Just a note you don't have to re pot again to add the worm casting if you want to try it out. Just put a hand full or so on top the medai and water it in. The mix sound a bit airy enough that it will sink down with watering to the root area. I did it that way with one of my passion flower also and boy it poped new growth and twice as many blooms as last year. It had a hard winter even covered it to protect it from the frosts and it looked horrible in spring. And after a a fruit and berry fert it looked a little better so I tried thge worm castings and pow!! Crasy growth and blooms . I wouldn't venture to try it on the other orchids but certain ones like Cyms seem to like it a lot I don't have any terrestrials currently. But I might experiment with a semi terrestrial or 2 (paphs) see how they react to a touch of it in their mix... A couple noids will work for this experiment.
Good luck with the cym sitting
Emmaye

[kmarch]

Originally Posted by Anky

Cymbidiums must be put in the dark cooler shade when newly repotted and easy on the water...let a week pass before watering ....the roots will have to grow and get acquainted to the new media...dirt?!?!

I'm afraid i have to disagree with Anky on this point. I find cymbidiums to be incredibly hardy, tough plants. When I repot mine I do so after they've finished flowering or in the spring if they do not flower. I use a moisture retentive medium-to-large park mix with some ground up coir peat charcoal, perelite and some shreaded or chunks of coconut fiber (coir). I repot and then put the plant right back where I took it from and I continue watering on my regular schedule. Basically I change nothing when I repot, neither my watering schedule nor the light levels they receive.

[cable]

One time when I visited Orchids Limited, Jason Fischer told me the best roots he ever saw on an orchid belonged to a phal that some lady had left in its pot long enough that the mix had turned into compost. I've had similar experiences with paphs, so I can easily imagine terrestrial orchids like cymbidiums being happy in dirt. Still, they'll probably be happier in a looser mix, so repotting them seems like a good idea.

[ChampagneOrchid]

Originally Posted by orchids4me

Just a note you don't have to re pot again to add the worm casting if you want to try it out. Just put a hand full or so on top the medai and water it in.

Found some time and did this today to the cyms at my place. Looking forward to seeing what happens.

Thanks for the tip!