New mix

[Hummer344]

I discovered that all my orchids have varying degrees of root rot due to the planting mix breaking down. Some of these plants have been in their mix just a little over a year. When unpotting these babies the bottom half of the mix has been pure mud. Yikes. I was tired of spending money on bark and do not want to go to SH. Sooo, my new mix is coconut chips(washed well), small lava rock, charcole, and perlite.I use a little Sphag when I re-pot phals. I think that this will last longer than the bark mix I was using before. Some of the plants I re-potted a couple of weeks ago are already putting out new roots and, in one case, new leaves.
Thats my story and I am sticking to it.

[dounoharm]

sounds like a good plan, you should get a good year or two even out of a good mix....gl with the new mix....

[terra_australis]

Should be good. Pure coco chip tends to break down and get spongey pretty quickly but with the other bits it should be good for a while. Good luck

[orchids4me]

I'm always experimenting with mix this sound interesting good luck with it

[norris]

I have been using coco husk chips mixed with various other ingredients such as charcoal, sphag, pumice, dynarock, and bark for the past few years with some good results. Good luck with your new mix

[syndywindy]

Good luck with your mix. I also find when repotting the bottom half breaks down quickly and is almost soil like. I tend to repot every 9-12 months and have slowly been substituting bark for hydroton, perlite, charcoal to avoid that breakdown. I like it so far, but a bit too soon to tell overall. I ahve several in just hydroton(but not growing S/H) and the response is good so far. The only downside is watering a bit more often as it dries out more.

[E-Jag]

As Synda noted, LECA doesn't break down. You repot when the plant crawls out of the pot in search of new digs. You also can't overwater with it unless you devote a great deal of effort to it. You do have to fertilize more often. All in all you just can't go wrong with it.

[Greybeard]

Sounds like a good mix to experiment with, you say you add a little sphag to it for you Phals Did you figure a ratio Keep us posted, all mine are in a bark mix so I would like to see how this works

[Ray]

Over the years, the quality and longevity of bark had gone downhill in a major way. Much of the stuff available in the US is steamed to extract resins and to sterilize it, but that also leads to tremendously-fast breakdown.

If you ever decide to try bark again, I highly recommend Orchiata Bark from New Zealand. From farmed trees, it is aged, graded very well, and treated with dolomite solution for pH stability and long life. I have heard folks say it's good for 10 years, but that seem ridiculous. I have been using it about a year - in some cases inadvertently letting it sit in a tray of water - and it still looks like new. I can tell you this though: plants take to it like nobody's business, sinking their roots into it far faster than with other media.

[koshki]

Hi, I would like to add Mayres' recipe to the discussion:

http://www.orchidgeeks.com/forum/gee...and-media.html

(Mods, this used to be a sticky in the media section, but it's been moved...very hard to find where it is now!)

I had been having lots of problems with sphag (that is, sphag as the media I purchased the plant in) and bark for my phals. In 2009 I switched to Mike's recipe for all my phals.

Yesterday, I decided to repot my Dtps. Minho Princess 'Flying'...it had some roots on the surface that were decayed, and the plant had grown so much it was wobbly and needed a deeper pot. It has been in the coir mix since September 2009. So I pulled the plant out of the pot, expecting some rotten roots.

Well, surprise, surprise! Althought the parts of the roots on the surface had decayed, they were not dead, and in fact the ends of those roots, deeper in the pot were enormous and gorgeous! I did not have a single rotten root! I forgot to take some photos, sorry! It was the fastest repot I've ever done!

This mix is suitable for those of us who are not "daily waterers"...I water my phals no more than weekly and frequently go longer than that, but the plants thrive. When I water my phals, I soak them individually in bowls of fertilized water (the mix tends to run out when under the running tap), drain and return them to their shelf. I've consistently had phals in bloom and lots of nice, steady, pretty growth.

BTW, I grow indoors, most orchids under lights, but not the phals. They sit on the top shelf in a north-facing window and do quite well. YMMV, but I have had great success with it!

[kmarch]

Mix breakdown like that can is often the result of too heavy watering or too infrequent repotting. Phals & Paphs do best when repotted every year. Other orchids can go 2.

As it sounds like you've already changed mixes though be aware that you will have to adjust your watering to the new mix. Watch your plants carefully, maybe even use the skewer method to see how fast the new mix dries out. Don't be surprised if you have to change your watering frequency.

[Hummer344]

Originally Posted by kmarch

Mix breakdown like that can is often the result of too heavy watering or too infrequent repotting. Phals & Paphs do best when repotted every year. Other orchids can go 2.

As it sounds like you've already changed mixes though be aware that you will have to adjust your watering to the new mix. Watch your plants carefully, maybe even use the skewer method to see how fast the new mix dries out. Don't be surprised if you have to change your watering frequency.

I do use the skewer method to check for driness. During the winter, except for my cyms, my orchids are inside and only get watered every 2 weeks or so. When they are outside for the summer they only get watered once a week or so depending on the weather. I am checking the skewers more often right now until I get a since of watering frequency. It just surprised me how bad the bark was, even in the short term. Live and learn.

[Fishmom]

The last batch of orchid bark I bought locally was almost mud-like when I opened it up; very disappointing! It was a brand I'd been using for several years, but like Ray said, things have gone downhill.

Then my orchid society made a bulk purchase of some Rexius brand bark from New Zealand, and I got some of that. It seems very firm and clean, but I can smell the resins, so I don't know if that is a problem or not. I try to rinse it thoroughly before using it. I haven't had it long enough to know if the plants will like it, but others in the society who are commercial plant people use it, so I hope it will work well for me. I have also heard good things about Orchiata, as per Ray's comment above; I wish I had known about it earlier. If anyone has any experience with Rexius I'd be interested.

[toddster63]

I'm with Ray— Orchiata Monterey pine bark is one of the best things that ever happened to my orchid husbandry and my plants. I just repotted this summer some orchids that were in my first mix with Orchiata, from 3 years ago, and the mix was close to like new—still in big chunks. I was amazed—no bark had ever lasted this long before!

And I agree with Ray too, that the plants just LOVE this bark. In particular my big Catts grow roots faster in this stuff, I swear...

I've been adding perlite and tree fern and cork to my mixes (mainly for my eyes), but I think straight Orchiata would work just fine and am considering it for the future...