Packing Peanuts

[Roberta]

Originally Posted by florianradke

Now I was given a brassavola in rough shape, and decided to place in an antique unglazed upright pot. I coated the interior of the pot with powdered graphite. My hope is that the graphite will be non-harmful to the roots, but also close and smooth out many of the porous holes in the pots surface that the roots and their glue-like substance grow into, deterring adhesion, while still allowing the passage of water. It's a bit of an experiment.

-Florian

An interesting experiment, for sure. You definitely need to keep an eye on it if you value the pot. Brassavolas tend toward wild roots - I mostly gave up on mounts, put them in wood baskets with little or no medium. (Think of those as three-dimensional mounts) Both roots and growths go wherever they feel like. They definitely like having their roots go "wherever", with lots of air. Where do you live? Do you grow indoors, or greenhouse or??? (I live in coastal southern California, a very benign climate, so grow mostly outside... I am a "What can I get away with" grower.)

[Ray]

Be very careful in your use of cork.

Some 30 years ago or more, ground cork was touted as the new, great potting medium. It was cheap, uniform in size, and easy to work with. The compressibility made it stabilize plants quickly, and it seemed to hold water fairly uniformly.

Unfortunately, some months after repotting plants with it, it went from “fantastic” to “root-smothering mush” seemingly overnight.

Apparently the large volume of exposed cracks/voids/cell interfaces (or whatever) allowed microbes to go to town.

[florianradke]

Thanks for the note of caution regarding cork. (OP I hope this is not too far off the original topic of packing peanuts!) My approach is to use the highest grade cork I can find. Cork, being the bark of the cork oak tree, is a highly variable material. There are different grading systems (which I don't pretend to understand), but generally the higher grades have more uniform material distribution with lower porosity and fewer pits and fissures, and are also largely absent insect and fungal damage. Generally speaking "flor grade" cork is the highest quality, and to many does not even look like cork because it is so bright and uniform. Part of the grade of cork has to do with the age of the tree (and the thickness of the bark) that the cork was harvested from. I will then disinfect and coat in activated charcoal dust. I only use gigantic pieces to keep airflow high and usually in a orchid pot with holes. Only have two pots like this but it's worked so far.

I grow in Massachusetts. Indoor in the winters, hybrid indoor/outdoor in summer.

The powdered graphite idea came from this article: Frontiers | Getting a Grip on the Adhesion Mechanism of Epiphytic Orchids – Evidence From Histology and Cryo-Scanning Electron Microscopy

If you scroll down you'll see Fig. 6 is interesting.


-Florian

[Clawhammer]

I just got a box full of orchids fully packed in peanuts from Andy's today.

Black friday sale on right now too...

[RJSquirrel]

[katsucats]

Not that anyone is going to be eating orchids any time soon, but polystyrene (styrofoam) leaches into water, even in low levels, and causes health and environmental hazards. That's why California is aiming to ban it in the next couple years. For a similar function, I think I'd rather use the giant sized LECA in the middle of my pots.

Aside: My Brassavolas die a slow death whenever I try to pot them. The only way I've been able to keep them alive is mounted, on cork barks with a big of sphag.

[Ray]

Originally Posted by florianradke

The powdered graphite idea came from this article: Frontiers | Getting a Grip on the Adhesion Mechanism of Epiphytic Orchids – Evidence From Histology and Cryo-Scanning Electron Microscopy

Can you point me to where there is any suggestion of powdered graphite?

I scanned that article while drinking my first cup of coffee, so must have missed it.

[florianradke]

Originally Posted by Ray

Can you point me to where there is any suggestion of powdered graphite?
.

The article does not mention powdered graphite.

I'm making a somewhat - but not entirely - blind leap that powdered graphite can fill in or smooth over the "crevices in bark substrate" in this illustration:



Which, I imagine, would prevent the velamin root hairs and "glue like substance" from adhering onto the walls of and into the crevices of an unglazed clay pot - turning the interior of a clay pot into a non-stick surface. This can be done with a pencil, basically.

Pointless? Maybe. And I'll have to report back on whether this actually works. Then again, I really dislike the look of plastic.

[PuiPuiMolcar]

I've noticed these too when I bought a few medium orchids from SVO. It's also convenient when you buy appliances from amazon

[MateoinLosAngeles]

Originally Posted by florianradke

I admit that, personally, I am an aesthete when it comes to potting.

I'm the same way.