Quote:
Originally Posted by Keysguy
SP--- do I understand you've got the bulbs in sphagnum and the sphagnum ball surrounded by scoria? So the next question after "will they survive" is will they get enough water to fully develop, right? Sounds like you water lightly daily but do they get any rain as well? No because it's your winter now?
If I had anything where I grow with roots packed in sphagnum in a pot (even with course media around that) it would be dead in no time. It would just rot right out.
|
KG! I currently grow my biggest fdk in 100% scoria ---- 10 to 15 mm average diameter pieces, in a large pot. Absolutely no problem with growing in 100% scoria.
The rest of the catasetum plants are just in firmly packed sphagnum - as that's how they arrived hahaha. I just decided to put them all in larger pots - and packed some scoria around the outside for some air-flow only.
What I do is ----- I use the water sprayer and dump water down the sides of the pot - dump a lot into the scoria region. Some of that water gets into the sphagnum too - but doesn't saturate the firmly packed sphagnum.
None of my catasetum type plants grow fully outdoors yet. They grow under a balcony along with my other under-balcony orchids. Usually no rain gets onto my plants, unless it's super windy, and some rain can blow onto the orchids ------ when very windy and rainy.
It's ok to water the sphagnum region too ------ but just put enough water into there to not saturate it ---- to begin with anyway. Later in the growing season, the roots probably get used to being more watery and wet ---- adapted. And the leaves are big by then ----- getting some nice transpiration and water (and oxygen in the water) movement.
Here is a clip of how a pro grower pots firmly packed sphagnum. Firmly packed sphagnum has pretty good wicking properties ----- so they say. I believe what they say makes sense.
Click Here
Linear Mode
