Repotting cattleyas

[Dani8]

Hi, I have a few cattleyas that have been in leca/seramis mix the last few years. I like that I can easily water from above and I don't have to worry about the media breaking down, but I think it's collected salts and the plants are just not doing great. My tap water is softened through adding salts and only 6 months ago I switched to ro water.

The shelf they were on fell yesterday due to a storm and since most of them ended out of their pots, I want to repot them but I'm not sure what to use this time. I live in a cold climate and they are indoors from October till may.

What would you recommend as potting media considering I have ~30 orchids and don't have the possibility of dunking them in water every week or flushing with ro water regularly.

[Roberta]

First, Welcome.

I leave it to members who live in a climate similar to yours to recommend media and potting strategies. But one important item... using softened water was likely a "slow poison"... most water softeners replace calcium with sodium, which is horrible for plants. The calcium-containing hard water won't harm the plants at all. RO water can be beneficial, it may take some time to overcome the damage due to the sodium that the plants were exposed to prior.

[estación seca]

Welcome!

How do you water your plants when they're inside? Whatever medium you use, it is best to thoroughly soak the medium each time so plenty of water runs out the pot. That means carrying each pot to a sink or shower, or having plants in large trays to collect the water. Member WaterWitchin has posted photos of her tray setup. She sets plants on plastic drop-down lighting grids in boot trays with drain holes drilled. The drains empty via hoses to buckets that can be emptied.

[Dani8]

Because the ro water takes a long time to fill a bucket, I just water from the top as much as needed so the medium is wet, but there's no more than 1cm water in the tray. With the leca/seramis it works.
I can't use the shower or sink because water at all taps is softened and the ro water is collected in a watering can but takes 1 hour per 10 Liter watering can. So I can't afford making a lot of ro water to then throw down the drain if you understand.

[Roberta]

Is there an outdoor faucet where you can get water? Usually, outdoor faucets are designed to be used for plant watering, and so are not plumbed through the water softener.

[Dani8]

No outdoor faucet. It's a block of flats and I asked my neighbours if there's any tap with water before the softener and they said there is none. The garden doesn't get watered unless it's really drought, maximum once per year.

[Jmoney]

perhaps collect rainwater? many grow catts in a bark based mix, some (like myself) use tightly packed sphagnum, but most water heavily each time.

[Leafmite]

I live in a place where we have winter, too, and the plants need to come indoors. Any medium will accumulate salt, minerals and fertilizer but most of the time, the medium is changed every so often. Not so with the lava rock that I use...my orchids get a chance to establish a really healthy root system because I do not change the medium. For this reason, I need to flush the medium with water to get rid of old fertilizer, salts an excess minerals. Sometimes I get lucky and we have heavy rains that do the trick but, other times, I need to run each pot under warm (not hot) water to do this. I have to do this with my other houseplants, too.
Hope this helps! Good luck!