Swiss cheese-type pots - good or bad?
 

Hi All!

Local gardening stores and Home Depot sell "special orchid pots" - glazed ceramic pots with swiss-cheese-type holes all over them, alternately different opening shapes like stars moons, etc. They are considerably more expensive than similar pots without the holes. I assume the idea is to provide better aeration.

Over the years I have bought 3 in different sizes, but I can't say I like them that much: 1) The holes are quite large so I had to put plastic window screen netting inside the pot to not have the orchid bark fall out. 2) Even with the high humidity in my greenhouse, the holes tend to dry the potting medium out very fast from the outside in, so root growth is limited toward the edges of the pot.

Anyone had better experiences with these pots? or is it just a marketing gimmick? I have a really nice orchid in one of these that I recently bought and put in that pot just 'cause it was available but now am thinking of repotting it into a "normal" pot....

Thanks for any insights!

I have several of these. Mine also have the drain dish permanently attached which makes them quite impractical for actually planting in them. But I do use them for ornamental purpose. When an orchid is in bloom I bring it into the house and display it in one of these pots. Quite often they are top heavy with a tall bloom spike and these pots help keep the plastic pot from tipping over while in bloom.

I do the same thing Silken does, just use them as a cachepot for stability and display of my orchids. I tried to actually have a phal potted in one of these but watering was impractical as it has a saucer permanently attached so I had to keep draining the pot in the sink for over an hour.

I once potted 2 noid phals in these pots in straight sphagnum moss. They worked great.... until the roots touched the glaze. Any root that touched the glaze shriveled and rotted. I soon repotted them into other pots. They would have been fine for me if they were unglazed, and I grow my orchids under T5 lights and my humidity is not that high. I'm thinking of having a pottery maker that I know make me 1 or a few unglazed orchid pots. He has really neat special methods for "making" the clay and such.

If there are no permanent saucer in the bottom I think these could be ideal. But most of them do, so I also only use them for ornamental purposes.

These are what I use. I mix the orchid mix (bark, perlite and charcoal with spag moss and yes it does come out of the holes a bit, but the moss helps keeps it in. I worry about overwatering so the holes kind of make me think it's better. I can stick my finger in them to test how moist everyone is. I do notice it dryer on the outside and more moist int he middle, but with even watering and allowing to dry, it seems to work well. I wouldn't use them with bark only though, I think they would dry out way to fast on me. Most of my holes are smaller holes, or slits. Maybe that makes a difference. Not problems with the glaze and roots that I've seen so far. A couple have the drip tray right up against the bottom others have it about 1/2" below it with "legs" keeping the main part above. They seem to work well for me. The ones with the closer tray I really keep an eye on to make sure there is no water in it.

I dont like the glazed clay pots....but I inherited a couple of them that I use as a cachepot nowadays....I drill holes on the ordinary clay pot if I have plants that need the roots aerated....
I also have celadon and glazed stoneware pots that works just fine....just dont let the aerial roots touch the glaze as 'The Orchid Boy' have discovered; they shrivel and die

Thanks for all the informative responses. For the most part it seems these pots don't work that well, which was my original experience, and after the first few responses I repotted everything I had in them. I think they just dry out too fast from the outside, which effectively greatly reduces the "good", moist bark volume within each one to just the center portion.

I am intrigued by the two posts mentioning root demise when the touch ceramic glaze. That's weird! has anyone else experienced this? I guess your old clay and plastic is the safest way to go...

I've used these a couple times with no problem. Guess it depends on the type of orchid and yoyr environment. I had a noid Catt intergeneric hybrid and a noid Phal do ok in them. Mostly I use them as cache pots tho ...

They have these in various shapes and sizes and colors at my local Menards. They are selling for about $3 to $4 each. I wish they worked well but they don't for me.

Plastic alternative
 

I've been buying plastic pots with holes in. The terracotta pots seem to dry out the potting mix pretty fast, and with holes in, I imagine even faster. The plastic ones seem good. I can see the green roots breathing out of the edges of the pot.... No root rot here!

Wow I can't believe I'm basically the only one who uses these! My local garden center where I buy them from sells them like crazy! maybe they work better in my area then in others? And like I said I have never had issues with the glaze. My roots on every single plant touch it with no problems? Maybe it's where I buy them from? Maybe they don't have the same harmful things in the glaze?

Here are my plants:

http://i179.photobucket.com/albums/w...86Jg4hutuz.jpg

Glazed pots.... ?
 

Those look fantastic and you've given me inspiration for a Moroccan inspired Orchid room! :)

I can see I'll need my own potters wheel, unless someone imports them into Australia.

Gaz

That's great that those pots work for you. I wish they'd work for me. I've tried many different pots but the roots shrivel and rot when they touch the glaze. I do have a friend in Mexico that makes beautiful white clay pottery. I may have to take a vacation down there and have him make me a few. :) His glazes are all natural and non-toxic. He could also do no glazing it glazing only on the outside.

P.S. What is that multifloral paph in bloom? It is pretty.

Since you've had such good luck, I am encouraged to try one of these "swiss cheese" pots. I just picked one up at Lowe's for a buck 49. It looks nice but don't wish it to do my repot orc in. It doesn't look like you have liners in your pots - true? If not, when you water, does most of the water come out? I am splitting a large orchid so will try an experiment with at least half of it. Thanks in advance. Your plants look beautiful by the way.

I use these and my roots are loving them. I have root growth everywhere and they have also re-bloomed. I have both attached bottom and detached bottoms which I like for different reasons. I like the attached bottoms because they give a humidity saucer without the dish sitting in water. I like the other pots because they don't over flow...

So sorry I didn't see this sooner!!! It's a phah transdoll I got it from Ray. It had a flower and two buds, but the real small one fell off. But the second one did fine!! I love it!

---------- Post added at 09:02 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:57 AM ----------

No liners. Yes I water very heavily letting most of it come through the bottom and the holes. Once it seems heavier and saturated I stop. With the weather here they dry out rather fast due to the low humidity. In summer I do the same and they can go an extra day or two between waterings, but they do still dry out nicely! Only one pot seems to keep wet longer (which you can't see in this photo) I may pot it sooner then needed if it starts showing problems, but right now the phal that's in it is in bud so I assume he's happy! The problem I think is it's taller rather then wider. It fits the plant just fine, but I think the height makes it harder to dry out some how, which I don't understand since you'd think a fatter pot the center would stay wetting? Who knows?! I also mix better gro orchid mix (charcoal, bark and perlite) with spag moss to help keep some of the moisture due to the holes. It may not work for everyone, but in my house it works well for the plants I have and the way I water etc...

and thanks! Everyone has new roots (except the psychopsis, he's sulking still) and new leaf growth or is in spike/bud or flowering.

All good info and very helpful. Thanks so much. I'm going to give it a try with half of my larger orchid which I'm splitting. Experimenting is a learning experience and hopefully, a fun one.

I know that orchids do excellent in wooden baskets. I've seen a lot of evidence of this with paphs, especially the stolonous ones like P. micranthum and P. armeniacum. These pots seem to be very beneficial too.

I grow all my orchids in these pots...
Like some others they just go nuts in them.

To keep the mix from falling out I place a thin layer of sphagnum moss between the potting mix and the holes.

I also don't find the saucers on bottom much of an issue.

The drainage holes are normally raised off the bottom of the saucer.
I just pour in a cup of water and tip it over for a second or two.
The rest of the water that drains after that isn't ever enough to reach the potting mix from the saucer.

I do get most of mine from a local nursery and not HomeDepot or Lowe's.
The glaze on mine is thicker and more glass like than the ones from those stores.
I do have a few though that are from HomeDepot.
So far so good.

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