Sphag or NO Sphag
 

Hi there!

I gotta say that I found a local orchid nursery that has thousands of orchids growing ALL in Sphag. ALL Species too!
I asked WHY?? And HOW, as I thought not all species can LIVE IN SPHAG?

Well, his answer was easy for him:
"Yes they can", and "I do this to Control the watering". "They ALL DRY THE SAME"

I was horrified! As I've been told and sold on sooooo many products to keep so many species of my orchids happy!

I thought Sphag stays too wet, too long, and root rot starts in??

I need to know if this is true?!? As it is working for this orchid man!!

And I bought about 30 more orchids from him!

Can Someone/Anyone tell me if this CRAZY or TRUE??

Will Sphag NOT ROT out my orchids? All that I bought from him, keeping them in the sphag that he had them in??

He's right, it's all about your watering (and how compact the sphag is).

There's nothing wrong with Sphagnum for many of the orchid families. It's just that some of us choose not to go through the headache of monitoring wetness, monitoring the degrading sphagnum around the roots, etc. For me, I use lots of different mediums. The only Sphagnum I have is in the Wardian case and on a couple mounted plants.

:waving Moss does have some good properties to it. Greenhouse nurseries use it alot to keep watering under control. It also helps promote new growth, as in the spag and bag that you hear about.
People tend to overwater when they get them home. I prefer coconut husk chips, perlite, and bark mix.
It's all a matter of preference and watering capabilities.
My opinion only.
What is crazy......is the fact that you bought 30 orchids from him and didn't share any more details! We want details!!!!!!!!!!!! :)

And pictures :biggrin:

He packs it kinda loosely, as he says; "then it can breathe".

Kiki, I'm using what you do too, and not have too much good luck with it. Giving lots of $ to Repotme, Ebay, and everyone else for mediums and mixes.

So I'm truly thinking of moving over to ALL Sphag. As he does! Seems to work for him?!

There is no one set rule about what works for orchids...once again, you need to experiment and see what works for you in your conditions, which includes how much time you have to spend on them.

I'm going to try it, and see how it goes. I've slowly been working on it daily. Just too many to do :(