Orchiata in Canada
 

Just to inform the members not yet aware of it, Orchiata bark is available for sale in Cananda since this year, and there is a retailer in Vancouver, BC, which makes is the best location possible for myself :rofl:
Oh, and they sell the 40 liters bags at a great price, not those small repacked 3 liter bags for the price of gold I have seen on ebay or other sellers!

Hmmm, I should pass this on to my orchid society. Can you pm me the vendor information?

Considering that most orchids outgrow their pots in 18-36 months, I fail to understand the fascination with Orchiata. I use regular bark for all my plants, and can find no reason to change.

the limited selection and dubious quality of many of the barks we can find in Canada lead us to enjoy a more stable quality wise brand name.

Orchiata in Canada
 

I find a couple of properties of Orchiata beneficial.

One is the particle size uniformity within a grade, as that tends to stay more "open," creating a better environment for the roots.

I am a proponent of frequent watering, so the ability of the material to stay intact and not even start to break down over the time the plant stays in that one pot is a major "plus." Too busy to repot that plant, even though it needs to? No big deal. Just get to it soon.

It also holds water uniformly over its lifetime, once you "break it in." Just about every other brand of bark I've tried wets more easily up front, but becomes more & more soppy as it ages.

Add to those the calcium and magnesium content and its natural inoculation with trichoderma, and it's pretty good.

I have been able to try some in the past few years. I use it mostly for Catts and have the regular Rexius bark as my main media which is what I have been comparing it to. Since we live a long way from the west coast, the shipping drives the price way above the cost of regular bark, which I can get in Edmonton once a year at their show and bring it home with me. For the huge price difference, I haven't seen enough benefit and actually feel some of my Catts have done better in the regular bark.

But that is my growing conditions and the price of acquiring it here in Canada. If I had a source at hand easily I would be more willing to try it on more plants. I have given it a good go as I had an opportunity to get 3 different sizes of it several years ago.

:rofl:

I completely agree with what Ray said. Please note that I am not pushing anybody to buy the stuff, but I know some growers here in Canada have been, like me, long waiting for it to be available so I just wanted to pass along the info ;)

I like it better than other barks because I had much better results with my growing conditions. I grow indoors and have low humidity. On top of that I often tend to have a heavy hand on the watering can...
My results with Orchiata are better because the bark stay strong for much longer, and stay moist more uniformely. My Masdevallia, Neofinetia and Phrags really do better in it than before in other bark mixes or pure sphagnum. :twocents: