An interesting discussion. My orchids suspend from my Japanese maple tree. Photo below. I allow the leaves from my maple to remain on and in my orchid baskets. The leaves are small and when they dry and curl they find places between the orchid growths. I consider it like a slow release fertilizer and refresher of the media. This also means that small bugs and spiders will come indoors with them during autumn but since they have their own sunroom I’m okay with that for now. If I lived in a warmer climate I’d be concerned with bringing in truly unwanted spiders like a black widow or something, but not a real concern in frigid New England area. Also if I kept my orchids in my living spaces such as bedroom, living room I’d be more fastidious with cleaning out the debris.

At a New England show, I met an AOS judge, who described an experiment conducted locally. They took 36 Cattleyas (all same clone), and divided them into 3 groups of 12. In late spring they were taken outdoors, and:

1. The first 12 got a spike with one dead mouse.
2. The next 12 got a spike with two dead mice.
3. The last 12 got a spike with three dead mice.

At the end of the season, the mice had disintegrated. The conclusion was, that two mice were about right for best growth.

What an interesting experiment!

My orchids are all outside getting rained on by dead oak leaves and catkins (in the spring). I don't remove any of the debris. If I see lizard poo on a leaf, I knock it into the pot (did that today, in fact) so the nutrients get into the root mass. Works for me!

The dead rat in the bottom of a pot gave me a good laugh! That pot would definitely remain outside ...ALL WINTER!! I think I’ll stick with my maple leaves and miracle gro. Lol

In this discussion, I think Carebear’s mention of “good” versus “bad” microbes is worth pursuing further.

Since both will “rot stuff”, we probably should define the two classes of microbes. One that decomposes mammalian tissue is not likely to break down cellulose, and vice versa. Both will release nutrients, but different ones at different rates. I would vote the former to be “bad” in most of our environments.

Also on the bad side would be those that are plant pathogens.

Left to nature, you’re going to get a mix of the two, right? The growing environment probably controls the mix and which one “trumps” the other. In our collections, we can tip the scales in favor of microbes we desire by periodically inoculating the plant and rhizosphere.

For the first 35 years I grew orchids, I paid no attention outside of watering and feeding, but after being shown just what microbial inoculants can do, I’ve gotten to using them on orchids, annuals, vegetables, and even my landscape plants.

Nitrogen - the most important plant nutrient - constitutes 90+% of dry plant detritus, but only about 3% of that mouse.

Each individual plant from group #1 received its own mouse?

And each individual plant from group #2 received its own pair of mice?

And each individual plant from group #3 received its own mice triplet?

And were the mice blended in the blender?

This is very helpful

I am considering, for my plan, to add some Spanish moss on top of the medium and perhaps some local leaf litter (sterilized or not) and a very small seeding of springtails in addition to my monthly probiotic

All the other discussion about it is anecdotal and for the sake of discussion. I am not about to use anything as fertilizer that my dogs would dig up. There are four of them and one of me and I have other bleep to do lol

I am going to start a small experiment and will report back in a few

Kim, is this for real? And SouthPark, of course you would ask about blended mice. SMH. Who DOES this kind of experiment? How did we get from leaf debris and lizard poop to dead mice? No, NO, NO!!!

Not trying it, not having it. And don't wanna meet the guy who came up with the idea in the first place! :shock: