Pine bark ?
 

Can i use Pine bark for orchids . Where i live in summers in Spain ,there is a big pine forest and many cut or dead pine trees.. i was wondering if i can use it ?? I checked my books but no info ..

As I understand it the pine resin is not good for orchids, but I don't know for certain so hopefully someone else can comment.

I don't think it would be good either, also you would have to repot more often as pine bark would break down quite fast. If you have fir trees you could probably use that....Jean

Rosie is right - the bark used for orchids is treated to extract the resins.

My orchid bark still smells very strongly of resin. Should I be worried?

I've never heard of treating bark to rid it of resin. Some of the better bark is steamed to rid the bark of insect eggs and fungus but the lesser grades aren't. Bark usually doesn't have that much resin anyway. The inner bark or cambium layer has most of the resin which helps seal the tree from dehydration. I burn a lot of pine bark (mostly ponderosa) and the bark, while it burns doesn't burn that well. It's an adaption to frequent fires out west here. A very good bark for orchids comes from Pinus Radiata. Very hard bark. As for collecting my own, I wouldn't. Lots of bad guys living on the forest floor.

I wonder why anyone would bother? After all, a bag of good potting media, such as Orchiata, is not really that expensive when one considers the cost of most flowering sized orchid plants. I would think if you can afford an orchid, you can afford a bag of potting mix. :dunno:

I am currently using pieces of naturally decomposed pine wood (decomposing for years in the forest) as one of several growing mediums for seedling orchids that are just starting to grow roots. These seedlings are tiny, 1/2 to 1 cm tall, seed put in flasks last September. So far, so good.

I am also using some pieces of loblolly pine bark that have live moss on them (so not sterilized) to introduce moss on a large mounted orchid (Rossioglossum ampliatum).

FWIW I am just letting you know what I am trying with pine. Not recommending it yet.

---------- Post added at 10:33 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:14 AM ----------

Sometimes it is a matter of availability. I am not necessarily speaking of timurams in this case (more generally addressing "anyone") but conventional orchid supplies are not always available everywhere. In medium to large cities in the USA you can usually find what you need but often not in the small towns. Yes, you can mail order supplies, but that is costly (if I had to mail order all my orchid medium I would probably not grow orchids).

It is always worth trying something new to see if it will work. If I wanted to try this with the local loblolly pine bark ( Pinus taeda) I would rinse/soak it first then soak in boiling water, let it cool, then boiling water & cool again.