Cymbidium potting medium

[DoomsDave]

Howdyall:

I've got a bunch of Cymbidium orchids that despearately need repotting, and wonder:

What do you use?

Let me know, seriously.

Dave

[Gonzer]

Davey m'lad, go to your nearest Box Store and pick up a 3 cu' bag of bark 'nuggets', the stuff that's the size of your little fingernail.  Costs a coupla $$. Nurseries don't usually carry the stuff in jumbo bag. They love the stuff, straight up. Don't buy the $#$% in the 2 quart bags with fancy labeling called "Orchid Bark".  I've heard (but never tried) adding about 20% of good potting mix. I use this bark primarily in my bromeliad mix but it's yowzers for Cymbidiums too.

[mppalms]

I grow a variety of high-elevation species and some hybrids and use some 1/4-in bark with a pinch of charcoal and some perlite.  I have a pot that I absent-mindedly placed on hard clay soil, and the roots went straight down into it and the plant has never looked better!  I have no idea how to extract it now; though.  May require an extraction team..  

Jason

[Fouquieria]

Dave,

Many, many years ago...behind my mother's garage in a strip between the garage and the backyard patio, I excavated a trench.  It was about two feet wide, by one and a half feet deep and ten feet long.

I filled the trench with 1/4 coarse orchid bark 1/4 sphagnum  potting mix, 1/4 perlite, and 1/4 horticultural charcoal.  I planted six or maybe seven cymbidiums there.

That trench was the highlight of her backyard until the day she died.  Each plant grew huge until there were about a dozen or so bulbs.  Each plant sent up 4-6 bloom stalks and they lasted a good six weeks...I think it was September or thereabouts (this was in the 70's).  This was in Imperial Beach, the most SWesterly city in the continental US.

-Ron-

[DoomsDave]

Ron, how much sun?

[metalfan]

I planted all my Cymbidiums just straight into the ground (read that SAND). They are perfectly happy. Mine sit in full sun here abd tolerate it just fine

[Matt in SD]

Ron and Gina,

That's interesting about Cymbidiums doing well in the ground, especially in SoCal.  I've been tempted to try, but whenever I mention it to orchid people, they say it's a terrible, horrible idea.  What's the deal with orchid people?  There is the group that thinks mounting plants is basically abuse, but every orchid I've mounted has done better than it did in a pot.  And even the small group of orchid nuts that are into mounting stuff have told me not to plant anything (even Sobralias) in the ground.  My Sobralia in the ground is doing great.  So maybe I will just try planting a Cymbidium.

And Dave, I used a "Cymbidium mix" from Walter Anderson's when I potted some of mine up.  I was not particularly impressed.  So if you stumble across this, I would still go with Gonzer's suggestion.

Matt

[metalfan]

Matt,

I agree. I have between 300-400 orchids in my collection, and I don't grow any orchids in pots in a bark mix if I can help it. Almost everything I have that is epiphytic is mounted. When I get a new orchid and its in a pot in mix, I almost immediately mount it.

I got my first ever cymbidium as a trade about 11 years ago from someone in SO Cal. I asked what I needed to pot it in and they said, "regular potting soil". I did, and it did fine. Since then I have collected 8-9 different Cyms. They came from.....TA DA....Home Depot and the local grocery store chain. I was told long ago that I would "never get them to bloom here" because its just too hot.

That's a load of horse pooey. All you have to do is leave them out in winter to chill them. I read they could easily withstand light frost. I was a little nervous at first, to leave them out when the temp went into the high 20's. But they did fine, and I got to where I just basically forgot about them every winter. If it was going to really freeze, in the 22-26 range for a night, I would pull them under an eave of the house or under a tree canopy. Finally, I just planted them.  They all bloom every year. MOst bloom multiple spikes.

I also have Phaius in the ground, both outside by the house and I have a variegated one in the greenhouse. They do well too. They like the fast drainage of the sand here and are much hardier than people think.

[palmmermaid]

I agree with Matt and Gina.  In the wild epiphytic orchids grow on trees (read "mounted") and so I prefer to mount mine - on wood pieces mostly until my trees get bigger.  But I have put some small orchids on my still small trees.  I agree they do better.  I also have the native ground orchids and the Spathoglotis in the ground.  They almost never stop blooming.  In fact, they looked fabulous after each hurricane and kept right on blooming.

Gina,  That is interesting about the Cymbidiums.  I always heard they wouldn't bloom again.  I will try planting some in the ground and see what happens.  I love them but always thought they needed a cooler climate.

I think most of the dendrobiums and epidendrums can take a lot more light than people think.  None of mine are in less than 50%.  Most are in more sun and seem to do well.  They get watered from either rain or twice weekly from the canal via my sprinkler system.  I seldom fertilize them and I have something in bloom all the time.  The orchid society says I must be doing something right.

[aussiearoids]

There are also lots of tropical Cymbidiums , but they can be hard to get .. a few natives around here and they are in flower now . Most breeding work has been done on the more hardy types .

[mppalms]

My feeling is that most Cymbidiums just need a few inches of really well-draining medium and the roots can even go into hard clay after that.  I have a very large pot of them doing just that.  They took 28 deg. F for four nights in a row this last Jan with no damage -- flowering the entire time.

Some of the Dendrobiums can take a lot of cold, too, but need better drainage in my experience.  I'm growing Dendrobium falcorostrum, and it rather likes our climate, including winter rains.

Jason

[DoomsDave]

Thank you, everyone!

Went to Big Orange in the Big Orgy, and the lady asked what I wanted and I said "Bark" and she barked!

LOLOL!

Seriously.

Then she showed me the bark.  Too bad she's already married . . . . .

Yee-haw!

[gavilan1]

Consider yourself lucky - sounds like a real bow-wow...