Name: Big Bill Livonia Michigan (Zone 6a) If you need to relax, grow plants!!
I have promised this thread, and others like it since I joined the group. Well here we go. Very simply this is how I pot up Paphiopedilums and Phragmipediums.
Image #1 is the plant Phragmipedium Umbriel. It is in need of a repot.
Image #2 you see it is unpoted and the roots and old media. Most roots are alive with a nice green root tip.
Image#3 I removed whatever media came away easily.
I selected a five inch plastic pot, Image #4 and added broken clay pot shards in Image #5. Image #6 shows the media, roughly one third aliflor, charcoal and orchiata. Image #7 I have mixed the components.
Image #8 shows the finished product! I held the plant in place in the pot between my thumb and fore finger while gently spilling in the media around the roots. At about the two thirds mark, I gently tamped down the media with my thumb to remove any large air pockets. Then I added media so the plant is immersed in media up to the bottom of the previous growth. Overall it is about 1/2 -5/8" below the rim of the pot.
Lastly I added a rhizome clip and the label. I will water it and place it in its normal location where it gets two hours of morning sun and bright for the rest of the day. Questions
Orchid lecturer, teacher and judge. Retired Wildlife Biologist. Supervisor of a nature preserve up until I retired.
Name: Big Bill Livonia Michigan (Zone 6a) If you need to relax, grow plants!!
Umbriel is caudatum by sargentianum. It will bloom in a 4" pot and ultimately in an 8" pot. It will produce multiple flowering growths of rather large caudatum like flowers but instead of being green, white and cinnamon brown there will be lots of intense red tones from the sargentianum parent. It will bloom sequentially with 3-5 flowers per.
Orchid lecturer, teacher and judge. Retired Wildlife Biologist. Supervisor of a nature preserve up until I retired.
Name: Big Bill Livonia Michigan (Zone 6a) If you need to relax, grow plants!!
Example #2
This was an overly large Maudiae hybrid in a little 2 1/2" square pot. It was literally bursting or jumping out of its pot. This might scare some people when it comes to potting.
In image #1 you see it jumping out of the pot. In image #2 I have removed the pot. I did not touch the roots since they were all entwined and there was very little evidence of media. I did not want to create a possible problem where none existed.
I selected a 3 1/2" pot using clay pot shards and the same media working it in slowly and when finished the plant is up to the bottom of the growths in new media. It is not disturbed really and ready to grow on. Images #4 and #5 shows the rhizome clip in place with the label. It will get the same treatment as previous.
And that concludes my lesson!!
Orchid lecturer, teacher and judge. Retired Wildlife Biologist. Supervisor of a nature preserve up until I retired.
Great demonstration, Bill! Thanks!
I have a few plants/ Phrags and Paphs which need to be repotted, so this comes at a perfect time!
Regarding the Phrag, you don't bother adding crushed Oyster shells for extra Calcium? Is the Aliflor taking care of that?
Just looked up aliflor - clay aggregate! Perhaps with some additions?
Name: Big Bill Livonia Michigan (Zone 6a) If you need to relax, grow plants!!
I will add the oyster shells as a top dressing. Since I have rededicated myself to growing slippers, I will give this a try.
Or if you are using a Cal-mag fertilizer, are oyster shells necessary?
You can use clay, peanuts, large stones like from a box store in the bottom. I do it to get the media to stay above the drainage holes and to add weight to any orchid pot for increased stability.
Orchid lecturer, teacher and judge. Retired Wildlife Biologist. Supervisor of a nature preserve up until I retired.
Name: Big Bill Livonia Michigan (Zone 6a) If you need to relax, grow plants!!
I know that a lot of growers have used oyster shells, granulated coral that you might find in a saltwater fish tank, and limestone in other forms. All because these guys have the same habit of originating in areas of limestone.
I just do not know for sure how much limestone they really need? I mean if it takes a few thousand years for dripping water in a cave to make a stalactite, how much lime is really in the water? 10 parts per million, a hundred, a thousand parts per million? And then how do we equate that to our plants?
Maybe a Cal-mag fertilizer is the answer? Maybe good culture including a well balanced fertilizer is the answer? Food for thought.
Orchid lecturer, teacher and judge. Retired Wildlife Biologist. Supervisor of a nature preserve up until I retired.
Name: Big Bill Livonia Michigan (Zone 6a) If you need to relax, grow plants!!
I was mainly trying to fulfill many requests that I have had about 'just how do you repot an orchid'? I thought about this when I got the plants in an order recently and figured out how to show my process and yet do it simply and informatively.
I just hope that it helps!!
Orchid lecturer, teacher and judge. Retired Wildlife Biologist. Supervisor of a nature preserve up until I retired.
How about using oyster shells instead of the clay sherds? May not do anything but it probably can't hurt. I don't imagine Bill would have a lot of oysters in Michigan though.
Minds are like parachutes; they work better when they are open.
Name: Big Bill Livonia Michigan (Zone 6a) If you need to relax, grow plants!!
There are recent reports that using oyster shell as an additive in your potting mix with Paphiopedilums does nothing.
But a load of growers I met in Florida were using a Cal-mag fertilizer. It has higher concentrations of CALcium and MAGnesium.
I have been using Jacks for about a year now, Orchid Plus before that. Dynagrow and Champion before then. Back 40 years ago it was Mir acid when I grew in straight bark.
Orchid lecturer, teacher and judge. Retired Wildlife Biologist. Supervisor of a nature preserve up until I retired.
Name: Big Bill Livonia Michigan (Zone 6a) If you need to relax, grow plants!!
I have an update from my original post to start this thread. One of my example plants that I used in my demo was Paphiopedilum Hsinying Majakun which is Paphiopedilum Janet Kunkle X Paphiopedilum Maudiae. Maudiae is a very old hybrid, it was registered by Charlesworth Ltd. in 1900!! I know when most of us were just little babies!!
I purchased it at the GLJC Speaker's Day in mid June. Well it has put on three new growths and I grew it well enough to get a bud!!!
I was told that it would be a green and white hybrid and the lack of anthocyanin in the leaves seems to support that! But it seems as if the repotting helped, my culture might be pretty good. I bought two overgrown plants that day, both in 2 1/2" pots, and I hope the other will bloom too.
Orchid lecturer, teacher and judge. Retired Wildlife Biologist. Supervisor of a nature preserve up until I retired.
Name: Big Bill Livonia Michigan (Zone 6a) If you need to relax, grow plants!!
Second update from this demo, the other plant I repotted that day has spiked now too. My first two Paphiopedilums I purchased since I moved are both spiking!! That's 100%.
Maybe there is something to my method as I detailed here?
Previously on Long Island, my slippers did not bloom with any great frequency. I would say 15-20% bloomed which is not very good. That amounts to a lot of wasted bench space. But this finer mix, more water and less light may further tip the scales in my favor!
Orchid lecturer, teacher and judge. Retired Wildlife Biologist. Supervisor of a nature preserve up until I retired.
All by myself too, husband doesn't care much for them.
