What you pot in depends on what kinds of orchids you are growing as well as
your weather/growing conditions. We use different mixes for different kinds
of plants. For catts & dens, it's 2 parts lava rock, 1 part charcoal, 1
part coconut husk ships. For oncidiums, it's 2 parts coconut, 1 part lava,
1 part charcoal. And for phals, we mix sphagnum moss and bark, 50/50. We
use no medium at all for most of our vandaceous plants. There are also some
plants that we find grow much better mounted than potted.

If you give us some more info, you'll probably get lots of suggestions. At
present, all I can say definitively is that no, BBQ charcoal is not going to
be appropriate in any mixture.

Good growing,


--
Kenni Judd
Juno Beach Orchids

http://www.jborchids.com
"keith" wrote in message
...
any advise on potting mixtures,I have read in the RHS encyclopedia use 3
parts bark chippings,1 pt perlite,1 pt fine charcoal.Can the charcoal be
ordinary barbeque charcoal washed,can the bark chippings be the sort you
get
from garden centres (for mulching)or does it have to be sterilized?
thanks keith