Don wrote:
After looking at the list of growing media at
http://www.vex.net/~jyd/TAVS/Docs/orchids.htm and viewing the photos
at http://www.kkorchid.com/1medium_potting.asp I'd have to guess that
you're right and it is some type of peat mix.
Your mix sounds somewhat like the "mud" on Rob's site.
http://www.msu.edu/user/harveyb/mud.htm
That's Harvey's site, actually... But there is a link to it on my site.
I have been testing this mixture for about 8 months now and so far it is
out performing all the other "normal" media that I use. Much to my
surprise! When I pot up new seedlings I put a few into this mud and the
others I pot in normal media for the plant. It is still to early in
this test to declare a winner but so far the mud is way ahead.
Thanks Rob!
Glad you like it. For the record, there is a new version of 'Mud' on
the block now, using Scotts 360 MetroMix as the base. That has some
percentage of coconut coir in addition to peat. Supposedly, it doesn't
expand or contract in the pot. Which is a big plus.
Dick Wells (Hilltop Orchids) uses the same mix for everything,
cattleyas, phrags, paphs, phals... He is the one who gave me the new
recipe, and I know he grows good phals. Don't know that I would try it
on cattleyas, but I'm doing some experiments with paphs and phrags. So
far, I can't really tell. But it has only been a month or so for that
experiment. The phals love it.
I don't have the actual recipe handy, but I used ~3 parts metro mix, 1
part perlite, 1 part small charcoal. I tinker with that until it looks
right. Dick adds in some seedling bark. I'm not so convinced about the
seedling bark, I've never liked bark in peat mixes. I think you could
substitute straight coco peat for the metro mix, but you would have to
add more perlite (metro mix has some additions).
I've moved all my phals (like I care about phals.. *grin*) into the new
mud. The major benefit is that even the 12 year old neighbor kid with
no orchid experience was able to repot the plants easily. He hasn't
quite learned how to use my other mixes (coconut chip or bark based) yet.
I can make some 'hobby bags' of my mud mix, if you are interested.
E-mail me. It is easy to make, but sometimes it is hard to find the
metro-mix.
Rob
--
Rob's Rules:
http://littlefrogfarm.com
1) There is always room for one more orchid
2) There is always room for two more orchids
2a) See rule 1
3) When one has insufficient credit to obtain more
orchids, obtain more credit