Hi, Nancy,

A couple of thoughts in return.

First, I have a large Catt in a wire basket with a coco liner and it is
doing fine. However, I use Aliflor for my Catts and peanuts under the
Aliflor. I remember Al writing about his huge C. amethystoglossa (I do mean
huge). He had it in a wire basket with nothing but peanuts for medium. After
all, if these plants were growing wild they'd be bare root.

Second, while I do use CHC (and I like it), I mix in some small Aliflor
along with charcoal and either sponge rock or perlite. But I don't use it
for mature Catts. I *will* use it for the babies, and some of the Epis and
Encyclias love it. CHC wicks up and retains a ton of water, though, and if
you combine that with a plastic pot you have a recipe for water retention.

I don't over water, but I've been amazed at how wet some of the root systems
stay in a CHC mix. I don't use bark mixes at all, since I can't seem to get
a feel for them. Bottom line for me is that I value CHC for stuff other than
Catts.

HTH

Diana

"Nancy G." wrote in message
ups.com...
Planning the attack on transplanting and dividing. It's been 2 to 3
years for most of them. They were divided into 6" pots, planted into a
CHC, perlite, and charcoal mix. It's gotten to the point of moving
them up or dividing and staying in the same sized pot.

Has anyone planted in a hanging style wilre basket lined with coco-mat?
Has it worked for you? Would it be better to plant in them or mount
the plant on the outside? I have one that is growing on a bare
cocoliner. Stupid I know, but it was failing in a regular plastic pot.
I put it on the cushion before any more roots could die, they grew to
the the thing while waiting to replant in something that I thought
they'd like.

I have 30 of the 12" welded and dipped baskets with mats. They were on
clearance last fall. I bought them with my larger catts in mind. That
is almost enough to drop on my most aggressive growers. Now I'm not
sure.

I will have to make some mods to my area due to the larger size. Some
will hang, either tilted or flat, some will go back on the bench with a
ring under to keep them from rolling. The bottoms are round, not flat.
Now that's a picture, a bunch of orchids set on little do-nuts or
whoopie cushions so they don't roll around on the bench.

I just thought that the catts that like more drainage or air around the
roots would benefit. I don't know whether the CHC has stayed a little
too wet or they don't like plastic, but the roots haven't gotten and
stayed really mongo until they go over the edge of the pots, or in a
couple of cases the pots blew over spilling abut half the mx. The
humidity in my growing area is high, maybe a little too high. I think
I've only really watered in there 3 or 4 times in 2 months. Nothing
seems to be shrivelling. Roots are growing and the new pseudo bulbs
are starting, just separating from the rhizome to about 3" tall. I
guess I have about a month to decide, but want to have the job done in
March. Probably will be time to start feeding by then, if not sooner.

Oh well, just a couple of questions and thoughts.

Nancy