"Chris Ridge" writes:
Thanks everyone for the advice. I decided to experiment a bit, I divided
the plant and put half into S/H and the other half into a mix of bark, peat
and perlite. It will be interesting to compare the two as time goes by.

I tried this with my epidendrum keikis. One is in a bark mix, the
other two in a locally available ceramic pellet variant. They have
only been in there for four months.

The one potted in bark has two new growths, the other two have four
and five, respectively. The one in bark seems to have more roots, and
the leaves are "limper" (Reed-stem epis use their leaves for storage
instead of having bulbs). I guess this is a result of the SH potted
specimens having a more or less uniform access to moisture and
fertilizer throughout the pot, while the one potted in bark needs to
seek out the moist bits of bark with its roots to feed.

I am starting to have problems with algae and mineral buildup in the
SH potted ones, though. I would welcome any suggestions on how to deal
with this without access to Physan 20 and the like.

Geir