Orchids Grown in Plastic Foam Give Good Results

Many orchid growers in northern Guangdong have tried plastic foam as a growing medium, with good results. Practice has shown that foamorchid growinghas the advantages of not waterlogging, good ventilation and air permeability, a high germination rate, and white roots, and it also makes it easy for variegated orchids to produce striped variegation. However, the leaves of orchids grown this way are not glossy enough or sufficiently blue-green, which is related to plastic lacking organic fertilizer. Some orchid growers deal with this by spraying Zhibaosu or Aiduoshou once every 10 days, and some mix plastic foam granules with pond mud to solve the problem of insufficient nutrients. Some use plastic foam granules (2-3 cm in diameter) as filler placed at the bottom of the pot to replace brick granules, and the results are also quite good. (Guangdong - Bai Quan)