How to grow a single cymbidium orchid seedling with a dragon root? Sharing a bit of cultivation experience

OrchidsCultivation:CymbidiumA bit of cultivation experience with single dragon-root seedlings (repost)

Dragon-root seedlings have always been a considerable variety resource. Many excellent orchid varieties come down from the mountains as single dragon-root seedlings. Because of their low price and the fact that each variety is unique, they are attracting more and more attention. The price of good dragon-root single seedlings has also risen to a certain extent. Those that used to be priced at a few dozen yuan now cost almost 1--200; those that used to be 1-200 now cost 3--400; those that used to be several hundred now cost almost nearly a thousand yuan..... However, the high cultivation risk of single dragon-root seedlings also makes people shrink back. Cymbidium pseudobulbs are small, the seedlings are weak, and the risk of growing a single seedling is quite high, especially for single cymbidium seedlings with variegated leaves, where the risk is even greater. Few roots, damaged roots, long-term exposure of roots, long-distance transport, and other factors make the survival rate around 30%. Facing such a large resource, for a long time we could only be helpless. Sometimes when we saw a good variegated dragon-root seedling coming down from the mountains, we could only watch and not dare to buy it, or even spend a hefty price to buy it and then watch helplessly as we personally grew it to death.......
I entered the orchid world 7 years ago by chance. At the beginning I also suffered the bitterness of the orchid world, fake plants, fake flowers... I have fallen for every known trap in the orchid world. How many plants I killed I have forgotten; I only remember that the most expensive one I lost cost more than 500,000..... In the end, when I had almost lost everything, I was fortunate enough to become a disciple of Hubei orchid master Wang Jiuquan, Master Wang. In the days of following my master to travel north and south collecting orchidflowers,what influenced me more was my master's love for orchids. My master is an orchid fanatic. The famous varieties he selected and bred won countless gold and silver awards at orchid expositions, and even from the 17th National Orchid Exposition he won the special gold at the National Orchid Exposition for three consecutive years. Hisorchid growingphilosophy is very simple. He often told methat growing orchidsshould be "treat orchids as you would treat your children." I often think back on this phrase. This phrase, "treat orchids as you would treat your children," not only reflects my master'sorchid growingartistic realm, but also reveals the depth of my master's love for orchids......
Influenced by my master, I have always studied orchid-growing techniques intensively. Even today I am still constantly improving my growing medium. I have visited many orchid elders and found that in our orchid world, from south to north, because of air humidity, temperature, and climate, the pattern is roughly this: southern growing media tend to be hard, and northern growing media tend to be soft. Under conditions of sufficient air humidity, hard media are of course the greatest and most direct benefit in terms of safety, but in terms of nutrition they are far inferior to soft media, and one must rely on added nutrient fertilizers to maintain the orchids' growth needs. As for soft media, their nutrition is not in doubt, but as long as humidity reaches a certain threshold, it is almost certain that there is no safety guarantee at all. My area is an orchid-producing region. I understand orchids' habits very well. There is one thing orchids absolutely cannot do without, and that is oak leaf humus soil. Therefore, I combined the strengths of northern and southern growing media, using humus soil as the main component, and maximized its air permeability. Over the past two years, my orchids' seedling production rate has remained above 1:1. Because this is an orchid-producing region, I come into contact with more single wild dragon-root seedlings. After killing countless ones, I finally worked out an experience for growing single dragon-root seedlings. This experience is also suitable for rejuvenating weak seedlings. I share it here with everyone, hoping everyone can grow orchids well. Growing orchids well is the premise of all problems. At the same time, I also hope experienced orchid elders will come forward and give suggestions. After all, old ginger is spicier, and one good word from you may very likely let us avoid several years of detours.
After everyone receives single dragon-root seedlings, please do not disinfect them. Just rinse them several times with clean water. Generally, wild orchids do not carry pathogens, and the sphagnum moss wrapping the plants was also freshly collected from the mountains, so there is no need for disinfection. Deliberately destroying the acid-base balance of the plants will only backfire. If part of the plant roots really does rot and disinfection is needed, please reduce the usual disinfection dosage by half, shorten the disinfection time by half, and immediately rinse the entire plant with clean water after soaking, trying as much as possible not to let medicine remain, because small plants are like infants, and they cannot withstand these excessive acids and bases.
After the plants are rinsed clean, let the roots dry slightly and then they can be planted. Here I need to specially explain root drying to everyone. The original purpose of this step, root drying, is to accelerate healing and scabbing of root wounds, soften the plant's roots, and avoid damage to the roots during the planting process. Once we understand this principle, we can understand that in fact, as long as the roots are not injured and the plant does not have too many roots, there is no need at all to dry the roots. Making a living organism go through dehydration for no reason is uncomfortable just to think about, and small plants especially cannot accept it, since their resistance and vitality are still very fragile. If the roots of a dragon-root seedling are injured and must be handled, they can only be dried slightly, just until the visible water on the roots is dry.
For the choice of growing medium, I advocate using fine material. The reason is simple: fine material can combine with the roots to the greatest extent, which helps the roots adapt to the pot sooner. My current growing medium ratio, for everyone's reference: Sichuan humus soil 50%, smallest-size grass peat granules 10%, 0.1-0.2MM bark scraps 10%, smallest-size pumice 10%, tree fern fiber 10%, smallest-size red ceramsite 10%. (The growing medium is only for everyone's reference. There is simply no best growing medium, only the one most suitable for you. The ratio of growing medium has a huge relationship with the local environment, climate, temperature, humidity, and management methods. Everyone must not imitate it. Growing orchids requires care; with care, success comes naturally. Please remember this!)
For the choice of pots, it seems everyone knows the principle that large plants use large pots and small plants use small pots. Then, let me ask everyone one question: how do you measure the size of a plant? Length? Width? Wrong. Here, measuring the size of a plant depends on the size of the roots' absorption capacity. In fact, compared under the same length, the roots of small dragon-root seedlings and the roots of strong seedlings differ greatly: the absorption capacity of small plant roots is far lower than that of strong plant roots, not to mention that strong plant roots are much more numerous and longer than those of small plants. Therefore, everyone has absolutely failed to estimate this when choosing pots. A detailed cultivation data set of mine can be for everyone's reference: one pot of large plants with 5 shoots, many roots, plant height 30CM, leaf width 1.2CM, pot surface diameter 35CM, height 43CM. One pot of small cymbidium dragon-root variegated plant, pot surface diameter 8CM, height 10CM, plant height 8CM, leaf width 0.3CM, three roots, root length 3CM. There is also one pot with 4 small dragon-root cymbidium variegated plants grown together, all about 10CM tall, width 0.3, pot surface diameter 18CM, height 23CM, total root number 10, root length about 4CM. The three pots of plants have the same growing medium, the same environmental position, and during the growing season, the large pot of strong plants completes one dry-out-and-water-through cycle in 3 days, the medium pot with 4 plants grown together needs 5 days to complete one watering cycle, and the smallest pot with a single seedling needs 7 days to complete one watering cycle. Through this data comparison, everyone will surely discover that the absorption capacity of dragon-root seedlings is really poor. Then, in order to fully guarantee the growth of small seedlings, we can grow small plants together with large plants. By borrowing the absorption capacity of the large plants, we can completely avoid the danger of water accumulation in the pot. Wouldn't dragon-root seedlings then be easy to grow? To put it simply, find a pot of strong large plants, dig a hole in the surface of the large plant's pot, and plant the small plant there. Then there are no problems at all, and the leaves of the large plant can also provide shading in summer and warmth in winter. Hehe, after I used this method, I never killed a dragon-root plant again. Countless increases in value. Not to mention farther back, just the dragon-root cymbidium butterfly plant I got last winter, (the photo is in my QQ space) plant height 8CM, 4 leaves, each leaf more than one third butterfly-transformed. Hehe, at the time everyone else was afraid they could not grow it, but I was not afraid. I bought it as usual, and this year the new shoots it sent out are even taller than the old shoots.
One key point, let me remind everyone again, be sure to remember to use fine growing medium. If the surface growing medium of a large pot of plants is too coarse, be sure to remember to change it to fine medium. Coarse growing medium and small roots do not easily adapt to the pot.
Below I will post photos of the actual operation for everyone's reference. The last few photos are the recent growth in my garden. Please give your guidance.