How to choose orchid potting medium? Sharing my orchid-growing experience

Since I fell in love withorchidsfive years ago, I have hadorchidsas my one true passion, and I am a genuine orchid enthusiast and orchid fanatic.Growing orchidshas enriched my life and changed who I am. I live in a mountain county town in southeastern Zhejiang, an area that produces orchids, so I have the geographical advantage of being in orchid-producing country, and I chose to take the path oforchidgrowing focused on collecting and cultivating wild-collectedorchids. After five years of effort, I can say I have achieved a modest scale and modest success. These five years oforchid growinghave brought joy and satisfaction, as well as hardship and confusion. I am writing out these experiences as a review and summary of my own orchid growing, and I also ask everyone to kindly correct me. Potting Medium Potting medium is theorchid'sfood and the foundation of orchid growing. With good potting medium, orchid growing is more than half successful; the importance of potting medium is self-evident. Everyone pays great attention to and cares about potting medium, and evaluations of potting medium can be described as every side having its own argument, every side having its own reasons. The selection of potting medium can be described as the Eight Immortals crossing the sea, each showing their own powers. Today's potting media, from hard to soft, from large to small, from traditional to modern, can be described as a wide variety of everything imaginable. But no matter what the potting medium is, no matter what characteristics it has, all potting media share the common pattern of changing after absorbing water from wet -- moist -- hydrated -- dry -- parched. From the changes in potting medium after absorbing water, it is easy to evaluate and judge the differences and quality of potting media. With good potting medium, the cycle from wet to parched takes a long time, but the time from wet to moist should be short, and the time from moist to hydrated to dry should be long; the longer the hydrated state lasts, the better, and the opposite means the potting medium is poor. For potting medium to meet good standards, it must have the following characteristics: First, granular structure. Regardless of the size of the potting medium, even extremely fine particles must be granular; only if the granules are naturally or spontaneously formed will they not dissolve in water and will they be loose and breathable. Second, water absorption must be fast. Very dry potting medium can quickly absorb water, and absorption is even, without water channels or the situation of being wet outside and dry inside. Third, drainage must be fast. After the potting medium is fully saturated, excess water can quickly drain away, so that the requirement of a short time from wet to moist can be met. Watering also becomes simple, and orchids are no longer afraid of rain. Fourth, water retention must be good. Whether the water retention performance of the potting medium is good or bad determines whether the potting medium is good or bad. If the potting medium has good water retention, the time from moist to hydrated to dry will be long. Fifth, it must have natural nutrients, trace elements and minerals. Potting medium that simultaneously has all five characteristics can only be found in soil, and soil that has one of the first three characteristics above is extremely rare, while soil that simultaneously has the above three characteristics can be said to be extremely, extremely rare. Over these years, I have been bitterly seeking this, going to the mountains to look for orchids, going to orchid farmers' homes to see orchids, and going to orchid friends' places to visit orchids; besides orchids, it was all about potting medium. Paying attention everywhere and spending great effort, still it was like wearing through iron shoes and finding nowhere to go. Last autumn, after my orchid friend accidentally discovered "lazy man's soil" (I already reported lazy man's soil to everyone in an old post), I treasured it like a priceless treasure; truly, it came without any effort at all. Lazy man's soil is truly magical and has the five characteristics of good potting medium. After this soil is sifted with a 60-mesh sieve to remove powder, it is all granular structure of varying sizes; the granules do not dissolve in water, and it is very loose and breathable. After the pot soil dries, a hand can be inserted into the orchid pot. Very dry lazy man's soil absorbs water quickly; when absorbing water there is a squeaking sound. Watching lazy man's soil absorb water in a transparent cup, the water descends layer by layer, the boundary between dry and wet is clear, and the absorption is very even; watching lazy man's soil absorb water is also a kind of enjoyment. After lazy man's soil is fully saturated, no matter how much water you pour, it can drain very quickly; its time from wet to moist is about 2 hours, comparable to granular potting medium. Lazy man's soil has especially excellent water retention, and the hydrated state lasts a long time. During this year's summer high temperatures, small pots grown with lazy man's soil were watered once every 7 days, while the others were watered about once every 10 days. Lazy man's soil is humus soil and has natural nutrients, trace elements and minerals. Lazy man's soil also has another characteristic: not a blade of grass grows in it; truly a magical soil. Since using lazy man's soil to grow orchids this year, the orchids have been stronger than in previous years, with fewer diseases, and management is simple and easy. To test the performance of lazy man's soil, I repotted during the high-temperature period in August this year; after repotting, they were managed the same as other orchids, and theorchids'new shoots began growing after 7 days. Now my potting medium is mainly lazy man's soil; the ratio is half lazy man's soil, and half a mix of leaf mold, natural granular insect droppings, horse-dung rock (as we call it here; it contains minerals such as iron and trace elements), and brick granules, using all granules above 60 mesh. In selecting potting medium, like everyone else, I have gone through many choices, used many potting media, and had lessons such as not paying attention to potting medium, copying blindly, following trends blindly, focusing only on looseness, and neglecting other things. In selecting potting medium, it should be diverse, but please pay attention to four points. 1. Potting medium must suit the orchid-growing environment and management style. Nowadays potting media are diverse and each has its own performance, strengths and shortcomings. No matter what, orchids will adapt, but perhaps it may not suit you or be suitable for you. Potting medium that others consider good may not necessarily be good for you. The selection of potting medium must proceed from the reality of the orchid-growing environment and be determined according to your own management style. Natural-style growing on a balcony has strong light, good ventilation and low humidity, and requires potting medium with good water retention; otherwise it will only increase the workload of watering and increase risk. If you like to water and have time to water, then require potting medium with good drainage and average water retention, so that you can water often. 2. Have a comprehensive understanding of the potting medium. After selecting and purchasing potting medium, do not rush to pot; you must personally get hands-on and comprehensively understand the performance of the potting medium, so that you have a clear idea in mind, and you cannot just listen to orchid friends or read introductions in books. Although they may both be granules or soil, their performance will differ due to many reasons. Even soil from the same mountain differs in performance: the soil at the mountaintop differs from the soil at the mountainside, the soil on the shady side differs from the soil on the sunny side, and the soil in shallow layers differs from the soil in deep layers. This is a problem that most orchid friends easily overlook. 3. Emphasize the moisture-retention performance of the potting medium. Nowadays in selecting potting medium, there is often a deviation that emphasizes looseness and drainage performance while neglecting water retention and moisture retention. If the water retention and moisture retention performance of the potting medium is not good, the time from wet to parched is very short, which both affectsorchidgrowth, increases risk, and sharply increases the workload of watering. 4. Do not change potting medium frequently. Everyone has this mentality: as long as they hear there is good potting medium, they want to try it. When some problem appears during orchid growing, the first thing considered is to look for the cause in the potting medium. Impatient people often change potting medium: granules last month, a mix this month, soil next month; the result can only be tossing the orchids until they become weak, small and dead. Orchids will adapt to any potting medium; the only difference is the length of adaptation time. What we need to do is adopt targeted management methods according to the performance of the potting medium, maximize strengths and avoid weaknesses, pursue advantages and avoid harm, and not commonly use the method of changing potting medium. (Wild-collected orchids）