Sharing my journey with potting media: my reflections and insights

There are all kinds oforchidpotting media on the market now, with merchants each telling their own story, leaving orchid growers with no idea how to choose. Here I will talk about my experience using potting media in recent years, for everyone's reference. I started growingorchidsabout six years ago, and in these six years I have used nearly ten kinds of potting media, respectively: in years one to two, charcoal 50% + loess 30% + coarse sand 20%, and sawdust 20% + coarse sand 80%. In years three to four, humus soil 60% + brick crumbs 30% + willow bark 10%, fired soil 85% + fern scraps 15%, charcoal 60% + willow bark 10% + brick crumbs 30% (the brick crumbs crushed with a stone crusher into granules the size of soybeans), and Kanuma soil 60% + Sendai soil 30% + tree fern 10%. From the fifth year I began using Kanuma soil 60% + Sendai soil 30% + tree fern 10%, and fired soil 80% + willow bark 20%. Now I will explain how theorchidscultivated with the above potting media turned out: 1. (1) Charcoal 50% + loess 30% + coarse sand 20%. The seedlings grown with this mix are strong and the seedling emergence rate is high, and the flowers bloom very fragrantly. I think this may be related to the high phosphorus and potassium content in it; also, when cultivated indoorsCultivationthe water usage is low, it is easy to water thoroughly, and water channels are not easily formed; it keeps warm well in winter and retains moisture well in summer. But because the potting medium is too rich and too soft with poor aeration, in spring it is prone to root rot, virus breeding, crawling insect breeding, soil and water loss, and with long-term use there is pot body sinking, and in autumn there is also dust flying; when flowering, the water usage is hard to control, easily causing problems such as improper flower form. I should specially note that this potting medium formula is very good for the first year of cultivatingCymbidium faberi newly collected wild plantsCultivationbut you need to regularly use some medicine to kill ants, snails and earthworms. (I used this method on more than thirty pots ofCymbidium faberiofCultivationand the seedling emergence rate reached as high as 207%, and they grew to full size in one year) (2) 20% + coarse sand 80%. I only use this medium for the cultivation of newly collectedCymbidium kanran in the year they are collected, and this potting medium has a remarkable effect in the early-stage cultivation of newly collectedCymbidium kanran. The seedling collapse rate is very low, the seedling emergence rate is high (generally 150%), both roots and seedlings are strong, and in the rainy season it also has the advantage of not easily rotting roots or seedlings. But this method is not suitable for long-term growing, because the subsequent fertility is insufficient. For large-area cultivation and seedling raising it is indeed a cost-saving and ideal potting medium. 2. (1) Humus soil 60% + brick crumbs 30% + willow bark 10%. This cultivation method is close to natural growing; orchids adapt to the pot quickly, the survival rate is high, and the flowers are brightly colored, natural in form, and richly fragrant. It can be used for home cultivation of allorchidflowers. The drawbacks are: it easily breeds crawling insects, causes soil and water loss, with long-term use there is pot body sinking, and in autumn there is also the problem of dust flying. But when peeling tree bark you must be careful, and absolutely do not get caught, because that is the crime of destroying forestry resources, and you will be fined! (2) Fired soil 85% + fern scraps 15%. With this potting medium I cultivated nearly five hundred pots ofCymbidium kanranand more than sixty pots ofCymbidium goeringii, and found that every pot had good roots and strong orchids, with a very high flowering rate, reaching over 80% (for plants collected that same year). Compared with other potting media, it has better aeration and has an effect similar to Kanuma soil + Sendai soil. The flowers produced with this medium have a more proper form (referring to the same flower variety), bloom more fragrantly, and have a higher number of flowers per spike, and it also has the characteristics of fewer pests, no pathogens, easy moisture retention, soil not easily compacting, moderate fertility, and being less prone to scorched leaf tips and black spots during cultivation, as well as requiring less medicine (generally only some medicine in summer is enough). The drawbacks are that the materials are not easy to obtain, the firing process is rather complicated, and it also requires space. Long-term use also brings problems such as environmental pollution and resource destruction. (3) Charcoal 60% + willow bark (poplar willow and weeping willow) 10% + brick crumbs 30%. This potting medium is similar in effect to 2.1, but the seedling emergence rate is a bit higher. Colleagues who are not afraid of trouble or dirt can give it a try. 3. (1) Kanuma soil 60% + Sendai soil 30% + tree fern 10%. Many people use this potting medium, and I think friends in the orchid world are all using it, so I will not ramble on, but here I will mention one of its drawbacks. That is, the Cymbidium kanran grown with this potting medium is not very fragrant, and it becomes less fragrant year after year. As for other orchid species, I have also seen this situation in my own growing, but it is not very obvious. If you go back to using the above potting media, the fragrance of the flowers will gradually return (I once divided and planted ten pots of flowers of five orchid species, which confirmed this drawback). If you want to solve the above problem, you can replace 10% of the Sendai soil in this potting medium with humus soil granules (medium granules will do). If conditions permit, adding a small amount of treated willow bark will give even better results. (2) Fired soil 80% + willow bark 20%. The advantages and disadvantages of this potting medium are almost the same as 2.1, but it is better than 2.1. The good thing is that in 2.1 the addition of fern scraps only cares about fertility and aeration, while this one takes into account both fertility and aeration, and willow bark also contains aspirin components, which is even more beneficial for disease prevention in orchid seedlings. Moreover, willow bark takes a long time to decompose and change, so it will not cause a hot-pot phenomenon, which is beneficial to root and seedling growth. Friends whose economic conditions are not very good can use this method. The above usage is only a little bit of my own experience in recent years, for everyone's reference. I hope beginners will not be like me, trying many potting media and only later discovering that none are very ideal. (Pinxin Ren)