A little trick for potting orchids: more than 4 times as many new shoots, and 4 cm more growth

What should you pay attention to when potting wild orchids? Haoshe Nongfu has written related articles before, one of which was "Is it better to plant orchids deep or shallow? No need to agonize, you will understand after reading this." It discussed whether it is better to plant orchids deep or shallow. Today Haoshe Nongfu is talking about something related to planting height.

Whether an orchid is healthy and robust affects the quality of its future blooms as well as the ornamental value of the plant. Orchid enthusiasts all want to grow a pot of orchids with many strong shoots, and they spare no effort in learning and practicing to achieve this. Can orchids be grown into strong shoots? In fact, half of the outcome is already decided when a wild orchid is potted.

This spring, Haoshe Nongfu used two orchids for comparison. These two wild orchids were of the same origin and species, found on the same mountain. At the time, the condition of the mother plants was fairly similar, so for the experiment they were more comparable. Both pots were wild Chunlan (Cymbidium goeringii), and when planting they used the same flower pots, the same growing medium, and the same management conditions.

When planting the first pot, Haoshe Nongfu raised its pseudobulbs to slightly above the rim of the pot. After filling in the growing medium, a small arch shape could be seen on the pot surface. The advantage of planting this way is that the pseudobulb area of the orchid can come into contact with fresh air more easily. Especially in the peak growth season of orchid shoots in late spring and early summer, when temperatures are high and the environment is humid, if ventilation is better, the orchid shoots naturally grow better. And in the early stage of orchid shoots, they can receive more sunlight, so relatively speaking the orchid shoots are healthier.

This pot, however, was planted relatively low. The "low" mentioned here is not the "deep" mentioned in the other article. "Deep" refers to the depth at which the orchid pseudobulbs are buried in the soil, while the "low" mentioned here refers to the distance between the orchid pseudobulbs and the pot rim. This orchid was not planted deep, and the pseudobulbs were not covered very much, but the distance between its pseudobulbs and the pot rim was at least 4 cm. It is precisely this gap of a few centimeters that prevents the orchid pseudobulbs from directly enjoying fresh air and also causes them to receive relatively less sunlight.

From this image, it can be seen that the Chunlan planted high produced as many as more than ten shoots this year, while the pot planted low produced only two shoots.

Only orchids of the same species and same origin are comparable. This experiment allows us to see more intuitively that orchids should be planted a bit higher. What do you think?