What potting medium is suitable for growing dwarf orchids

In fact, when growing orchids you need to get every aspect right, and the first thing is to choose a potting medium that suits your own growing habits. What are growing habits?

For example, watering: some people like to give the orchid a little water whether it needs it or not, while others often forget to water and fertilize their orchids. Let us first introduce the environment in which wild orchids grow.

Wild orchids grow on shaded, ventilated mountain slopes that do not hold standing water and are rich in humus, so the growing medium needs to be airy, loose, well-draining, slightly acidic, and have a certain amount of fertility.

First, regarding looseness and airiness, ordinary mountain humus soil cannot be used on its own; it is better to add some granular hard potting medium. Nowadays many orchid nurseries use only hard potting medium, but that is to increase orchid yields with heavy watering and heavy fertilizing, and ordinary orchid hobbyists should not use that kind of hard potting medium.

So what kind of potting medium suits ordinary orchid hobbyists? That's right, a mixed potting medium. We can use local materials: pine bark and peanut shells, which many people can get hold of, wood ash from a stove, broken bricks from construction sites, and coarse sand grains screened out as unusable are all good materials for growing orchids.

You can use decomposed pine bark plus decomposed peanut shells and then add some red brick granules; if conditions allow, you can buy some Kanuma soil or perlite, and these materials are enough for growing orchids.