How to choose a pot for orchids? Actually, there is no need to overthink it.

Whenever new orchid enthusiasts are just getting started, they are always thinking about what kind of flower pot to use to grow orchids. Looking back to when I first started growing orchids, the orchid pots at home were really like a general store, with every kind of orchid pot imaginable. At first, I used the very traditional and popular celadon pottery pots of Chaoshan, and later, I fell in love with zisha pots. As the number of orchids increased, the jumble of pots made management inconvenient. In order to harmonize the many orchid pots in the orchid room so that the drainage rate could be uniform across the board, it was necessary to use pots that were similar in size, thickness, coarseness, and shape, so that many orchid pots in the same room, when watered at the same time, would all dry out at the same rate after the same period, or at least not differ too much. At present, this seems easier to achieve with plastic flower pots. Of course, some orchid enthusiasts, for ventilation and aesthetics, specially custom-order or buy entire batches of zisha pots or lightweight porcelain pots, but the cost is really quite high. Regarding plastic pots, many orchid enthusiasts have different views and feel that they are not ventilated, but this is actually a misunderstanding. Whether orchids are difficult to grow depends first on solving the problems of ventilation and moisture control in the structure inside the pot. What kind of orchid pot is used and what kind of growing medium is paired with it are both crucial. As for what kind of flower pot to use, the focus should be on considering its economy and usability. If the choice of growing medium and the control of moisture are not mastered well, then no matter how good the orchid pot used, the results will not necessarily be good. The flower pots for cultivating orchids are diverse, and commonly used ones include clay pots, porcelain pots, zisha pots, and plastic pots. Clay pots, that is, unglazed earthenware pots, have good air permeability, can filter water, and are cheap, suitable for use in large orchid nurseries for cultivation, but clay pots are rather rough and not very attractive, so they are not suitable for direct display and viewing. In addition, from an economic point of view, clay pots are much more expensive than soft plastic cultivation cups. The sandy orchid pots fired in Yingjing, Sichuan, have good water absorption and air permeability, but combined with locally commonly used growing media such as peat soil, it is still not easy to achieve the effect of quick drying and quick wetting in the pot. Porcelain pots, that is, glazed pots, are generally used as cachepots. Their appearance is attractive, but both air permeability and water filtration are poor, and in this respect there is no difference from plastic flower pots. Of course, in terms of expense, they are also more expensive than plastic flower pots. Recently, a kind of lightweight porcelain flower pot has appeared on the market that is fired at low temperature and has the characteristics of water absorption and air permeability, but the price is even more expensive. Zisha pots lie between clay pots and porcelain pots, combining the advantages and disadvantages of both, but the price is relatively expensive, and they are more likely to be used by households that grow orchids and have only a small number, such as the Chuhan clay orchid pots produced in Yixing, Zhejiang. In the areas of Dali, Jianchuan, and Lijiang in western Yunnan, a kind of black earthenware jar (also called a waist-drum pot) is traditionally used. This kind of pot is loose in texture, has thin walls, and has multiple drainage holes left in the bottom. The ratio of pot height to pot width is about 3:2, the pot mouth and pot bottom are relatively small, and the middle of the pot is thickened. In this way, the capacity of the area where roots concentrate their growth is increased, which is very suitable for the growth and development of Lianban orchids, Xiaoxuesu, Daxuesu, and other orchids with thick, strong roots. Its disadvantages are that the pot mouth is relatively small, making division and repotting difficult to carry out, and the pots are generally relatively large and heavy after being filled with soil, making moisture control even more difficult. Plastic pots are commonly used containers for growing orchids in recent years. They are lightweight, cheap, and convenient to use, and are currently used more in various places in the south. Plastic pots do not absorb water and have poor air permeability and heat dissipation, but this can generally be made up for by methods such as raising the orchid pots on stands and adding more drainage material. Plastic pots are often paired with breathable materials such as volcanic stone and sphagnum moss as cultivation substrate for growing orchids. As long as the structure of the growing medium in the pot is reasonable, plastic flower pots can likewise achieve the effect of ventilation and air permeability. As far as the living environment of orchids in nature is concerned, orchid roots grow underground, and the ventilation effect is not necessarily better than in plastic pots. The issue is that the soil in which they grow is relatively loose and drains smoothly, so they can also flourish. A single orchid introduced for tens of thousands of yuan is likewise grown in a plastic pot, and it develops quite well. There is no fixed method for growing orchids; any kind of pot can be used to grow orchids well. By the window at the company where I work, there are two large pots of orchids, with a pot mouth diameter of 40 cm. These porcelain pots originally had no holes in the bottom or sides, and later only one small hole was drilled in each bottom for drainage. The two pots of collected-from-the-wild Sijilan have bloomed every year for four years and are growing well. The reasons are, first, that the pots were entirely filled with Zhijinshi, and second, that workers were required to water only once every 10 to 15 days. In short, when choosing flower pots, apart from a certain requirement for uniformity to facilitate management, it does not matter much what kind of flower pot is used. The key is what growing medium is used and how moisture is controlled. Of course, there is another issue, which is that the size of the orchid pot must be combined with the strength or weakness of the seedlings. If a very weak single seedling must be planted in a medium-sized orchid pot, then it is recommended to plant two to three seedlings in one pot. Excerpted from Orchid Treasury by Keke