Orchid Care Growing

When it comes to orchid care growing, pot size is of great concern.

In selecting the proper-sized pot for a plant, choice is governed by the health, size, and habit of growth of the particular orchid.

For example, plants such as the Cattleyas, with a running rhizome-type of growth, may be potted to allow for two years of growth, a growth to a year, and an inch of pot to a growth.

Generally, a large healthy plant will require a large pot, while a weaker, slower-growing plant needs a smaller one. A sickly plant may sometimes be brought back to health by confining it to a small pot.

When it comes to orchid care growing, over potting, an error which many beginners make, is a costly practice. The roots of the plant will not be able to absorb all the moisture in a large pot. Excessive moisture settles in pockets in the potting medium and rapidly decomposes the compost.

When this condition prevails, roots tend to rot off, bulbs shrivel, and leaves turn yellow. An inexperienced grower, concluding that these symptoms are caused by a lack of water, may over water, completing the damage to the roots and killing the plant.

Cleanliness is important in repotting. Old pots and crock (broken bits of pots used in the bottom of a pot for aeration and drainage) should be scrubbed thoroughly. New pots should be soaked for a time.

As a concluding word on the subject of equipment for orchid care growing, the grower should remember that 'A proper place for everything and everything in its proper place' is a wise maxim. The best arrangement is to have a clean, light potting shed adjacent to the greenhouse.

The major furnishing of this shed should be a potting bench of a height suited to the potter. A comfortable height is advisable, or potting may become a back-breaking job.

A specific example will provide the most understandable picture of potting procedure. Let us take a Cattleya plant with Osmunda as the medium; the method will be similar for other plants with certain exceptions that must be discussed separately. The Osmunda, after dirt and foreign material have been shaken

from it, is chopped into pieces about four to five inches square, cut with the grain. The medium is easier to handle if it has been sprinkled with water the night before. Old clinging roots are severed from the pot with a sharp knife, and the compost, containing the undisturbed plant, is forced from the pot with a screw driver.

The roots are shaken free from decomposed material. Dead or long roots are trimmed slightly, since they would be injured in potting anyway. On a mature plant most of the back bulbs will be found to have no roots and, usually, no leaves.

Three to five of the newer bulbs are left; the rest are cut from the plant and, if they are lacking leaves and roots, and are true back bulbs, they are labeled and kept under the bench, dark and damp, until dormant eyes break.

The plant is now inspected for pest or fungus, for which it may be treated with a safe insecticide and a small brush. If it has not been possible to save some of the good Osmunda on the forepart of the plant or if for some reason the roots have been destroyed, a soft ball of Osmunda is tied to the base of the plant as a foundation on which to work.

It is often well to enlarge the hole in the bottom of the pot to give the drainage and aeration needed by epiphytes. Some growers use a single piece of crock in the bottom, while others fill as much as one-third of the pot with crock—bits of brick, coke, haydite, or gravel may be used instead; in any case, the hole should not be tightly covered

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