Ideal three-in-one planting material

Orchids planting, how to correctly select plant materials, for the normal growth of orchid roots to create good conditions, which is often the key to success or failure.

Orchid roots like loose fertile, permeable, moist but not turbid growth medium, this is the experience summed up by successive orchid families. According to the experience provided by predecessors, I have made some attempts in selecting plant materials for planting orchid for more than ten years around the growth habit of orchid root. I have selected a variety of materials, such as charcoal, pond mud, broken bricks, tile ballast, furnace ballast, wood chaff, broken sponge, etc., have carried out various combinations, but also achieved certain results, but feel that although the above materials have their own characteristics, but lack of organic matter, heat dissipation is not good shortcomings are obvious, the growth of orchid roots, and not ideal. With the above materials as planting materials, the humidity in the orchid pot is not easy to master, for those who have rich experience in planting orchids, it is OK, but for beginners and inexperienced orchids, watering and fertilization are not paid attention to, it is easy to cause the pot soil to be too wet, poor ventilation and cause the orchid root to blacken and rot, resulting in unnecessary losses.

In view of the above reasons, I have made a new attempt on the combination of planting materials. Light refractory bricks are used as the bottom layer of orchid basin, light refractory bricks, pond mud and dried cow dung are used as filling materials of orchid root, and the surface of orchid basin is covered with a layer of light refractory bricks. This kind of mixture has received excellent results in planting orchid. Over the past few years, I have used it to plant ink orchid, Jianlan, rabbit ear orchid, tiger head orchid, spring orchid, etc., set up orchid shed under the balcony facing east on the top floor of the fifth floor, only use small flowers and trees to shade the environment, all kinds of orchids grow happily, germinate, flower rate is high, the plant is strong, the leaf color is thick green, and it is not easy to get diseases.

After a long period of comparison, it was found that the three-in-one plant material of light refractory brick particles, pond mud and dried cow dung was more ideal. It had the following advantages:

① Light weight and low cost. Light refractory bricks are not very dense due to their own organization, so they have a very good self-control of moisture. Even if they are soaked in water, there is no water drop when they are picked up, but they themselves maintain a certain humidity. After trial for several years, this plant material is used to manage orchids in summer with strong water method, drenching three times a day, and the moisture content of the plant material has little change compared with that in mildewed rain days, and the ventilation is very good, and the pot tile particles are very easy to grow moss, so that the difference between the upper and lower humidity of the plant material in the pot is not big, which is beneficial to the growth of orchid roots and suitable for trial use by beginners.

② Because the light refractory brick particles have large pores and dry cow dung is loose, the heat dissipation performance is better. Pond mud and dried cow dung can maintain certain organic matter and certain acidity in the plant material, so the fertilizer retention performance is good, it is easy to create a reasonable medium for the normal growth of orchid roots, and it provides favorable conditions for the propagation of orchid root bacteria.

③ long use period, planting orchids in various pots, not limited, as long as the combination is reasonable, the pot soil will not harden. Under the normal growth of orchids, as long as the fertilizer is applied reasonably and on time, it is not a problem not to change pots for several years.

It is worth noting that lightweight refractory bricks must be used in blocks, the size of which depends on the size of the basin.

After years of practice proved that the "three-in-one" planting effect is good. If conditions permit, you may wish to try.

Hu Yaokun