My opinion on Orchid planting material

Orchid enthusiasts, when planting orchids, the first problem encountered is the choice of plant materials, the books all emphasize that the plants are loose and breathable, and no stagnant water is allowed. There are many kinds of plant materials, including rotten leaf soil, burning soil, sawdust, coarse sand, gravel, bricks, snake wood and so on. What kind of plant material to choose is better, it is not good to draw a conclusion. It is necessary to make an analysis according to the specific local conditions. Based on the experience of growing orchids in the past few years, I would like to talk about some understanding.

At the beginning of planting orchids, according to the introduction of books and relevant materials, we began to choose the planting materials for orchids. Only know that the plant material is ventilated, loose, specially dug the rotten leaf soil of the two snake skin bags in the deep mountain old forest; it is very soft and elastic, but forget that Wuyi Mountain is located in the subtropics, the annual rainfall is above 1500mm, and the air humidity is high. At that time, the plant material was selected, 50% of the rotten leaves were planted on the rotten leaves, and 16 pots of orchids were planted in one breath, and the rotten leaf soil-based plant material was relatively breathable, and the growth was more normal in summer and autumn. It is difficult to manage in winter and spring, it is difficult to water for a long time, watering is very troublesome, a small amount of watering, the surface of the plant is wet and the interior is dry. All the plants are thoroughly wet and take more time. Once the water is fully watered, it is not easy to dry for half a month, and orchids are soaked in moisture for a long time. In addition, in winter and spring, there is either frost or mildew and rain, and the phenomenon of rotting roots and seedlings is serious.

In the second year, in view of the poor air permeability, Laiyuan soil was cancelled in the plant material, the medium sand was replaced with mung bean-sized cinder or gravel, and the proportion of rotten leaf soil was reduced, with 60% of granular plant material and 40% of rotten leaf soil planted in more than 20 pots. In summer and autumn, the frequency of watering is some more than that of the first year, watering is easy, the water permeability of plant material is improved, and the air permeability is good. In winter and spring, the management is very convenient, and the plants begin to dry after being watered for five days. Although winter and spring are not very beneficial to the growth of orchids, rotten seedlings and dead seedlings basically do not exist in the open air or indoors, except for some weak seedlings with lost leaves, and some leaves have scorched tails, and most of them grow normally. The root survival rate increased to about 80%, a small number of roots have some black spot, but the roots are obviously strong.

In the third year, the selection of plant material was improved, and the granular plant material was mainly broken brick, gravel, cinder, coarse sand, fairy soil, carbon block, snake wood, and rotten leaf soil and sawdust. The granular material is enlarged, with a combination of broad beans, soybeans and mung beans. According to the more gravel in Wuyishan, I use gravel plus partial broken bricks, mainly coarse sand, accounting for 3 / 4 of plant material, rotten leaf soil or sawdust accounting for 1 / 4, granular plant material must have more than two kinds of combination. When planting Yilan, the proportion of granular material was 4tick, and that of rotten leaf was 1tick. Plant rigid seedlings, weak seedlings all use granular materials, do not add any rotten leaf soil. The large particles were put in the middle, and the small ones were placed on the noodles, and more than 30 pots of orchids were planted. First-class air permeability was found when watering. While watering while infiltration, summer and autumn watering is harder, cover some water plants on the basin, and water it once a day. Winter and spring show obvious advantages, due to excellent water seepage, the plant is easy to dry, not affected by freezing and mildew season, do not worry about rotten roots and seedlings, coke tail almost does not exist, the root survival rate is more than 90%, rotten roots are very few, root black spots are also very few. Plant aeration, orchid white cucumber disease, black spot disease relatively reduced, germination rate increased, convenient management, the use of drugs also reduced by more than half than in the past.

The plant material is breathable, and the ventilation of the orchid basin can not be ignored. The orchid basin should choose the basin with drainage holes at the bottom and ventilation holes on the edge of the basin. If there is no gas hole on the edge of the basin, you can cut the cola bottle or mineral water bottle into half and iron it into a honeycomb hole, which is about 2cm2, more than 10, and the drainage hole at the bottom of the basin can also play a better role in ventilation. There is an orchid basin with ventilation holes on the edge of the basin, and the cola bottle with holes in the bottom hole is more ideal, which can also play the purpose of ventilation. This is very effective for cultivating young and weak seedlings. I planted 5 pots of weak seedlings, stiff seedlings of orchids, some of which had no roots, all of which were planted in granular plants. The orchid basin had bottom holes and gas eyes, and a perforated cola bottle was covered on the bottom of the pot. after three months, the roots began to grow, some grew four leaves, and none of them died.

Granular plant material has both advantages and disadvantages, the deficiency is that there is no nutrition, we must properly add some thin fertilizer in the watering, fertilize once every half a month, and spray micro-fertilizer once a month. (Wuyi Lanyou)