Learn to cultivate orchids with peat soil

From the university began to contact orchids, after graduation gradually a pot of two pots of trial cultivation. At that time, it was really a year to look at flowers, two years to look at grass, three pots into two pots, two pots into one, and finally there was no more. Later, I read some books about orchids. Although some of them could be fed, the seedlings became less and less, the grass became smaller and smaller, and occasionally they could live a few more years and rarely bloomed. Once the grass that had been raised for a few years could produce a flower, people who knew it would run to tell each other. It was a great joy and danced with delight. From this we can see how difficult it is to raise orchids in the north before mastering the basic rules. At the same time, it also reflects that the north has a special love for orchids. Later, I had the honor to attend the Beijing Orchid Research Society and met some northern orchid growers, especially under the repeated advice of my mentors, Mr. Wang Jianjun and Mr. Wu Lei, I began to find some feeling when I learned to cultivate orchids with peat.

It is said that "watering takes three years of work and ten years of learning to water". This is true, and there are many ups and downs in it. The weather in Beijing is dry in spring and summer, often blowing hot and dry. It is a disaster for orchids that grow in cool and humid climates. As soon as the freshly watered water was blown by the hot and dry wind, the noodles dried in less than half a day, so they had to be watered again in the afternoon. When the rainy season comes, most of the bluegrass has black spots on its leaves and its scorched tips are withered and yellow; turning over the basin, it is found that the blue root is almost gone. The climate in spring and summer in the north is dry and hot, and the basin noodles soon become dry after watering, but the plants in the middle and lower layers of the basin are not dry, especially soft plants, which are sometimes very wet, and when they are watered again, they are wet and humidified, resulting in long-term stains and rotting of Langen, so the above ground part has a bad reaction. Later, when teachers and friends switched to peat soil as a plant material, watering became easy to master.

Peat soil, located in the northwest suburb of Beijing, has been dug up and moved to the ground due to construction (water diversion project and fish pond digging). This kind of deep peat soil becomes lump when dry, relatively strong, will not be loose easily in case of water, and should be processed into different particles when used. Can first be soaked in water watering orchids, take out and store in a plastic bag for a day, then use your hands to break the large piece of peat soil into different particles according to the requirements, preferably through the sieves of 20mm, 10mm, 5mm and 2mm, take large particles (about the size of broad beans) on the bottom of the basin l-2cm thick, small particles (such as the size of red beans) on the basin, about l-2cm, the middle part of the basin with medium particles (such as soybean grain size). Plant orchid basin after pouring once permeable, because the particles have been soaked in water during processing, so it is OK to pour fixed root water once. In the peak season of plant growth, some chemical fertilizer can be applied properly. The author uses the self-made total nutrient solution, once a week, and the concentration is about 0.1%. The author also made a small improvement to the orchid basin, no matter what the material of the basin, the bottom hole should be expanded, in order to make the water permeated to the bottom of the basin as far as possible out of the basin, conducive to drain the remaining water, do not make the basin stagnant water. At the same time, buckle a small plastic cover full of holes on the bottom hole (take the upper part of the small beverage bottle, and then burn the No. 8 wire into as many small holes as possible), its diameter is equal to the bottom hole of the basin (about 5cm), high about 5-10cm, depending on the height of the basin, in order to increase permeability, it is not loose to soak in water for a long time, which is conducive to water retention and air permeability, and will not cause stagnant water in case it is watered too much.

Recently, some orchid friends want to try peat soil to cultivate orchid and ask about the scientific basis of peat soil. In order to further prove the effectiveness of using peat soil as plant material, the author has made a preliminary test and analysis on it. The PH value of the water extract of the plant material is about 6.5 Mel 7.0, the content of organic matter is 30%-70%, the capacity is 0.38-0.42k/cm), and the contents of a large number of elements N, P, K, Fe and Ca are O.548% (total N), O.11% Laurel 0.22% (in terms of p2O5), O.588%,

1.006% and 0.223%, as well as trace amounts of Cu (0.003%), Mg (0.055%), Zn (0.058%), Mn (0.027%), etc. From the analysis and test results, its air permeability and water permeability is similar to that of hard plants, and its organic matter content and other nutrient elements are similar to those of soft plants. In a sense, it combines some of the advantages of the two kinds of plants, and it is cheap, as long as it is taken back and processed into different particles. The author has been learning to use it for six years, including plastic pots and purple sand basins. All the colored glaze basins have achieved satisfactory results. Although the plant can not be said to be the best, but for beginners to use it to raise orchids there is always a "sense of security". The author is only a preliminary study. I deeply feel that the knowledge of raising orchids in northern families is profound, and different living conditions and measures often lead to different results. as a family introduction attempt, the difficulty is that the experimental materials are not enough and the observation time is not as long as the requirements of the introduction experiment, so the results are often accidental, so the effect of orchid cultivation is unstable for most people. The same is true for the author to learn to raise orchids with peat soil. Those who are interested might as well give it a try.

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Yu Fengyi