Selection of Orchid Plant material

If you want to raise orchids well, you will first encounter the problem of what kind of planting material to choose. In order to select a good plant material, it is necessary to understand the growth characteristics of orchids. We know that orchid leaves have sunken stomata, incomplete respiration, and need to rely on the roots to help breathe; orchids grow in places rich in humus and loose soil; orchids grow in dry soil and high humidity in the air. Orchid leaves absorb water from the air to make up for the lack of orchid roots. Therefore, we should pay attention to the following principles when selecting orchid planting materials:

1. Loose and ventilated. In the practice of orchid cultivation, we know that the reason for choosing granular plants and abandoning powder plants is to create a loose and breathable environment for orchids to breathe.

two。 Moisturize without stains. The orchid is a plant that needs moisture, while the orchid root is fleshy and is not resistant to water stains. Good plant material can achieve watering that is, no stagnant water, but also can keep moist for a long time.

3. Clean and fat. Wild orchids have strong resistance, but the resistance is weakened after transplanting, and they are more vulnerable to diseases and insect pests. Orchids, like other plants, can not grow without various fertilizers. The cleanliness and fertilizer content of plant material is a necessary condition for the normal growth of orchids.

According to the growth characteristics of orchids, especially the long-term practice of orchids, we can choose a variety of plants for orchids. From the point of view of the plant materials widely used and sold in the market, they can be roughly divided into the following three categories:

1. Soil materials. There are mainly mud, pond mud, bamboo root soil, peat soil and all kinds of humus soil, and so on.

This kind of plant material is the main material of traditional planting method. It has the advantages of moisturizing, containing fertilizer, convenient access to materials and low price, while its disadvantages are easy to harden stagnant water, not easy to dry after pouring through water, and containing bacteria and easy-to-grow insects.

(at present, the Sichuan fairy soil and some man-made granular soil sold on the market are no longer soil materials in the traditional sense, which will be discussed later. )

two。 Organic matter. There are mainly bark, rotten wood, coconut bran, sawdust, bagasse, peanut shell, snake wood, brown silk and bryophytes.

The main advantage of this kind of plant material is that it can provide organic fertilizer for orchids after moisturizing, aeration and decay, which is conducive to orchid rooting, but its disadvantage is that it is easy to produce insects and bacteria, especially in the process of decomposition and decay, it will emit heat and harmful substances, and it is easy to burn the orchid root.

3. Hard implants. There are mainly pond cornerstone, gold plant stone, volcanic stone, pumice, perlite, broken bricks and ceramsite and so on.

The selection of this kind of plant material is the result of people's continuous exploration and reform in the practice of Yilan. Its advantages are that it is granular and unsuitable for crushing, clean, insect-free, good air permeability, no hardening, no stagnant water, and its disadvantages are easy to dry, no fertilizer, and it is disadvantageous to the growth of orchid root if the particle size is not selected properly.

To sum up, the growth characteristics of orchids provide convenience for us to select orchid plants. However, the orchid is alive, it will live in the small environment we choose for a long time, and its growth will be determined by whether we can provide a good environment and management. The selection of plant materials for orchid cultivation is an important part of the orchid growing environment. People often say, "if you choose the right plant material, you will be half successful." therefore, we must not take it lightly. In the face of so many orchid planting materials, how should we choose? The practice of our ancestors and modern artists has proved that as long as it accords with the growth characteristics of orchids, no matter which kind of plant can grow orchids well, the key is that different plants are suitable for different environments, different pots and different management. At present, there are three major schools in the selection of main plant materials in the orchid area of China: the traditional soil plant species method in Yunnan, Guizhou and Sichuan, the hard plant species method in Guangdong, Fujian and Taiwan, and the mixed plant species method in Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai. Below, the selection of plant materials and matters needing attention of these three kinds of seed methods are discussed respectively.

one。 Traditional soil plant species method.

As the name implies, this kind of planting method is to select soil plant materials and use traditional cultivation methods to grow orchids. Previously, we have analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of this kind of plant, so when choosing this kind of plant to plant orchids, we should pay attention to the following:

1. As far as possible to use granular, sieve powder, the soil can not be sticky too heavy, if the viscosity is too heavy, you can add a small amount of coarse sand, sawdust, bark and other things in the soil to improve soil properties and soil quality.

? 2. The basin should choose a good breathable, open mud basin or sweating basin, and a filter layer must be placed at the bottom of the basin to prevent the soil from blocking the drain hole and causing stagnant water.

3. In daily management, we should give priority to "dry maintenance", that is, when watering, we should master the principle of "no dry, no watering, mainly moistening; we would rather be dry than too wet". However, we should also pay attention to prevent the phenomenon of drying up from the bottom of the basin, that is, watering must be thoroughly watered.

4. Because the soil material we choose contains a lot of humus, we do not need to add base fertilizer, we can choose to apply fertilizer by topdressing, and at the same time, we should do a good job of insecticidal and sterilization to prevent diseases and insect pests from invading orchids.

5. The place of the orchid should choose the site with good ventilation, such as the courtyard balcony and other open or semi-closed places, usually the orchid basin can be overhead, so that the orchid basin in the surface ventilated environment, the air humidity can be relatively small.

two。 Hard plant species method.

Planting orchids with all kinds of hard plants is a popular cultivation method in China in recent ten years. Compared with the traditional soil planting method, the biggest advantage of this method is that it facilitates our daily management and accelerates the growth rate of orchids. But it also has very obvious defects. Therefore, when we choose this kind of plant to grow orchids, we should not overlook the following:

1. As this kind of plant itself is usually in the shape of particles of different sizes, we can generally choose large grains such as broad beans and small grains such as soybeans. Too large particles are disadvantageous to the growth of orchid root, while too small is disadvantageous to discharge. When planting, the thicker orchid root can put more large grains, and the smaller orchid root can put more small grains.

two。 In the daily management, the method of "wet cultivation" can be used to cultivate orchids, that is, to keep the plants moist all the time. However, we should still follow the principle of using different watering methods according to the different texture of orchid pots and the strength of orchid seedlings.

3. This kind of plant itself does not contain fertilizer, and artificial fertilization is needed to ensure the normal growth of orchids. We should pay attention to the application of different fertilizers according to the different growth periods of orchids, usually we can adopt the combination of topdressing and base fertilizer, the base fertilizer should choose some slow-release granular fertilizer, and topdressing should be "thin, thin and diligent".

4. This kind of planting method is suitable for air humidity and breeze blowing environment, orchids should be placed in closed or semi-closed places, such as orchid field, orchid shed, enclosed balcony or indoor. Some things such as snake sawdust or water moss can be placed on the basin to keep the basin particles moist.

5. When in use, we can add a small amount of bark, coconut bran and other organic plants to improve the defects of this kind of plants that are easy to dry, and at the same time provide certain nutrients to orchids.

three。 Mixed plant species method.

Because all kinds of plants have their own defects, the method of planting orchids with a single plant not only needs certain environment and conditions, but also brings inconvenience to our management. The emergence and use of mixed plant species can be said to be a great progress in the history of orchid cultivation. This kind of planting method is to mix several kinds of plant materials of soil plant, hard plant and organic matter to prepare a new plant material to grow orchids. Its biggest advantage is that in the process of preparation, we can increase or decrease all kinds of plants according to our own environment, pots and management methods, so as to meet the needs of orchid growth. Similarly, we need to pay attention to the following when using such plants:

1. In the preparation, we choose which kinds of plant materials and the proportion, which needs to be decided according to our own environment and basin equipment, we can first choose several kinds of trial species. Generally speaking, in an open environment or a well-ventilated semi-closed environment, mud pots or sweating pots with good air permeability are usually used, and more soil and organic plants can be used, while some hard plants can be used less; if it is a closed or semi-closed environment with high air humidity, more hard and organic plants can be used, and less soil plants can be used.

two。 Because this kind of plant material contains certain nutrients, we can apply less or no base fertilizer at ordinary times, and we should mainly apply topdressing to achieve "thin fertilizer application frequently".

3. The soil and organic plants we choose when preparing this kind of plant materials may contain germs and pests, so drugs or high temperature must be used to sterilize and kill insects before preparation. At the same time, organic plant materials are easy to produce heat and harmful substances in the process of decay and decomposition, so it can be solved by high temperature treatment in microwave oven after soaking in water before use.

4. We often use some man-made granular soil when preparing this kind of plant material. It is true that this kind of granular soil has many advantages, but there are also many problems. For example, some use harmful orchid adhesives, some can not stand blisters, some contain saline-alkali ingredients, and some are too fat. We should choose carefully. After use, the "Hewang" brand immortal soil produced in Sichuan can be used as the first choice for this kind of granular soil, but it needs to be soaked for more than 24 hours before use.