Occasional cultivation of orchids-plant material

Since I fell in love with orchids five years ago, I have a special love for orchids. I am a real orchid fan. Raising orchids enriches life and changes oneself. I live in the mountain county of southeast Zhejiang, where orchids are produced. I have the regional advantage of producing orchids, so I choose to take the road of cultivating orchids specially collected and cultivated down the mountain. After five years of efforts, it can be said that there is a small scale and a small achievement. Five years of orchid cultivation has joy and satisfaction, hardship and confusion. I write about these experiences and make a review of my orchid cultivation. At the same time, I also ask you to correct it.

Planting material

Plant material is the food of orchids, is the basis of orchid cultivation, there is a good plant material, orchid cultivation is more than half successful, the importance of plant material is self-evident. Everyone attaches great importance to and pays close attention to the plant material, and the evaluation of the plant material is reasonable and reasonable, and the selection of the plant material can be said to be the eight Immortals crossing the sea. Today's plants are varied from hard to soft, from large to small, from traditional to modern. But no matter what the plant material is, no matter what the characteristics are, it has the commonness of the change from wet-wet-moist-dry-dry after draught. From the change of plant material after draught, it is easy to evaluate and judge the difference and excellence of plant material. The change period of good plant material from wet to dry is long, but the time from wet to tide is shorter, the time of moisture-moistening-drying is longer, and the longer the moistening time is, the better, otherwise, the plant material is poor. In order to reach a good standard, the plant must have the following characteristics:

One is the aggregate structure. Regardless of the size of the plant, even if it is very small, it must be agglomerates. If agglomerates are formed naturally or naturally, they will not dissolve in water and will be loose and breathable.

The second is to absorb water quickly. The very dry plant material can absorb water quickly and evenly, and there will be no waterway and wet inside.

Third, drainage should be fast. After the plant material is full of water, the excess water can be discharged quickly in order to meet the requirement of a short change time from wet to tide. Watering will be easy, and orchids will not be afraid of the rain.

Fourth, water conservation should be better. The water retention performance of plant material determines the quality of plant material, and the water retention performance of plant material is good, and the time of change from tide-moistening-dry will grow.

Fifth, it is necessary to have natural fat, trace elements and minerals.

At the same time, plants with five characteristics can only be in the soil, but there are very few of the first three characteristics in the soil, and very few of them have the above three characteristics at the same time. Over the years, I have been searching hard, looking for orchids in the mountains, seeing orchids at Lannong's house, and visiting orchids at Lanyou's place. apart from the orchids, they are the planting materials. Pay attention everywhere, spend a lot of effort, still step on iron shoes nowhere to be found. Last fall, after my Lanyou stumbled upon the "lazy land" (I have reported to you in the old post), I really got the treasure without any effort. Lazy soil is amazing, with five characteristics of good planting material. After sieving the powder with 60 yards, the soil is all agglomerates of different sizes, which do not melt in water and are very loose and breathable. After the basin soil is dry, the hand can be inserted into the orchid basin. Very dry lazy soil absorbs water quickly, and there is a squeaking sound when absorbing water. Watching lazy soil absorb water on a transparent cup, the water goes down layer by layer, with a clear boundary between dry and wet, and water absorption is very balanced. It is also a kind of enjoyment to watch lazy soil absorb water. After the lazy soil is full of water, no matter you pour the most water, it can be discharged quickly, and the time from wet to tidal change is about 2 hours, which is comparable to that of granular plants. Lazy soil has excellent water retention performance and moisturizes for a long time. During the high temperature this summer, the small pots raised with lazy soil are watered once every 7 days, and the others are watered once every 10 days. Lazy soil is humic soil, with natural fertilizers, trace elements and minerals. Another feature of lazy soil is that there is no grass, which is really strange.

Since growing orchids on lazy soil this year, orchids are stronger, less sick, and easier to manage than in previous years. In order to test the performance of lazy soil, I turned the pot during the high temperature period in August this year and managed it like other orchids after replanting. The new buds of orchids began to grow 7 days later. Now my plant material is mainly lazy soil, the proportion is lazy soil, rotten leaf soil, natural particle insect shit, horse shit rock (what we call it here, iron and other minerals, trace elements), brick particles account for half, more than 60 yards of particles are used.

In the selection of plant materials, like everyone else, I have experienced a variety of choices, used a lot of plant materials, have not paid attention to plant materials, copied blindly, blindly follow the trend, only pay attention to loose performance, but ignore other lessons. In the selection of plant materials should be varied, but there are four points please pay attention to.

1. The plant material should be suitable for the environment and management of orchid cultivation. Now there are a variety of plant materials, all have their own performance, strengths and weaknesses, in any case, orchids will adapt, but you may not fit, not adapted. Other people think that good plant materials may not be good for you, the selection of plant materials must be based on the reality of the orchid environment, according to their own management methods to determine. Balcony natural planting, strong light, good ventilation, low humidity, requires good water retention of plant materials, otherwise it will only increase the watering workload and increase the risk. If you like watering, and have time to water, require the drainage performance of the plant is good, water retention is general, so that you can often water.

2. To have a comprehensive understanding of plant materials. After selecting and purchasing the plant material, don't rush to put it on the pot, be sure to do it yourself, fully understand the performance of the plant material, and know it well. You can't just listen to Lanyou and read the introduction in the book. Although it is the same particle or soil, its performance will be different for a variety of reasons. The soil of the same mountain has different properties, the mountain on the top of the mountain is different from the soil on the hillside, the soil on the shady side is different from the soil on the sunny side, and the shallow soil is different from the deep soil. This is a problem that most orchid friends are easy to ignore.

3. Highlight the moisturizing performance of the plant material. Now, in the selection of plant materials, there is often emphasis on looseness and drainage performance, while ignoring the deviation of water and moisture retention performance. The water retention and moisture retention of plant materials is not good, and the time of wet-drying change is very short, which not only affects the growth of orchids, increases the risk, but also sharply increases the amount of watering.

4. The planting material should not be changed frequently. Everyone has such a mentality, as long as they hear that there is a good plant material, they all want to give it a try. When there are some problems in the process of raising orchids, the first thing to consider is to find the reason on the plant material. Impatient people often change plant materials, last month particles, this month mixed, next month is soil, such a result can only make the orchid weak, small, dead. Any plant orchid will adapt, the difference is just the length of time to adapt, what we need to do is to adopt targeted management methods according to the performance of the plant, to enhance our strengths and avoid weaknesses, to seek advantages and avoid disadvantages, but not to change plant materials. (lower mountain orchid)