Selection of Orchid Plant material

Carry forward Chinese orchid culture and spread orchid knowledge

To raise orchids well, you will first encounter the problem of what kind of plant material to choose. To choose the right plant material, you must understand the growth characteristics of orchids. We know that the stomata of orchid leaves sink, respiration is not complete, but also rely on the roots to help breathe; orchids grow in places rich in humus and loose soil; orchids grow in dry soil, air humidity, orchid leaves absorb moisture 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 breathable. In the practice of orchid cultivation, we know that the reason for choosing granular plant materials and discarding powdery viscous plant materials lies in creating a loose and breathable environment for orchids to breathe easily.

2. Moisture does not stain. Orchids are plants that need moisture, while orchids are fleshy roots that do not tolerate water. Good plant material can be watered that flow, never ponding, but also to maintain a longer period of moisture.

3. Clean and rich. Wild orchids have strong resistance, but after transplanting, the resistance weakens and they are more susceptible to diseases and insect pests; the growth of orchids, like other plants, cannot be separated from various fertilizers. The cleanliness and fertilizer content of plant materials are necessary conditions 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 plant materials for cultivating orchids. From the perspective of plant materials widely used and sold in the market, they can be roughly divided into the following three categories:

1. Soil. There are mainly mountain mud, pond mud, bamboo root soil, mud carbon soil and all kinds of humus soil, and so on. This kind of plant material is the main material of traditional planting method. Its advantages are moisturizing, containing fertilizer, easy to obtain materials and cheap price, the disadvantages are easy to harden water, not easy to dry after watering, and contain germs and insects.

2. Organics. There are mainly bark, rotten wood, coconut chaff, sawdust, bagasse, peanut shell, snake wood, brown silk and moss plants. The main advantages of this kind of plant material are moisture retention, ventilation, and organic fertilizer for orchids after decay, which is conducive to root growth of orchids. The disadvantage is that it is easy to produce insects and germs, especially in the process of decomposition and decay, heat and harmful substances will be emitted, and the roots of orchids are easy to burn.

3. Hard plant materials. There are mainly pond cornerstone, Zhijin stone, volcanic stone, pumice, pearlite, broken bricks and ceramsite and so on. The selection of this kind of plant material is the result of continuous exploration and reform in the practice of orchid art. Its advantages are granular not broken, clean insects, good permeability will not harden, no water, the disadvantage is easy to dry, no fertilizer, such as improper particle size selection is not conducive to orchid root growth.

To sum up, the growth characteristics of orchids provide convenience for us to choose orchid cultivation materials. However, orchids are alive, and they will live in the small environment we choose for a long time. Its growth will be determined by whether we can provide a good environment and management. The choice of orchid plant material is an important part of orchid growth environment, people often say: "choose the right plant material, orchid cultivation is half successful", so we must not take it lightly.

Faced with so many orchid cultivation materials, how should we choose? The practice of our ancestors and modern orchids has proved that as long as it meets the growth characteristics of orchids, no matter what kind of planting material can grow orchids, the key lies in different planting materials suitable for different environments, different pots and different management. At present, there are three main schools in the selection of main plant materials: traditional soil planting method based on Yunguichuan, hard planting method based on Guangdong, Fujian and Taiwan, and mixed planting method based on Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Shanghai.

The following three methods on the selection of plant materials and matters needing attention were discussed.

I. Traditional soil planting method.

As the name suggests, this kind of planting method is to choose soil plants and plant orchids according to traditional cultivation methods. We have already analyzed the advantages and disadvantages of this kind of plant material, so we should pay attention to the following points when selecting this kind of plant material for planting orchids:

1. Use granular as much as possible, sift out powdery, soil can not be too viscous, if too viscous can be mixed in the soil a small amount of coarse sand sawdust bark and other things to improve the soil and soil quality.

2. The basin should choose a well-ventilated, open-type mud basin or sweating mud basin. A filter layer must be placed at the bottom of the basin to prevent soil from blocking the drain hole and causing ponding.

3. Daily management should be based on "dry", that is, when watering, we should master the principle of "not dry, not watering, mainly moistening; rather dry, not too wet". However, we should also pay attention to prevent the phenomenon of drying up from the bottom of the pot, that is, watering must be thoroughly watered.

4. Because the soil we choose contains a lot of humus, so you don't have to add base fertilizer, you can usually choose to apply fertilizer in the way of topdressing, and at the same time do a good job of insecticide sterilization to prevent pests and diseases from invading orchids.

5. Orchids should be placed in a well-ventilated place, such as a courtyard balcony and other open or semi-enclosed places, usually can be overhead orchid basin, so that orchid basin in a ventilated environment, air humidity can be relatively small.

II. Hardened plant material seed method.

The cultivation of orchids with various hard plant materials has been popular in China for more than ten years. Compared with the traditional soil planting method, the biggest advantage of this kind of planting method is to facilitate our daily management and accelerate the growth speed of orchids. But it also has obvious flaws. Therefore, in selecting such plants for orchid cultivation, we should not neglect the following:

1. Since this kind of plant material itself is usually granular in different sizes, we can generally choose large particles such as broad bean shape and small particles such as soybean shape when selecting. Granules too large adverse orchid root growth, too small adverse drainage. When planting, the thicker the orchid root can put more large grains, the finer the orchid root can put more small grains.

2. In daily management, orchids can be cultivated by "wet cultivation" method, that is, always keep the plant material wet. However, we should still follow the principle of using different watering methods according to the different texture of the orchid pot and the different strength of the orchid seedlings, and must not be excessive.

3. This kind of plant material 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. We can usually adopt a combination of topdressing and basal fertilizer, and the basal fertilizer should be selected with some slow-release granular fertilizer; topdressing should be "thin, thin and diligent".

4. This kind of planting method is suitable for the environment where the air humidity is relatively high and there is a breeze blowing. Orchids should be placed in closed or semi-closed places at ordinary times, such as orchid fields, orchid sheds, enclosed balconies or indoors. In the basin surface can be placed some snake sawdust or moss and other things to keep the basin surface particles wet.

5. When using, we can mix a small amount of bark, coconut bran and other organic plant materials into this kind of plant materials to improve the defects of this kind of plant materials, and also provide certain nutrients for orchids.

III. Mixed plant material seed method.

Because each planting material has its own defects, the method of planting orchids with single planting material not only needs certain environment and conditions, but also brings inconvenience to our management. The emergence and use of mixed plant materials can be said to be a great progress in the history of orchid cultivation. The planting method is to mix several planting materials among soil planting materials, hard planting materials and organic materials to prepare a new planting material for planting orchids. Its biggest advantage is that we can increase or decrease the planting materials according to our own environment, pots and management methods in the preparation process 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 planting materials and the proportion, which needs to be decided according to our own environment and the pots used. We can choose several kinds of trial planting first. Generally speaking, in an open environment or a well-ventilated semi-enclosed environment, the clay pot or sweating clay pot with good permeability is usually used, and more soil and organic plant materials can be used, and less hard plant materials can be used; if it is a closed or semi-enclosed environment with high air humidity, more hard plant materials and organic plant materials can be used, and less soil plant materials can be used.

2. Because this kind of plant material contains certain nutrients, it can be applied less or no basal fertilizer at ordinary times, and it should be mainly applied topdressing, so as to achieve "thin fertilizer and frequent application".

3. The soil-based and organic-based plant materials used in the preparation of such plant materials may contain germs and pests, and must be sterilized with drugs or high temperature before preparation. At the same time, organic plant materials are easy to produce heat and harmful substances in the process of decomposition, so before use, they can be soaked in water and then put into a microwave oven for high temperature treatment.

4. We often use some artificial granular soil when preparing this kind of plant material. This kind of granular soil has many advantages, but it also has many problems. If some used harmful orchids adhesive, some can not withstand blisters, some contain alkaline ingredients, some fertilizer is too full...... We should choose carefully. Hubei pine chestnut king orchid plant material can be used as the first choice of this kind of granular soil, can be mixed with gold stone 1:1, this ratio method is more suitable for planting orchid novice friends.

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