Sunday, March 25, 2012

Repot Cattleya Orchids

Mix up a sterilizing liquid which will be used sterilize your cutting instrument each time you trim an orchid, this is to stop any root borne disease/virus from transferring from one plant to another.
Your planting media should be a mix of commercially available composted pine bark, medium size is best for all, then mix this with enough corse perlite to be seen throughout the mix without going overboard and then add a small amount of peat moss. Then damp down, only so much that the peat moss sticks to the bark.
If you are satisfied with your growing medium DO NOT CHANGE, I unfortunately did with disastrous results. I switched from the above mix to 'Absorbastone' and what happened was the roots got too cold in Winter and killed over half my collection.

I find that I can pot about 50 Orchids from one 40 litre bag of bark, cost of bark about $27 from your local produce store.
Remove any old stalks from the main plant, if the plant has split into different shoots then each of these can be split and will be new plants for you.
Make sure you have a container for the old shoots which can be disposed of.
Pack the mix into a squat pot with good drainage and with just a little long life fertilizer on the top.
Then all that will be needed is weekly watering and fortnightly fertilizing with a half strength liquid fertilizer.
Quite simple really.
Almost forgot, your biggest enemy (other than your self) will be the ‘Dendrobium Beetle’ who will love to visit and have a great big chew on your beautiful flowers, you must either spray or take the plant inside.

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