Orchid Potting Mediums – Pro’s And Cons

When it comes to choosing a potting medium for your orchid, it is good to consider all the options as it can affect your orchid´s water requirements. For example Sphagnum moss tends to dry out more quickly than bark.

The most important thing is that your potting medium can drain quickly and allow a good circulation of air to the roots. Planting materials include Coconut husks, Bark chips, Sphagnum moss and Styrofoam. Here we´ll break them down and look at the pro’s and cons for each so that you can make an informed decision of which is best for your orchid.

Potting Medium	Pro´s	Con´s
Bark Chips:	·        Comes in different sizes ·        Encourages formation of new roots ·        Easy to obtain and inexpensive	·        Decomposes within 18 months – 2 years ·        Can resist water at first
Sphagnum Moss:	·        Retains water and air ·        Easy to obtain	·        Can retain too much water once it begins decomposing, or if packed too tightly ·        Can form a cap across the top of the potting mix stopping it breathing
Coconut Husks:	·        Slower to decompose than bark ·        Holds moisture yet gives sufficient air	·        Has to be rinsed completely to remove any salt residue ·        Smaller chunks/grades can keep too much moisture
Coconut Hust Fiber:	·        Decomposes gradually ·        Holds water well	·        Poorer drainage than bark or coco husk chunks
Styrofoam:	·        Cheap ·        Doesn´t decompose ·        Drains rapidly	·        Should not be used on its own due to lack of water or nutrient retention
Lava Rock:	·        Drains well ·        Never decomposes	·        Heavy

 

As you can see, they all vary in different ways. This is why a lot of orchid growers tend to mix their potting mediums to gain the best aspects of the composts.

On our website we offer the following mixes:

Orchid Focus Repotting compost - Composed of graded bark, blended with coconut fibre chips of several sizes. This complex matrix maintains a superb balance of air and moisture that is ideal for most popular orchid species and hybrids.

Specialist Orchid Compost - A superior compost made from bark and processed granules of volcanic rock. This ensures a high water to air ratio as required by most orchids.

We also offer Coarse (used in the bottom of pots for extra drainage) and Fine Coco Disks (ideal as a soil amendment).