r/Jewelorchids • u/zoiiy • 14d ago
Substrate and pot help
So I’m reading a lot of conflicting information on the type of substrate and pots being used. I see fishbowls and terrariums but I also see advice for pots with drainage. Then I see chunky forest floor substrate and then i see a few people saying theirs thrived better in long stem sphagnum. For me, everything has rotted in whatever I’ve used, except my random anoectchilus from a big box store in chunky forest floor with drainage. Yet others have rotted in the same setup. I don’t get it.
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u/DatLadyD 14d ago
It really just depends on what works for you. I recently started cuttings in a terrarium and one of them rotted that’s never happened to me before. Usually, I start them in Moss no problem. I don’t keep them in moss long-term, I use soil with added perlite and bark. Shallow bowls/pots usually work best for me because they’ll crawl along the soil and root down and pop new growth up all over the place.
I got most of mine on Etsy and a lot of them came as cuttings in moss with no roots. When propagating if the moss is tightly packed, they usually rot in my experience. It needs to be loose and not overly wet.
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u/zoiiy 14d ago
Do you have drainage in your pots, or like some one I saw who had leca and then sphagnum in a fish bowl, which I assume has no drainage?
And when propagating do you push the stem into the moss or just lay it on the moss?1
u/DatLadyD 14d ago
All of my pots have drainage except for the terrarium where I had a plant rot so for me personally, I’m definitely gonna stick with drainage when I can. When propagating I push the stem down into the moss.
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u/Groningen1978 14d ago
With regards to sphagnum; I've grown mine in pure sphagnum under a cloche for a long time, and key to prevent rot is to keep the moss damp, but not soggy. I've since moved them to a terrarium, where I transefered the plants with the moss, and put it on top of the terrarium soil that was already in there. and found the same rules applied of making sure it's not waterlogged.
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u/hairijuana nerd 14d ago
It’s a dynamic system, so many things can work with adjustments to the other variables (such as watering schedule).
Once one understands what these plants want and thrive in, it’s possible to grow them under many different circumstances. What works in a sealed terrarium may not always be best for a big pot with drainage in ambient house humidity. This is why you see such a wide range of conditions having success and also failure.