Greenhouse (late) Spring Cleaning

[rich63]

John, as always your plants and greenhouse look great. I have a question, it seems like you have just as many catts. in clay pots as you have in wooden baskets. Is there any rhyme or reason on which you use for certain plants ? I have placed all my catts. in baskets that are growing outdoors. Clay would make it much easier when it comes to dividing and repotting. What is the name of the white catt. w/the purple blush? Take Care,Rich

[wetfeet101b]

Hi Rich,

The purple cattleya is Lc. Puppy Love 'True Beauty'.

Regarding the decisions on whether to use clay pots or wood baskets for the cattleyas, it just depends on what potting supplies I have available at the time that I repot the plants.

I usually buy pots/baskets when the stores have a sale or bulk discount, because regular price can get expensive (specially the clay pots).
So there are times when I have a lot of clay pots sitting in storage, and times when all I have available are baskets.

From my experience, the clay pots dry out just a little longer than wood baskets (when inside the greenhouse) so I can keep both sets of plants on the same watering schedule.
There are of course pros and cons to each one, but its really just nitpicking at that point.
Overall they even out in performance.

Repotting out of a clay orchid pot can be just as challenging.
The surface of the clay pot is porous enough that the roots will have a firm hold and it will require great care to dislodge the plant without damaging the roots.

If a particular cattleya seems to want more water than average, then I plant it in a plastic pot or some type of S/H setup so that the pot retains water longer.

One of the goals that I have set for my growing areas is that I want to be able to water everything at the same time.
Given my busy schedule, I dont have time to cherry-pick which plants get wet and which ones stay dry when I water.
Everything gets drenched when I water the plants, and then each individual plant dries out faster or slower depending on what container they are in.

[Halloamey]

Very neat and nicely organised !!

[gim]

I like your pot that matches the butterfly orchids (maybe).