Paph Potting Assistance?

[Paphraguy]

Originally posted by Heather
Okay - got a good look there, thanks Pete.
Is that one of the so-called "Darwin's orchids?"

Yes, it is.

[Heather]

I thought so - have seen it (or something related) listed on Suncoast's ebay site.

[Jmoney]

I remember hearing that Brita is not helpful and may be detrimental. Not sure if that is true, but "softened" water is definitely detrimental as apparently sodium is increased or something like that.

NYC water is relatively low in total dissolved solids (TDS), or so I'm told. It's just the chloramines you have to watch out for. I leave water open to the air for a couple days. I do not know if that does anything except assuage my conscience. If your TDS is low, I'd just use the regular tap water. If it's high, I don't know, maybe invest in a small RO system? (I don't think brita will help tds much).

[Heather]

I'm not up to water testing quite yet - will just stick w/ distilled to be on the safe side from now on. Thanks for the heads up, Jason!

[Heather]

Yay! I just finished repotting my St. Swithin. It looks good! I drilled 8 holes around the sides of the pot (in a pleasing pattern, if I do say so myself.) I also drilled another hole in the bottom. I mess up the first one, but covered w/ a styro peanut so the bark won't come flying out every time I water.

It needed repotting! I'm so glad I did it - thanks for the gentle push Pete! It was in a pretty broken down seedling mix. I think the roots looked good. A couple of the roots pulled off by accident, but were hollow, so no biggie. Many of them had grown right into the styro peanuts that were intermixed, and I had to break the peanuts appart. So, all went well. I took some pics and will post tomorrow. Hopefully you guys will think the roots looked as healthy as I did!

Oh, how long do you think should I let it "rest" out of its usual sunny spot?

[Paphraguy]

Heather, breaking a couple of roots accidentally while repotting should be fine. I do it all the time (not intentionally, though) and the plants still lived.

[kewpie]

i think that another good reason to let water sit (other than to get the chloramines out of the water) is to get it to room temp. ive read that cold water can be a shock to orchids and may even be harmful.

[Paphraguy]

kewpie,

I never use cold cold water because I'm afraid that might harm all my tropical orchid plants. In fact, I always make sure that the water is tepid.