hi, i recently bought a slipper orchid. I looked on the net to find out how to take care of it. All the sites I went on said that this orchid needed to be planted in a orchid bark or pine bark, but the plant i bought was in soil/potting mix. Should i leave the plant in the soil or re-pot it in bark, it looks healthy at the moment.
I suspect your "Paph" is in a finely ground mixture of mateials that may only look something like soil. If it is truly in soil you should find the correct mixture and repot it right away. The link below is to my website and offers instructions for care of Lady Slipper orchids. The material was furnished by one of the largest growers of Paphiopedilum in Hawaii. http://www.exoticrainforest.com/growinstrucpaphs op.html Using the instructions provided by this grower we have about 30 lady slippers and they often bloom several times each year.
it does look like soil, and seeing that i didnt buy it from an orchid shop, it most proberbly is soil. It's in flower at the moment so should i cut the flower of now and repot in a bark media, or leave the flower and just wait till that dies then repot it?
Leave the flower spike on the plant but wash all of the soil off and re-pot it in a mixture that will support the plant. Soil will kill the plant. Try to provide a mixture as described by the commercial Hawaiian grower on my website. A mixture of pine needles, coconut chips and fir or pine bark along with Perlite™ (sponge rock) work best. Make sure this mixture is dampened well before re-potting. Keep that mixture dampened all the time. Do not keep the mixture soaking wet since the roots want humid air to circulate around them. If you allow the mixture to remain just a bit loose and run water through the pot often that will simulate the natural conditions in the rain forest. Keep the plant in a place where it will receive medium light along with air movement. It should do fine. But soil is a no-no for orchids in general. Some native American species will grow in soil but tropical species as a general rule do not appreciate soil as a potting medium. As a result, all you are doing is trying to simulate the loose epiphytic compost to support the plant. By the way, paphs don't use the same mixture commonly sold as orchid potting medium. You may have to mix your own or do a bit of searching. The flower will last from a few weeks to a a couple of months depending on how happy the plant is kept. The life of the flower may be shortened by the re-potting but no purpose will be served by removing it now. If potted properly the plant should live a long life and produce new plants in the same pot. Those can be divided into new pots if you choose to do so. I often just leave them until it is time to change the medium which is roughly once a year. Good luck!
ive repotted it, but i have alot of left over perlite. can i use it in my other orchids' potting mixes?
Thanks for the site. I just re-potted my Orchid last week in orchid potting medium because it was dying. Too bad I didn't arrive at this forum until today. So much to learn!
The plant will last for a month or more in regular medium but will do much better if you can find the "good" stuff. I've got plants that now have up to 4 plants in the same pot. I have to regularly divide them! They love the mixture described on my site.
Orchidboy, sorry I missed your question regarding Perliteâ„¢. That soil amending supplement should be added to all plant soil. You'll certainly find a good use for it!
