{"id":14572,"date":"2017-03-08T00:51:08","date_gmt":"2017-03-08T00:51:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/?p=14572"},"modified":"2017-02-19T10:42:04","modified_gmt":"2017-02-19T10:42:04","slug":"orchid-compost-treat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/gardening\/tips\/garden-equipment-tips\/orchid-compost-treat\/","title":{"rendered":"Orchid Compost a Treat for Orchids"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>If you want to make your Orchids feel at home then use good Orchid compost and mimic natural conditions as best you can.<br \/>\nThere are many proprietary brands available but you could do a lot worse than talk to an expert at a local Orchid show.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/products\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Orchid-compost-bag.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Orchid compost bag\" src=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/products\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/Orchid-compost-bag.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"432\" height=\"576\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Orchids love humidity but hate wet feet so a free draining compost is preferred.<br \/>\nSome orchids are epiphytes that grow on other plants and trees and need to retain enough moisture when the opportunity arises.<br \/>\nAll roots need air in greater or lesser proportions and some orchids have roots that grow out of pots into open air. That gives a clue as to what good Orchid compost will be like.<br \/>\nOrchids do not get any real food value from the free draining compost so need dilute feed in with the watering.<br \/>\n<a title=\"Orchids by brianpettinger, on Flickr\" href=\"http:\/\/www.flickr.com\/photos\/hortoris\/6165263703\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/farm7.staticflickr.com\/6177\/6165263703_d7fccae5cf.jpg\" alt=\"Orchids\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h2>Content of Orchid Compost<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Bark chippings which come in differing sizes. For plants with thick roots choose a larger chips, if they are small and thin then choose small chippings.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Sphagnum moss, bark and\u00c2\u00a0 styrofoam mixed is good\u00c2\u00a0 for seedlings or very thinly rooted plants. It tends tol dry out quickly so watch the\u00c2\u00a0 watering.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Rock wool\u00c2\u00a0 mixed with a little perlite can seem dry on the surface \u00c2\u00a0 when very wet underneath and over time breaks down into a hard mass.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>Lump peat and styrofoam is good for Phalaenopsis and those plants requiring a little more moisture retention.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/products\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/orchid-compost.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"orchid compost\" src=\"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/products\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/orchid-compost.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"519\" height=\"389\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<h3>Orchid Compost Tips<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>You can buy a proprietary Orchid compost at most garden centres<\/li>\n<li>Compost breaks down and Orchids need repotting into fresh compost but only every couple of years.<\/li>\n<li>Put some large crocks of foam at the bottom of the pot to aid drainage and retain air pockets<\/li>\n<li>Repot just after flowering not whilst in flower.<\/li>\n<li>Let bark compost soak in water overnight before repotting.<\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.awin1.com\/cread.php?awinmid=2283&amp;awinaffid=81944&amp;clickref=&amp;p=http:\/\/www.thompson-morgan.com\/plants1\/search.html?section=all&amp;search=chempak%20orchid=&amp;lbc=thompson-morgan&amp;uid=557154991&amp;ts=custom&amp;w=chempak%20orchid&amp;af=&amp;isort=score&amp;method=and&amp;view=plaintext&amp;cnt=300\">Thompson &amp; Morgan<\/a> Chempak orchid growth feed. It is a high nitrogen liquid fertiliser containing plant foods, magnesium and six trace elements to promote growth<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Orchid compost is available from <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amazon.co.uk\/s\/ref=nb_sb_noss_1?url=search-alias%3Doutdoor&amp;field-keywords=orchid+compost=20=richardpettin-21&amp;index=blended&amp;linkCode=ur2&amp;camp=1634&amp;creative=6738\">Amazon<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If you want to make your Orchids feel at home then use good Orchid compost and mimic natural conditions as best you can.<br \/>\nThere are many proprietary brands available but you could do a lot worse than talk to an expert at a local Orchid show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14574,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[176],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-14572","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-garden-equipment-tips"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14572","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14572"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14572\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14574"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14572"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14572"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gardenerstips.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14572"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}