Clay Pots or Plastic Pots for Orchid Growing

Orchid beginners are always confronted with a lot of questions and I am providing my views on this topic.

Clay Pots or Plastic Pots. Which is best for growing orchids in Bangalore weather.

I grow most of my orchids on plastic pots with slits and some grow on clay pots.

Attribute	Clay Pot	Plastic Pot
Porosity	Clay Pots are porus and hence help the roots to breath better and hence lesser probability of root rots	Plastic Pots are non porus and based on the watering it could be more prone to root rotting than clay pots. Plastic pots with slits improve air circulation and are better than normal plastic pots
Evaporative Cooling	Due to the porosity of the clay media, the roots are relatively  cooler	No evaporative cooling
Watering Frequency	Due to Porosity of clay, it would retain less moisture and hence needs more frequent watering than clay pots. Since less moisture is retained, it is less prone to root rots	Retains more moisture than clay and is benefecial for some of the orchids but if overwatered it could cause root rots. Platsic pots with slits are better than normal plastic pots
Sterlization	Sterlization of clay pots is very difficult	sterlization of plastic pots is easier
handling & life of pots	Handling of clay pots is relatively tougher and life is short	Handling is much easier and life is normally more
Weight	because of their weight, they are suitable for top heavy plants (Vanda, Cattleya)	Adding some weights in form of gravel stones in the bottom of the pot or placing the Plastic pot inside a clay pot during the blloming season could help in addressing this issue

Science behind Orchid Fertilizers..Right Dosage

Orchid fertilizers come in a variety of forms and to rightly measure the correct amount of fertilizer is always a challenge for a orchid grower.

I picked up a TDS meter (HM Digital) in ebay and I use the PPM reading to right feed the orchids.

Items Required

1) TDS Meter
2) Rain Water/Borewell Water/BWSSB Water
3) Orchid Fertilizer in a powder form or liquid form

I had started collected rain water in a 500 litre drum which we had used during our house construction and I will use the rain water.

I use a powder form of orchid fertilizer (20-20-20) with micro-nutrients

Following is a short process

1) Remove the cap of the TDS Meter
2) Dip the TDS Meter in the water without adding the fertilizer. Note down the reading. My rain water reading was 20 which is ideal.
3) Now add a tea spoon of orchid fertilizer and stir the liquid so that the granules dissolve in water
4) Measure the TDS of the liquid again.

The ideal feeding level on a weekly feeding routine is around 200 PPM. which means that the TDS meter should show 220. (220 of the solution - 20 of the original solution) = 200.

if the PPM is higher then add more water to lower the PPM and if the PPM is lower than the desired level then add a small pinch of fertilizer , stir and measure again

I weekly feed my orchids with this weak formula

Taman Orkid of KL

Hi,

For the past two weeks I am in Malaysia (KL) and had a weekend to spend and went around looking for orchid shops and vendors and fellow orchid enthusiasts.

I came across two of them in KL

1) Taman Orkid. Orchid garden in the center of the city.
2) Lum Chin Orchids

Both these places are not directly reachable and required a quite a bit of walking. Thanks to GPS in my phone, I managed to walk about 2 Kms and reach the place

Taman Orkid is situated in the KL gardens which is like lalbagh of bangalore. I took a KTM to reach KL old railway station and started walking up a slope behind the national mosque.

This place KL garden has a lot of attractions a police museum, KL bird park and few others. My eyes were on Taman Orkid and I could find the place.

There were a lots of orchids species and hybrids of aeridis, vanda, renanthera, dendrobiums and oncidiums on display and I could manage to spend some time and see.

I wish there was orchid garden in lalbagh like this.

There were a few vendors selling orchids and I came across one shop selling only species and all other shops were selling hybrids. I could see shops charging a little money RM5 for taking photos with orchids and I could see some families/tourists paying money and taking the photos with orchids. Some extra income for the shops

I will write about that shop selling exclusive species in my next blog