Commercial Floriculture

Potting Materials

Osmunda
• This is the root fibers of the Royal fern, Osmunda regalis.
• It is hard, durable, sufficiently springy but rigid enough for good anchorage and contains very little mineral matter.
• Its great disadvantage is its high price and today good quality osmunda is almost unobtainable.

Polypodium fiber
• This is the root fibres of the common polypody fern, Polypodium vulgare.
• It is softer and finer than Osmunda fiber and neither so durable nor so good for anchorage and aeration.
• A little soil should be added to it and this obviously also increases its mineral nutrition.

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Sphagnum
• This bog moss is cheap,
• Has excellent water retention property and is inert chemically.
• It is usually mixed with some other media but can be used by itself for the establishing of seedlings and newly imported plants that need special attention.

Tree fern
• This is usually obtainable as the ground-down trunks of tree ferns.
• It is hard, fairly durable, without mineral content and not very expensive but the fibers are not always long and spongy enough to provide good anchorage.
• Broken brick, pumice granules, gravel and broken coke, fir bark, peat, synthetic materials can either be used by themselves in a form of hydroponic orchid culture or mixed with sphagnum.
• Generally medium should be porous and well aerated for the roots to freely grow and respire easily.
• Easily available and cheap medium should be used either individually or in combinations.
• A mixture of brick and charcoal or peat moss which is degradable and holds moisture for a long time can be used.

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