Commercial Floriculture

Potting

• After the selection of plants proper potting with proper compost mixture has to be done.
• While potting the epiphytic orchids like Vanda and Dendrobium care should be taken that aerial offshoots or Keikis should not break.
• Vanda plants are staked.
• Proper labeling should be done after the potting is over.
• The pots should be filled to about 1/3 of their height with the compost material chosen.
• The bottoms of baskets should be covered with large flat crocks.
• The bases of the pots are generally being prepared.
• The oldest pseudobulb should be against the edge of the pot and the youngest ones towards the center so that there will be ample space for new shoots and pseudobuls to grow.
• More potting material is gradually added, being temped down firmly with a potting stick working from the outside towards the center.
• With a coarse potting medium the top level should be 1-2 cm below pot level.
• Monopodial orchids, such as Vanda, Renanthera and Phalaenopsis, should be potted similarly but, since they do not have pseudobulbs, they should all be planted in the center of the pots.
• In Paphiopedilum the potting material is topped up with sphagnum, which, with correct watering, will continue to grow and be beneficial to the plants as well as act as an indicator of the condition of the compost.
• Without compelling reasons orchids should not be repotted.
• If, however, aeration of the potting material is poor because of decomposition it must be replaced.
• If in doubt, put it off for another year. Basically care must be taken that new growth and shoots are not overlapping the rim of the pot,
• For large neglected plants which have been potted for a long time are notoriously difficult to handle and it is very easy to break off new shoots and roots.

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