As a back story, I got my first orchid for my birthday a few months ago, and that launched me into a hyper-fixation. I have tons of houseplants but have never tried orchids since I knew they were a bit finicky. I asked my husband for a new orchid for Mother’s Day. He talked this up as a pretty rare one he found online since it was pretty expensive, and he had it delivered for $100+. When it arrived, it was a bit underwhelming. I’m pretty sure he was bamboozled since my googling shows this to be a pretty common variety and they are currently available at the grocery store or Home Depot for much less. No big deal, I still think it’s beautiful and my objective was just to start building my collection so this perfect!
It arrived in a pot with no drainage, covered in moss, and the instructions said “splash with water once a week” which I knew to be an insufficient method of care since I’d just been down a rabbit hole learning to keep my first one alive. I pulled the moss back, and there were two small containers with a ton of styrofoam to hold them in place, covered by 3 inches of moss. The moss had mold on it and some of the roots are black and mushy.
I’m going to try repotting them in some LECA in a net pot I had on hand! Any tips or tricks for growing orchids in LECA is appreciated!
by Connect_Attention800
6 Comments
I don’t know about LECA, but wow, gorgeous orchid! I’ve been looking for one like this for a while and I’ve never seen it at Home Depot, Lowes or any big box store, so I think it is probably rarer than normal.
1. Do not repot in bloom right after being shipped. The poor things will be stressed enough as is
2. Don’t repot into LECA. I fell down that rabbit hole as well. Killed nearly everything in my collection. Had to start over. There is a reason why the professionals don’t use it.
I am reluctant to believe you will get good semihydro/inorganic guidance on this subreddit as it’s quite frowned upon.
I do grow my entire collection semihydroponically using lava rock, leca, pumice. Some good resources would be firstray’s guides you can find online. I would start there and get informed on my environment, the quality of my water and not get too overwhelmed at first. Just one orchid though to test out whether you enjoy it or not. It’s different than the traditional growth methods but it does work for me. I water once a week to fill up the reservoir and that’s it.
I would not use net pots because the roots grow through those holes and when you need to repot you will have a hard time untangling them from the pot. There are various content creators (long format, not shorts) on youtube who grow orchids in inorganic. (e.g. Julie’s orchids, Ninja orchids) Hope you find what you look for.
For it to work, you need to remove all dead materials. Look up semi-hydro and read on his guideline [Semi-Hydroponics™](https://firstrays.com/free-cultural-information/semi-hydroponics/). I’ve been growing orchids in hydro and semi-hydro in LECA for over 10yrs now.
https://preview.redd.it/kv5d7j1hx50h1.jpeg?width=4032&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4866951edb40d1518c7bcf9e143237509d0aa278
I use leca in a mix for them (65/20/15 bark chips/leca/long fiber sphagnum), and have kept them in leca alone before, but found it more of a hassle than it was worth (without organic material you’ll have to constantly pH buffer the nutrient water to prevent deficiency problems). Also you can’t do the typical semi-hydro thing of leaving them in a reservoir, the roots will rot (they like a wet/dry cycle).
I would not repot it in leca. I did this with previous orchids with semi hydro and even though they were alive, they were not thriving. Then eventually they just died of root rot. Orchid bark is best for phalenopsis. Give it time to get used to your personal environment and let the blooms fall first before repotting it though. Doing everything at once annoys the orchids and they do not like change.