pot optimization

i've always grown some tropical fruit trees, but recently i've become a "bit" more interested in them.  the following post is for the tropical fruit forum...optimal pot riddle.

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"if you really want to give something a head start, put it in a deep, deep ass pot." - flyingfoxfruits 

"after 10+ years of side-by-side tests of different pots, i'm sold on the fabric pots, at least for my conditions." - coplantnut, experiments with container-grown mangosteen in colorado

"neither, after trying both pots you mentioned and the fabric pots, I have finally switched to regular nursery pots coated with microkote." - simon_grow, which is better? air-pots versus rootmaker's rootbuilder II 

when i 1st moved into my place i dug a bunch of holes to plant trees.  if i was lucky i would find a marble.  i'd tell my girlfriend at the time that i had a valuable surprise for her and she was nice enough to pretend to be happy to receive a random marble.  she ended up filling half a jar with them.

when i 1st joined this forum a little over a year ago i have to admit that i didn't do much digging to find old but valuable threads.  the other day though, when i decided to share some of my thoughts on pots, i figured it would be a good idea to 1st dig to try and find some buried treasure.

here are some of the more or less relevant things i unearthed...

side by side microkote experiment - graftingavocados

why do my jackfruit seedlings always fail? - daintree

garcinia seedlings (confessions of a repot head) - ethan

sourcing tree pots - zephian

jabuticaba: how to grow them? - huertasurbanas

greenhouse, rootmaker pots for tropicals and fruit "porn" - mark in texas

air pruning pots--opinions? - starling1

100% synthetic potting mix? - josh-los-angeles

mangosteen and lychee, growing in warm enclosure - socal2warm

did i overlook the most useful content about pots?  if so, please share it.  overlooking the best things in life is one of the worst things in life.  like the time i went to puerto vallarta 25 years ago and overlooked luc's garcinia.

if we could use our donations (to the tff) to determine the creation and order of forum categories, how much would we donate for the topic of pots?  in my previous thread i didn't include the topic of pots among the top three topics that i'd be willing to donate for.  maybe that was a mistake.

prior to digging for pot threads, i had never heard of microkote before, which was curious since it seemed quite useful, but i don't remember it being mentioned in any relatively recent threads.  so i googled within this site and found 1 microkote search result since 2018.  

then i found 0 "semi-hydro" search results since forever.

which is more useful... semi-hydro or microkote or...?

naturally we all have different conditions, so something that is useful in wet conditions, for example, might be useless in dry conditions.  optimal is relative, kinda.

a year ago i visited the salton sea for the 1st time and was intrigued that the shore consisted of a very loose mix of barnacle shells, fish bones and sand.  i asked my friend whether it might make a good medium and she replied something like, no way, it's toxic!  i replied, hold my beer.  i found a random empty 5 gallon pot, filled it with the seashore medium, took it home and rinsed it several times.  then i stuck two well callused aloe cuttings (tenuior and my tenuior hybrid) into the medium in a 1 gallon pot.  for the sake of comparison i stuck two more cuttings in pure pumice and two more cuttings in cat liter (my ex left it)...

the cat liter was an obvious fail, guess it was the wrong kind.  but surprisingly the salton sea medium seemed to work.  here's a recent pic...

the roots...

the left two aloes were in the salton seashore medium, the two on the right were in pure pumice.  the roots that were in pumice look a bit better so it seems reasonable to say that with these two aloes, and in my relatively drier conditions, pumice is a bit more optimal than the salton seashore.   but perhaps in wetter conditions the seashore medium would be a bit more optimal.

Growing Orchids on Potted Plants

Reply to: Orchid Seeds Germinated On My Tree!

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Nice!!! I wish I could germinate on my trees, but that would never work in Upstate NY! - cnslr81

Sure it could work! Just bring the trees inside for the winter! In other words, use potted trees. And it doesn't even have to be trees. It can be any plant with a relatively woody surface. For example...I attached orchids to my potted Crassula...




Here's the list...

Broughtonia sanguinea, Bulbophyllum rupicola, Bulbophyllum shepardii, Brassavola nodosa, Campylocentrum sellowii, Cleisostoma arietinum, Dendrobium compactum (x2), Dockrillia cucumerina, Dockrillia linguiforme, Dockrillia wassellii, Encyclia sp (NOID mini), Jacquiniella leucomelana, Laelia sincorana, Lanium avicula, Macroclinium manabinum, Oberonia japonica, Oncidium cebolleta, Oncidium harrisonianum, Pleurothallis minutalis, Pleurothallis teres, Psychilis krugii, Sophronitis brevipedunculata, Tolumnia bahamense, Tolumnia hawkesiana, Tolumnia sylvestris, Tolumnia urophylla (x2) and Trichoceros oñaensis.

The Crassula is mostly potted in 3/4" rocks for excellent drainage. This means that the orchids are thrilled when their roots grow down into the rocks...which now have moss growing between them. Plus, I can also just place an orchid on the rocks and it will grow. Here's what I have growing on top of the rocks...

Bulbophyllum blepharistes, Cleisostoma scolopendrifolium, Sarcochilus ceciliae, Tetramicra canaliculata, Tolumnia variegatum

Maybe I'll replace most of the succulents (Echeverias, Sedums, etc) currently growing on the rocks with miniature rupiculous Laelias.

Probably the first phorophyte candidate that comes to mind is Ficus benjamina. At least here in SoCal they seem to be ubiquitous house plants. I've grown numerous orchids on a F. benjamina that I had growing in the ground. The texture on the bark is perhaps a bit better than the texture on my Crassula...so it's probably more hospitable to the necessary fungus.

But if you visit your local nurseries I'm sure you'll be able to find some potted plants that could make excellent phorophytes. Maybe it's best to find a 15 gallon tree and then cut it down to size. Fruit trees are generally pretty good choices.

Watering mounted plants indoors can be a hassle though. I've never grown any orchids inside but if I did try some mounted orchids indoors then I'd probably set up a DIY drip watering system. Plenty of orchids don't need much water during winter though. When it's warm enough you could just move the phorophyte outdoors. It would be a good idea to pot the phorophyte in quite a bit of bark to provide excellent drainage.

Even with the perfect host...the orchid seeds won't germinate without the necessary fungus. And unfortunately the necessary fungus isn't visible to the naked eye. So when you select orchids for your phorophyte...choose ones that probably have the fungus. Imported orchids most likely have the fungus. For example, orchids from vendors like Ecuagenera and Floralia are good choices. Orchids from Andy's Orchids are also a good bet.

It's always a good idea to experiment with extra divisions. This way you don't have all your epiphytes on one tree. See what I did there?

don't keep all your epiphytes on one tree = don't keep all your eggs in one basket
attach two epiphytes to the same branch = kill two birds with one stone
there's more than one way to attach an epiphyte = there's more than one way to skin a cat

What are the chances that these improved expressions will catch on? How long would it take?

Will growing orchids on potted plants ever catch on? I sure hope so!

Earlier in the year I attached Mystacidium capense and Brassavola nodosa to a potted Bougainvillea. The orchids have white flowers and the Bougainvillea has reddish flowers. When they bloom it should be like a living bouquet.

Maybe one day potted orchid trees will replace Christmas trees. They actually sometimes use Christmas lights to help protect outdoor plants from the cold.