Re-potting and Dividing Cymbidium - Again

Fig. 1  Cymbidium:  Winter of 2014

Three years ago I repotted my cymbidiums into three gallon containers.  This year (late spring) I divided them again after they all finished blooming; turning each plant into three individual plants. In some cases I hesitated to divide them because I like seeing multitudes of spikes (instead of two or three per plant) shooting from among the sword-like sheaths of green leaves, so I repotted them into larger containers.  One of them now resides in a fifteen gallon container.  It will be interesting to see how it will perform next blooming season.

Fig. 2   Cymbidium in  a 10-gallon container.

2010 Potting Medium

Motivated by the high cost of bagged orchid mix, I thought of making my own mix for my cymbidiums as follows:

Decomposed redwood bark (.25 - 0.5 inch)

Perlite

Handful of  potting soil

I used three years ago worked.  The plants did well - with lots of blooms and good root system.  The bark decomposed into very fine compost which I scattered along the rows of boxwood near my vegetable garden.

2014 Potting Medium

This year I used yet a different mix:  

Bark (0.5 - 1.0 inches)

Peat moss

Garden soil

With the current drought that we are experiencing, the peat moss would help retain more water allowing for less frequent watering.  Larger-size bark was used to allow good air movement around the root area.

Fig. 3  Cymbidiums lined up along south-facing wall.

Fig. 4  Newly repotted orchids.

Fig. 5    Pink cymbidiums:  Winter 2014

Fig. 6    Yellow cymbidiums

Right now, my orchids are doing well in their new growing media but it took them a while to get used to their new root environment.  I will be posing a new update come fall.