Pot - should I drilled more holes?

[Hyun007]

I have the normal black plastic pot where there are only holes in the bottom.

As I am getting root rot issues, I am thinking of drilling holes at the side of the pot to increase air circulation. What do you guys think???

I have also recently repot some of my plants with only charcoal pieces instead of the chips and pieces where the chips causes wetness to be trapped inside and poor circulation of air to the root.

With only charocal pieces, there are more air pockets inside the pot. I hope by doing all these there will be no/less problem with my daily/alternate day watering habit or heavy rain.

I also try to repot the plants in a manner where the roots attached to the plant are a little exposed to the surface.

Any remarks or suggestion will be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance.

 

[SlipperFan]

If you are having root rot, why are you watering every day or every other day? Are the roots staying too wet too long?

 

[Hyun007]

If you are having root rot, why are you watering every day or every other day? Are the roots staying too wet too long?

I have the problem of surface and top area drying up fast but the bottom area not drying correctly. It is difficult for me to check as the plastic pot is black and i could not find transparent plastic pots. I had repotted them to charcoal pieces instead of small charcoal chips as the later hold on to wetness and prevent it from drying the way I wanted.

With the raining season, it is also difficult for me to control the watering as they are left outside hanging on/under the tree and I cannot bring them indoor due to space restriction.

My logic tell me the best solution is to give them the best drainage and air circulation.

I had started to make some DIY pot from mineral water bottle as I cannot get tranparent pot here. I drilled some holes by the side a well. It is not pretty to look at but I will update the result in a couple of months.

 

[SlipperFan]

I think in your circumstance, I would use net baskets instead of pots, and use a very coarse potting media.

 

[paphioboy]

I think the problem may have more to do with pot size. I know the type of pots you are referring to; the holes at the bottom are much larger than standard pots and should have more than adequate aeration and drainage. Most paph growers in Thailand use small pots (2-3 inches wide) for the brachys. I have seen some overpotted godefroyae and leucochilum, but they were in the round 6-8 inch net pots used for Grammatophyllum (not as shallow as vanda baskets).

 

[Hyun007]

I think the problem may have more to do with pot size. I know the type of pots you are referring to; the holes at the bottom are much larger than standard pots and should have more than adequate aeration and drainage. Most paph growers in Thailand use small pots (2-3 inches wide) for the brachys. I have seen some overpotted godefroyae and leucochilum, but they were in the round 6-8 inch net pots used for Grammatophyllum (not as shallow as vanda baskets).

I have no prolem with brachys, they are growing well, those which had problem before are restartong new shoots.

If you are talling about pot size, for me, I think they lack of height rather the diameter issue.

The only bachy I killed so far is a Thaianum.. Bought 3 plants, 2 started to died off with leaves dying. One came back to life with new shoot after I refuse to give up on it as the roots looks good even though there was no longer any leaves. It is starting it second shoots even though the first one is not even far from fully grown.

4 Parishii are on the way to die, the leaves were saggy and hardly any root left after I trimmed off all the rotting roots. I repotted them with coarse charcoal and potted them in the DIY mineral bottle and try to support the leaves up with stick and wire, 2 seem a little better now even though there is no roots! I can only play the wait and see game.

For me, I blame my watering habit as well as the media of coarse charocal and chips that prevent air circulation and roots to dry correctly.

I hope the changes that I had made are correct, I am confident about it though.

 

[Happypaphy7]

Good points so far.

I don't thing pots are the issues.
I have grown myself and seen others at nurseries, and tell you that even in large pots, plants grow just fine.

I think it is mainly due to your culture if you see many of your plants going downhill.

I agree with what Dot said.
Reconsider about different potting mix and watering techniques.
Leaving them outside during wet season might also be part of the blame?

Are they too wet? If so, can you not build a temporary rain cover and place them over your plants so that they are not constantly getting rained on??

Or during the rainy season, repot your plants so that they are in very open mix to take advantage of the season?

 

[phraggy]

I also agree with Dot. Paphs do very well if treated as epiphytes, open compost in the type of pots used for pond plants with plenty of air movement. I have just watered all my paphs ( multiflorals ) for the fifth time this week. I don't feed very much just once per fortnight with a tds of no more than 300ppm. Today I flushed all of them with RO water and measured the tds of the run thru water using just 2 gallons of the water for all the plants ---- the tds never reached 30ppm. The plants are growing well so feeding followed by regular flushing works exceptionaly well for me. To sum-up an open mix in open pots plenty of heat and lots of water and fresh air, and watch them grow.

Ed'

 

[abax]

Just as an additional thought, have you ever thought about using
unglazed clay pots with holes drilled around the sides with
a coarse potting medium?

 

[Happypaphy7]

How would you drill holes on clay pots without breaking them??
Not that I'm going to do it, but just pure curiosity.

 

[Hyun007]

Good news is that claypot with holes can be found in Thailand. Only con is to find the correct size and depth is not easy. I think I need to look harder.

2 of my Concolor are in claypots. The plants were given to me in terrible leaves condition as a free gift from a vendor that I purchased from. Both are doing well, both starting new leaves and new shoots. The only offset is that the depth is quite low, less than 3"inches deep. Most probably a bad idea in long term? One of my surviving Thaianum is this type of claypot too but it and seem to be in sleep mode(nothing happening for the past few months). The one in plastic pot had leaves died off completely but has 2 new shoots now.

I also has a Dianthum in a 6-7" claypot with holes, This one has a deep depth, it was not doing well, I think because of the charcoal chips blocking the circulation. It is starting to looks okay now with the new growth starting to have a little action of small new roots but all the old growths had died. Now, I just monitor and hope all the new roots to be as near as the surface area like a epiphytes. I do not want to disturb it by repotting since new roots are appearing.

I also have 2 Callosum in claypots with holes. I think diameter is about 7-8 inches with less than 3"depth again.
It is doing so so, a little up and down. Media are mixed of pumic, coconut husk and charocal. Roots are buried in and not so close to the surface. No intention of repotting with my new method at the moment as it is doing okay and I do not want to disturb it unless thing took a down turn. Recently one new leaf got chew up quite a few corner by a twig looking caterpillar and I crushed that little bugger to death.

Recent purchased of Villosum are looking fine with potting of coarse charcoals with DIY Mineral bottle with holes at side and bottom. Maybe still too early to tell for the first 2 weeks.

Another recent purchase(3 weeks ago) of Barbigrerum that I planted with pumic stones seem to be doing well too. The leaves are thick like Exul and hence it should be an easy plant in my opinion. I banked on the gap of the pumic stones for air circulation. No holes at the side they are not in my DIY pots which were only made 1 week after I got them. I even experiment one sitting in a saucer of water and another one with coarse charcoal as I got about 10 of them. Vendor actually said because he hold on for me for over 2 weeks and the condition are not good and he will send me some good one for free later. From the look of it at the moment, I do not think I need anymore of it even though it will be FOC.

 

[Hyun007]

How would you drill holes on clay pots without breaking them??
Not that I'm going to do it, but just pure curiosity.

I think a very good high speed diamond drill should do the trick
I can drilled many holes on an egg without breaking it so I think it is possible with claypot.

 

[abax]

We use a small masonry drill on a wet pot and usually
it works quite well. We've also made four or five slits
in the sides of clay pots which is easier than holes. If a pot
breaks, we've always got shards for bottom drainage. All
orchid growers have their little quirks and air movement
through the potting medium is my quirk.

 

[paphioboy]

I presume most of your plants are ex-wild origin, hence most come with many damaged roots and leaves. Parishii is one of the harder ones to establish. I know some Thai growers use staghorn fern root, which is their preferred media for parishii. Locally in Malaysia, some growers just plant in 100% granite rock (2-3cm size) and water daily until established.

 

[Hyun007]

I presume most of your plants are ex-wild origin, hence most come with many damaged roots and leaves. Parishii is one of the harder ones to establish. I know some Thai growers use staghorn fern root, which is their preferred media for parishii. Locally in Malaysia, some growers just plant in 100% granite rock (2-3cm size) and water daily until established.

Yes, you are right. Most of my collection are from the wild. It is the easiest and cheapest source to get.

It is also easy to get plants that is flowering by some grower at reasonable cheap price but that lack the challenge and the thrill.

So far, 1/5 parishii is establish which is a relieved.
The other 4 still in ICU waiting for root growth.

Sometime it is hard to diagnose when a plant is beyond rescue especially for the multi-floral as other tend to have their leaves die off very quickly with root rot but a multi floral leave seem to be able to ressurrect with support but I am not sure whether it will survive to produce new roots.