By Ray Dix
My mix for Cymbidium growing is labour-intensive and based on a ‘no pain, no gain’ theory. It is also a fun thing. All worthwhile activities should have some pain and some fun.
I take a 10-litre paint bucket. I have a garden sieve into which I place 2 scoops of No.3 pinuis radiata bark. I shake the fines out and, as it is good-quality bark, there is very little wood or cambium layer rubbish to remove. With a watering can full of grey water saved from the washing machine (I live in a Third World part of Auckland and all our water comes from the roof into a 5,000-gallon tank so when I am potting in the spring, summer and autumn, clean water is reserved for domestic purposes), I wash the bark to get rid of any remaining fines, to clean it up and also to make it moist.
The sieve of bark is placed on an upturned bucket under any young tree or shrub so that when I wash the bark the water passing through also waters the tree or shrub, most useful in the dry season.
After 2 sieves (about 3 sieves fills the 10-litre bucket) I put in: A handful of oak leaves torn into small pieces; two wine corks chopped into 8 pieces so they are a similar size to the bark, or perhaps a little larger; 2 crushed egg shells; 2 tablespoons dolomite lime; 2 tablespoons of blood and bone; and a quarter teaspoon of trace elements. These are Kiwi measures so are heaped and halfway up the handle as well.
The oak leaves seem a nice organic material to use, having some food value as they break down and, I beleive, a good effect on the pH level of the mix. I like to give a guarantee with any oak leaves taken from my property: “If these oak leaves do not make your orchids grow better, I guarantee that my driveway will be a lot tidier”.
I enjoy wine so it pleases me to be able to use up the corks, which is a good material to keep the mix open and breaks down only slowly. It is nice to be discriminatory in the use of corks so red-wine corks for red Cymbidiums, white-wine corks for all the other colours, and Champagne corks for your Grand Champions. I do not put corks in the mix for ypung seedlings because I do not believe in under-age drinking and I do not like to see cork pieces on the surface of the mix. Secret drinking is the thing.
Egg shells are a source of calcium. I have a few chooks so it pleases me to use up the egg shells after eating the eggs. Purists will be discriminatory and use egg shells from Rhode Island Reds for red Cymbidiums, those from White Leghorns for whites and so on.
Having placed all these additives into the bark in the bucket, I shake it like mad to mix it all thoroughly, at the same time getting a mini-workout on arm and stomach muscles (saves going to the gym). Then in goes the third sieve and I shake that about too for the final mix, which needs to be a little gentler because now it is a full bucket and I don’t want to spill any over the sides. I put the lid on the moist mix and date it. I have about 6 of these buckets and by using them in rotation, it allows some composting action before use.
- Ray Dix, who died in Auckland on December 8, 2004, aged 71, registered some 22 Cymbidium hybrids of his own breeding, with a particular fondness for the colour red. A founding member of the New Zealand branch of the Cymbidium Society of America (CSA), Ray was its secretary/treasurer for 20 years and was the receipient of many high-level awards for his orchids.
- This article is reprinted with OCNZ permission from Orchids 2000.
Tauranga Orchid Society 