A Guide to repotting Pleiones

[Paul Cumbleton]

Just a note to say that my latest Wisley Log - now available on the main SRGC site - is a step by step guide to how I pot my Pleiones. Hope you all find it useful.

Paul


http://www.srgc.org.uk/logs/index.php?log=wisley  .... for this year's logs and all the previous ones, too

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Great stuff Paul !
Very useful indeed.
I've been visiting the Melcourt website trying to find out if this bark is being sold in certain garden centers but found no trace.
Would anybody have this information
If there were any in Kent - I'd like to pick up a couple of bags on one of my "channel hops".

I'm somewhat reluctant to use bark on the market out here on the continent - and have so far mainly been using the "expensive" orchid bark.
Thanks for any available information .

[johanneshoeller]

Hello Paul,
many thanks for your very interesting link.
As I have seen you put many bulbs in a pot. What are your experiences with many or few bulbs in a pot. I only grow one or two larger bulbs in a pot (so 9x9cm). I think of illness or so.

[Paul Cumbleton]

Hi Hans,
Putting many bulbs in a pot does not seem to have many problems and of course if you want to grow a lot it is the only way to have enough space. Just occasionally if there is a disease problem it can spread through the whole potful, but I guess that is true for any kind of plant. In the wild some pleiones grow into dense colonies with hundreds of bulbs crowded together into a colony that may be a metre across. They seem to like the company. While single large bulbs in a pot usually grow well, smaller bulbs on their own sometimes do not do as well with no company.

Paul

[gote]

At the moment I do not grow any pleiones but when I did I used sphagnum from my own forest in a similar way.
The problem was to chop it up. I found that if it was just moist but not wet and put into the freezer, it was quite easy
to slice the resulting block with a sharp knife.
This is of course a method for someone who only has a few pots.

Göte

[Paul Cumbleton]

That's a great tip Göte. Does anyone have a method of chopping large quantities of moss quickly?

Paul

[Luc Gilgemyn]

Not ideal, but I put a certain quantity in a bucket and chop/cut them with the hedge shears held under different angles... I hope you know what I mean ...

I had a question Paul,
On one of your pix I think I saw you tend to plant your bulbs slightly leaning backwards. Am I right and does that have a particular purpose ?

[Maggi Young]

We have found that many bulbs do better when they have "company" in the pot... Ian even uses "surrogate bulbs"...styrofoam "s" shapes  when potting ....see Bulb Log 30 of 2005 for details !

For chopping  large quantities of moss , so long as it is DRY, then putting it through a shredder is fast. If one has one of those leaf blower/vacuum machines with a shredder option, then that should work too -- again on DRY moss. Wet moss will bung up the workings.

[johnw]

Gote - That sounds like a good way to deal with live sphagnum.  I once tried to chop it in the Cuisinart Food Processor.  The long strands got entangled under the blade which jumped off its seating.  Rather scary, when the cook found out.

I now use a Chinese clever on a chopping block.

johnw

[Brian Ellis]

I now use a Chinese cleaver on a chopping block.

I hope you wear suitable headgear John

[Paul Cumbleton]

Luc, no there is no purpose to the bulbs leaning backwards; I don't plan them to be like that, it's just how they happen to end up sometimes. The new shoots grow upwards whatever angle you put the bulbs at.

Maggi - I always wondered if using a shredder would work at chopping up the moss, but we don't have one to try and I had always been worried that it might clog the thing up if I borrowed one. With your comments I now feel it's worth a go - thanks! Now, who do I know with a shredder....?

Paul

[Maggi Young]

Paul, be sure the moss is dry and only put through small amounts at a time intil you see how the macghine is coping... they vary.... better safe than sorry