Den and Cattleya growing medium and water

[BruceM]

In your personal experience, what is a good medium for Dendrobiums and Cattleya's?

I have several new ones and a few older ones. The older ones were repotted in Better Gro Phalaeonopsis mix, a general purpose mix of Fir bark (about the size of a quaerter), hardwood charcoal, and a bark like peat material . BG had several other mixes for orchids, the big difference being no Peat in the others and one had a smaller bark chunks.

The cats seemt to do okay in it. They grow, new shoots, Several Kekei's , no flowers on any of the older ones (on one sI have had 1.5 years ). The dendroibiums appear to hate it. Most of them sit there, a couple have new growth. The Phal's go crazy in it. Looking at the books, it seems this should be a okay mix, but experience is always better.

Also, for watering: In general do Cat's and Den's like more water than Phal's? I water them on the same schedule, and some are oky, other show signs of needing more water such as wrinkled new growth, shriveled pseudobulbs, etc

[K Barrett]

Catts, I usually use a mix of small bark, perlite, lava rock and recently I've been adding osmunda fibers. I use small bark because I don't water as frequently as I should, so my medium is more closed than many people would do.

I don't have much luck with dendrobiums. It'll be interesting to see what people suggest.

I didn't know Catts would kekei....

K Barrett