BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Orchids Can I use bark nuggets?

I knocked my Miltonia over & I'm not sure if I packed all the medium back into the pot. I was wondering if I can use bark nuggets in the pot or will they be too big for the pot? Or do I have to try & find somewhere to buy fir-bark chips?

I am not sure what you mean when you say bark nuggets....
Miltoniopsis do well in a water retaining mixture. Small orchid bark mix, rock wool mix and New Zealand sphagnum moss mediums work well. It is important that the pot has adequate drainage. These plants like to be somewhat pot-bound so allow room for only one year's growth. Repot once per each year, preferably in the spring. hope this helps and if you need to repot your Mitonia this would just be a good time to do so if it is not in flower. [color:"blue"] [/color]

I saw in the Canadian Tire circular garden mulch for sale & one product listed was something called bark nuggets. I'm not really sure what it is either! If I get the chance I might drop buy & take a look if not I'm just going to leave the plant alone. After it's fall the flowers are still in bloom so I guess I didn't kill it! I just bought this orchid at the Ottawa Orchid Show in April so I don't think it needs to be repotted until next spring!

Those bark nuggets are relatively large chunks of bark. Normaly pine unless specified something else. I just places 36 bags of the stuff down for a ground cover in my flower beds. I would be afraid there would be to much pine tar in the mix to use with the orchids. Although if your not afraid to give it a test run then you could experiment on some cheap disposable orchids. You may just need to find a way to break the nuggets down some to be more suitable for smaller root plants.