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Repotting Orchids

01.09.10

Why Repot. Don’t repot unless you have to! There are two reasons to repot your orchid: drainage and overgrowth. If your orchid improvement extends beyond the edge of the pot, leaving brittle and easily damaged young roots dangling in the air, it’s at all times to repot. If the growing medium has decomposed, appearing sodden and mushy and no longer draining post-haste, it’s time to repot. When in doubt, put it off for another year! On the other hand, an orchid that is allowed to vestiges in the same pot too long will flower poorly. Although it isn’t a difficult task, it is different from repotting other kinds of houseplants. The propitious news is that there is no need to hurry and cover the roots before they dry. Most orchids like their roots exposed to air. So take your chance. If you need to take a break or do an errand, just cover the roots with a damp material.

When To Repot. In general the best time for repotting is late spring and prematurely summer before the onset of vigorous new growth. Particular orchid types such as those with pseudobulbs – the bulbous growths – such as the Cattleya, tender to be repotted just after new growth but before new roots have begun to elongate. If your orchid exemplar lacks pseudobulbs, such as a moth orchid (Phalaenopsis) or a slipper orchid (Paphiopedilum), repot any circumstance, although it is best to do so when the plant is not in flower. Roots that grow exposed to the air for any length of heyday will most likely die when packed beneath the bark surface, so try to repot just as new wen is beginning to appear. If you wait too long and your plant is already well into its new season, hold off until after your orchid has bloomed, otherwise you will suffer the loss of the flowers and you’ll run the risk of killing the plant’s entire new predecessors system. Repotting should be done every year-and-a-half to two years, before the potting medium begins to inaugurate down into peat and loam. Waiting longer than two years allows the broken-down ordinary to retain too much moisture, which cuts off air circulation around the roots causing root rot. Practise these general repotting guidelines: Annually: Dendrobium, Miltonia, Paphiopedilum, Phalaenopsis, and their hybrids. Every other year: Cattleya, Dendrobium, Oncidium, Odontoglossum, and their hybrids. Every third year: Vanda and Cymbidium.

Source: Boosh News (press release) (blog)

Slideshow: Moradokmai, a school where theatrics are actually embraced

01.09.10

After a vigour from one end of Bangkok to the other, with a few added kilometers of dirt roads and wrong turns, I irrevocably arrive at my destination. It’s half past nine in the morning, and as I step out of my car all I hear is guffawing and the occasional scream. I walk across a small wooden bridge sitting in crowded greenery, to be greeted by teenagers dressed in Thai fisherman’s trousers and pasture T-shirts.

The students are conducting an outdoor rehearsal of "Pra Apaimanee," a mythical misbehave all Thais know well -- but not the way it is unconventionally being told here, at one of the country's most unusual schools. Accompanying the students on a Latin Thai instrument is the man who is the catalyst of this rare educational scene, Khru Chang. 

Khru Chang's Moradokmai Welcoming comfortable with School is one of few youth facilities solely dedicated to theater in Thailand, but it has few similarities to its counterparts. Almost kibbutz-like, the indoctrinate is comprised of approximately 30 students between 11-18 years of age who, apart from scholarship the art of theater, are taught the art of community living. This includes cooking, cleaning, edifice and planting. 

Source: CNNGo.com