FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

I have a giant box of VFT soil/medium I bought from the website.

Was wondering if I can repot a grocery store orchid with the VFT medium?

Almost all the orchids you buy in a grocery store are Phals with an occasional oncidium or odontoglossum thrown in. They are all air plants. The roots must be able to contact the air. So if your VFT soil is peat based (or similar), then it's too dense and you'll choke the roots. If it's sphagnum, then it's useable, providing you pack it very loosely.

The website's medium is sphagnum AND peat lol

https://www.flytrapcare.com/store/venus-fly-trap-soil

Too dense for most orchids.

Dang.

Wait, so do orchids get their nutrients from the air? They don't need soil per-se, just some surface for their roots to cling to?

They likely get some nutrition from decaying organic matter caught in the petioles but basically they use photosynthesis. Most of them even have green roots.

P A U L wrote: ↑Wed Jan 18, 2023 8:00 pmWait, so do orchids get their nutrients from the air? They don't need soil per-se, just some surface for their roots to cling to?

Most orchids are epiphytes or lithophytes. The trees/branches or rocks they cling to simply serve to anchor the plant. Because of this, their roots are adapted to and require conditions which provide far more air around the roots than most other types of plants could endure. The downside of this, is that most can't handle denser potting media. (Such media stays too wet too long and smothers the roots.)

As far as nutrients go, they typically get what they need from the small amounts of decaying leaf litter or animal wastes that washes down over their roots.