Growing Platyceriums in Other Containers

12 years ago

Aside from redwood and cedar, there are a multitude of containers that staghorns will grow in.

Small redwood boxes make excellent housing containers for these plants. Their lath open sides make excellent ventilation and allows your media to dry out fast and evenly.

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Many different kinds of plastic mesh pots have come on the scene.

Some of the finer mesh types needs to have a bottom layer of styrofoam peanuts before adding your plant to it.

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Having a styrofoam peanut lined bottom prevents any water adhesion from becoming a stagnant feature of this container. Fit in your newly unpotted sporeling to center the pot.

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And add media to fill its sides. I like to use a blend of fir bark, LFS (long fiber sphagnum) and sometimes fern fiber and chunks.

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Many of the Thai orchid pots also make fine trays for platyceriums too!

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In this kind of pot, you can use pure LFS with minimal worries of root rot (so long as you allow the moss to dry out between waterings.

Comments (4)

RainforestGuy
Original Author
12 years ago
The important factors in choosing a container other than a wooden board base is drainage. Most staghorns are lost because of inadequate drainage.
Mesh pots offer total drain-free porosity with the allowance of rewetting fast and easily.
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Aside from LFS (long fiber sphagnum) try orchid bark, NZ bark, hapuu or osmunda fern fibers. Allow hangers to bring plants to areas of good drafts to thoroughly dry them out. Only with this wet-dry opposites can so many staghorns be successfully grown.
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texaskelley
12 years ago
I'm growing my Superbum in a wire hanging basket tilted on its side. Before that, it was growing in a hanging wicker basket. It is happy and growing in both, sending out new fronds daily (it outgrew the wicker basket in four months). I have just been making sure that the moss is dry but the fronds haven't yet started to wilt (In this drought, if the fronds wilt AT ALL, I lose them to the heat).

~AOK
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RainforestGuy
Original Author
12 years ago
I'd like to see the image of what a superbum looks like that sends out fronds daily. It must be huge!
For water stress areas, try soaking it in a bucket or tub of water and allow the plant to drip its residue into that bucket. We used to have water restrictions here and we would have every method possible to save any rainwater collected and store them in five gallon buckets with lids, etc. Gutters from the roof would never run into the streets, it is always saved and stored. Rainwater is magical so we save it even in a water surplus period.
texaskelley
12 years ago
It would be bigger, but it lost a lot of the fronds due to the heat when I first moved it outside. It's been trying to make up for the loss since then :)

I got it in February, and it has doubled in size since then.

I do need to post a picture though, since I am only guessing that it is a superbum. It was unmarked at the nursery where I got it, and I have only tentatively ID'd it from pictures online. Now if only I could figure out how...

I used to dunk it in a bucket when it was smaller, but now I don't have one big enough to fit it. Instead I water it while it's hanging and just cluster other potted plants underneath to catch the runoff. We may have to find more creative ways of conserving water. College Station is talking about putting a restriction on water useage soon. I wish we could collect rainwater, but it hasn't rained in SIX WEEKS!!!

~AOK