How To Pot an Orchid

In potting an orchid, the type of “home’ or container will be essential in growing healthy orchid plants. You can choose from a variety of pots with varying depths and widths. Plastic and terracotta pots are most common, each with qualities that are ideal for growing orchids.

    Plastic or Terracotta? Your choice of pot material will depend on where you plan on displaying your orchid. Plastic pots are ideal for indoor usage while terracotta plants are more durable, thus better for outside use. You’ll need to know what type of orchid you’ll be growing in order to purchase a pot that is right for it. For example, some types of orchid roots grow in length while others spread out. The former will need a tall pot while the latter will need a pot with broader width. A basket is another option to hold your plant.
    Prepping the pot. To pot a terrestrial orchid, purchase a planter that is larger than the base of the orchid. Clean the pot by rinsing with water. Soak it a bit for a few minutes in lukewarm water before draining. Take some gravel, rocks and/or broken pots and put it at the bottom of the pot to take up 1/3 of the space. Then, take your compost and put it in as the next layer. Your compost should be shaped into the form of a cone, with the tip on the same level as the rim of the pot.

    Potting your orchid. Take your orchid and gently spread the roots over your compost so that it is hugging the cone-shaped compost. Then, add more compost to cover the roots until the whole pot is filled with compost. Do not pack the compost. Let the pot fill firmly with compost but do not manually pack the pot. Fill the pot with water so that the compost is watered completely. The best kinds of pots are ones with holes so that the water drains and prevents orchid drowning. Orchids that are drowned in water tend to die quickly. The solution to this is to put crockery, or broken terracotta pots, in the bottom of the pot.
    More tips for newly potted orchids. Nowadays, clear pots are available in garden stores. This will help with your plant growth because the sunlight directly hits the roots, which is good for your plant growth. Do not repot your plant unless you have a good reason. A good reason includes overgrowth of roots. Some others are decaying medium, root rot, salt build-up and orchids that have outgrown their pots.


In getting into the hobby of growing orchids, do your research. Learn the types of orchids and the available potting materials. If you’ve done some research, you’ll learn that there are aerial and underground roots. Never make the mistake of trying to bury the aerial and exposing the underground. You’ll just end up killing the plant. Be a responsible plant caretaker. Don’t start growing orchids only to tire of the task and leave them to die.