Orchiata, the best pine bark for orchids

[Roth]

Some years ago I was using Bas van Buuren mixtures, and of course when I moved to Vietnam it was out of question to import from the Netherlands.

I found in Thailand a pine bark supplier from New Zealand, www.orchiata.com and got some samples bags.

The pine bark they supply is by far the finest I could ever see, the size is perfect, no waste, and furthermore it has been throughly processed so the excessive tannins have been removed, and the acidity of the bark has been corrected by the supplier with lime. I have used it extremely successfully, and discussed at length with the producers of this product, before getting a large shipment to Vietnam.

Their bark is absolutely perfect for orchids, and especially paphs. In my tropical conditions, it does not decompose or nearly so, and I know of several very large nurseries using it for some years.

I will post more on that subject, but they just informed me that they have a distributor here:

http://www.calwesttropical.com/

For those who are struggling to get good quality bark, it is a really ready to use product. It is even far superior to anything I got in Europe.

Unfortunately they do not yet export to Europe, but I heard they are investigating how to do.

 

[Bob in Albany N.Y.]

As some of you know last week I visited Hadley of Marriott Orchids. He has been growing in CHC for at least 10 years. This year when he ordered a pallet of what he always buys the quality was so low that he was able to return the product. He then bought a sample bag from Crylstal or what ever the name of company is. He was also not happy with that product. While he was some where in Hawaii going to a show and speaking, he was also introduced to this product. Apparently some of the Hawaii growers have been using it for years. They claimed it held up for 4 or 5 years. I know that is hard to believe but thats the story. Hadley has now switched to the above bark. In the near future there are to become a few distributors of this bark in the U.S. I believe he mentioned one in Georgia. All the seedlings and divisions I bought were already in that bark or he put them in this product before I left. Sounds like a good product to me. It is also my understanding that Sunset Valley Orchids used to use this product but now that there will be distributors in the U.S. he now has switched to another product.

 

[nikv]

Thanks for the link! They are located right here in California. I think I'll be placing an order for bark and some tree fern pots while I'm at it.

 

[NYEric]

Interesting, especially since i have a couple of cubic feet I'm thinking of returning to a vendor!

 

[Paul]

As usual, Europe is at the end of everything about the products quality ... pleeaaaase I want this super bark!! :sob:

 

[Bob in Albany N.Y.]

Eric, so why are you returning such a product to the vendor? If indeed it is Orchiata bark that comes in 3 cubic foot bags, I'll buy it from you.

 

[NYEric]

No, I communicated poorly, I have another media I have to return, too large.

 

[kentuckiense]

I need to do some repotting. I'll have to check this stuff out.

 

[Bob in Albany N.Y.]

Now, all I need to find someone on the East Coast that is selling it. I can only imagine how much shipping would be from California.

 

[SlipperKing]

If it holds up for 4-5 yrs Bob it might be worth the shipping. I went through the motion of buying a 1.5 cu bag and the handleing fee was 8.00 bucks. I stopped there. There might of been an additional "shipping fee" on top of that.

 

[gonewild]

Pinus radiata in the native pine here on the central California coast. I would have never considered it to be a good orchid bark. In the garden it decomposes fast. Whatever they do in their preparation process must really stabilize it. It sounds like a good product.

 

[Pete]

Orchiata is great! the majority of growers on big island use this. It lasts for years easily and that is with a really high humidity and lots of watering too.
I have been using orchiata bark for about 5 years now and I would never switch.

 

[emydura]

Does it come in different sizes?
Can you just buy a bag or two or have you got to get a large shipment?
Price?


David

 

[Ray]

Now, all I need to find someone on the East Coast that is selling it. I can only imagine how much shipping would be from California.

I have contacted the vendor to inquire about east-coast distribution. No response yet.

 

[Pete]

it comes in four different sizes. i think they range from #9 being the smallest, #5 is next biggest, #5A is pretty coarse (what i use) and #7 which is really big chunks, ideal for cattleya.
It ships from new zealand so i doubt they will send a single bag or two, you should just hope they can direct you to somebody close by who brings in a few pallets or even a container of it and then you could buy a bag or two from them...

 

[Roth]

it comes in four different sizes. i think they range from #9 being the smallest, #5 is next biggest, #5A is pretty coarse (what i use) and #7 which is really big chunks, ideal for cattleya.
It ships from new zealand so i doubt they will send a single bag or two, you should just hope they can direct you to somebody close by who brings in a few pallets or even a container of it and then you could buy a bag or two from them...

Actually, the owners came to see me in Vietnam last month, and they already made 2 distributorship in the USA, now the plan to expand their network.

I worked with Bas van Buuren for many years, as well as Slingerland in the Netherlands. Orchiata people are far more professionnal than those 2 companies. They understand much more about the pine bark than anyone else, and I have been very surprised first by the quality and consistency of their product. I got the grade power - number 5 - 3 times from 3 different batches, and the quality was absolutely constant.

The pH of the product was 5.9-6.2, and it did not drop after a few months, the EC was extremely low. Before I did not plan to use too much of that in Vietnam, as it was expensive to import, but now I will switch most to a mixture including that pine bark.

For paphs, that's my habit, I always put an element to prevent too much droplets or water pockets to form, like sheet moss, sphagnum, peat or whatever. Low percentage and that's done.

I have seen as well very large nurseries of phals only potted in that, and of hybrids paphs in China and Vietnam, some in Thailand, and in Taiwan, the plants were great. In Japan, Mukoyama is using it for many years, and they said that it lasted in some cases up to 10 years. I am not too surprised, whilst the BVB bark started to decompose after 4-6 months in Vietnam with the heavy rain, the trial I did 2 years ago showed me that as of today, the product is the same as new.

It must not be soaked or washed before use, use it straight from the bag. If you soak it, a part will sink, because they processed the bark to hold more water than normal fresh or composted bark. Second, there is extra fine lime added that coats all the bark, that will be washed away too quickly if you soak it. I use it straight out of the bag. There is a little liber, maybe 2-3 1cm pieces to a liter, not more, there is absolutely no need to remove it.

 

[Pete]

i find that you absolutley MUST wash the bark before use. your right about the ph and EC being ideal and staying that way for a long while, as well as the unbelievable consistancy. (been the exact same for me for ~5 years), however there is a silt or sediment that needs to be cleaned off the bark before use. Not soaked, but washed.

 

[NYEric]

Now all we need is a source!

 

[Chas]

Ohio Source of New Zealand Bark

Roberts Flower Supply in Ohio is now selling Pinus radiata bark from New Zealand in hobby ($4), ½ cu ft ($9.50) and 50 liter bags ($32). The brand is different from Orchiata, but has the same quality characteristics (hard, clean etc). It appears to be the same as the brand that Fred Clark of Sunset Valley Orchids sells (called Kiwi brand bark) and highly recommends. I have used both very successfully. (Orchiata is a darker brown color than the Kiwi). I usually wet the bark slightly (don’t soak) with some water that contains a little KLN.

Roberts Flower Supply, 12390 Root Rd. Columbia Station, Ohio, 44028. Phone 449-236-5571 (email [email protected]). http://www.orchidmix.com/cat2.htm
Depending where you are, shipping is more reasonable from Ohio than California sources (and Wayne Roberts goes to shows in the Ohio-PA area).

While the NZ bark is more expensive, it is worth it. It does not decompose as fast as other bark and plants need to be transplanted less frequently. When needed, plants (paphs and phrags at least) can be moved to bigger pots without disturbing the roots. Plant is removed from the existing pot and more media is simply added to fill the new pot. I do this now with plants I get from Hawaii that use NZ bark and the plants are not set back as much as removing all the bark and starting over.

Chas

 

[Roth]

Roberts Flower Supply in Ohio is now selling Pinus radiata bark from New Zealand in hobby ($4), ½ cu ft ($9.50) and 50 liter bags ($32). The brand is different from Orchiata, but has the same quality characteristics (hard, clean etc). It appears to be the same as the brand that Fred Clark of Sunset Valley Orchids sells (called Kiwi brand bark) and highly recommends. I have used both very successfully. (Orchiata is a darker brown color than the Kiwi). I usually wet the bark slightly (don’t soak) with some water that contains a little KLN.

Roberts Flower Supply, 12390 Root Rd. Columbia Station, Ohio, 44028. Phone 449-236-5571 (email [email protected]). http://www.orchidmix.com/cat2.htm
Depending where you are, shipping is more reasonable from Ohio than California sources (and Wayne Roberts goes to shows in the Ohio-PA area).

While the NZ bark is more expensive, it is worth it. It does not decompose as fast as other bark and plants need to be transplanted less frequently. When needed, plants (paphs and phrags at least) can be moved to bigger pots without disturbing the roots. Plant is removed from the existing pot and more media is simply added to fill the new pot. I do this now with plants I get from Hawaii that use NZ bark and the plants are not set back as much as removing all the bark and starting over.

Chas

I checked, and it is indeed Kiwi bark, which is not the same as the orchiata... If you look at the picture apparently there are more flat pieces than in the orchiata. What first surprised me was the high amount of chuncks in the orchiata, perfect 1x1x1cm pieces, and not too much flat parts...

According to the technical datas from both NZ companies, Kiwi is not as suitable as orchiata to my mind, because orchiata is aged bark and pH stabilized, Kiwi is just fresh pine bark. I would be quite careful, or it has to be treated/composted to avoid the high acidity. That's why I choosed orchiata permanently now. I would suspect too that kiwi is less stable regarding the pH and aging than orchiata in a pot...

Kiwi has the drawback of being twice as expensive as orchiata, even by containers, where kiwi is just fresh raw bark, and orchiata is already processed to eliminate the tannins and raise the pH. And the last reason, Orchiata supplied me with batch analysis of the pine bark I purchased, and test it for a wide range of parameters...