Two things: 1) the vegetable hair roots get into the wood. I had noticed that also with smaller chunks of wood buried in beds. If you worry about nitrogen, please notice that vegetables go out of their way to get into wood. 2) it is amazing how fine and broken down the soil becomes within a season. I think it is due to mycelium filaments, not readily visible by the human eye, running all over the place. This was tough clay, and the four logs (about 2.5 ft long and 5 inches wide) were placed as the sides of a square, yet the soil was finely tilled all the way to the center of the square. Each four logs was a newly planted fruit tree taken down by deer, so I was able to check this many times. No, it was not the tree roots which were small.

Here's my take. I know we all have our preferences but I never blame a medium for problems. That is just me. Here again, however, we have a testimonial from someone who deciding that their mix is too 'soggy' repots into something more open but then experiences continued problems now perhaps due to too dry conditions leading to brittle, dead, roots that don't develop. The unassisted (by artificial light) west window is at once too much light and too little! Your area can see frequent clouds and I suspect an atlas would show your locale receiving less than 180 clear days out of 365. IMO this is too little for good growth of anything but 'low light' species. OTOH when the sun 'is' shining and temps are up in the mid-80's possibly higher that is too much, even I admit that. The only recourse is to shade away the worst of the natural light. What is left will not cause heat stress or scorch but neither will it be able to put size into a p-bulb. The difference must be made up artificially. If someone knows of another way I would like to hear it. When orchids stall, sulk or otherwise go on strike the reason will always be found outside of the pot. Too litttle (rarely too much) light, too little or too much heat, too little or too much ventilation... external causatives. Water 1x/wk for a plastic pot, 2x/wk for a clay pot regardless of what is in it and call it good! Do not spray or mist or otherwise try to 'top up' orchid pots. That way lies madness and also root rot. With experience will come the ability to experiment in ways that will not harm your plants. Until then its best to follow some rules. They won't always be a perfect fit but they work for quite a lot of growers new and old. H

Ken, I had to use dried dill; I couldn't find fresh ANYWHERE and I even went to the hoighty-toighty organic markets looking for the stuff. Oh, the garlic is in there! It turned a pretty color of blue as a reaction to the hard water we have here & the vinegar. :-) Next time I'll use distilled water & see if that makes a difference. I'm on day 2 of Linda Lou's pickle chunks, so next week I'll be back at it again! Kterlep, I bought those babies, so I don't know how many plants it took to grow them....sorry.

Kay and Country Sunshine, for about $700 and many years of training, you too can use Photoshop to remove facial hair and wrinkles (none of which I had to do for Kat by the way). :-) Joann, I made a version of just Kat in case she wants to add it to the KT album or Facebook. Jodi-