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It's time to repot your orchid and you go to look to see if you have all the materials and guess what
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You're missing bark. So you look online to see what kinds of barks are out there, what's the best, what's the cheapest, what holds up
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But there are so many kinds. It's daunting, actually. So in this video, I decided to review..
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Better Grow. Miracle Grove, Repot Me, and Orchia
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I'm going to be comparing them to mystery brand here, which really doesn't have a brand name at all
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So what is the best bark? We're going to find out. So Repot Me is one of the most famous brands
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They're also one of the brands who has the most famous brands. who has the most number of variations of potting mix
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So, for example, this one is specifically for symbidiums. This one is for phalanopsis
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And not only these two, they have 17 other types of potting material in them
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So out of all the brands that you have, these have the most variety
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I will tell you right up, well, hello. So somebody's missed our videos
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But this one, which is the Phelanopsis Monterey Dark Imperial Orchid Mix
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In this one, we're going to have a medium Monterey pine bark, hydroton, New Zealand moss, which is AAA
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The quality of this moss is excellent. And it's also going to have large sponge rock, which is this white one right here
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Now, Repop Me will have two kinds of brands, no matter what type
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you buy like if you're buying for phalanopsis they'll have the imperial and they'll have the
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classical the difference between these is that the imperial one was created after the class their
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quality is excellent you are paying for what you get but they are the most expensive so if you can see here
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the bark inside here is smaller and there's not that much spagin moss i mean you can see
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you can see right here that there hardly is any sphagnam moss so if you live in a hot and dry climate
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don't buy this do not buy this because your orchids will dry out too fast they won't retain
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enough water that they need and they'll your roots are going to turn all brown and crispy on
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you if you live in a climate that is extremely humid and
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cool. This is perfect for your phalanopsis because it's going to evaporate quickly
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but your client is already human. So even though it evaporates, it already keeps that moisture inside
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the pot. So that is perfect for what you want. Please note that the bark chips are smaller. So if you
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have a huge phalanopsis or a cattlia even, this one will probably not hold it as well as the other
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mix. This one is the dark imperial, but you can buy a gold version, and that will have virgin chips
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from Portugal in it. And the dark version has chips from Orchiata pine, which comes directly from
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New Zealand. So the quality on here is excellent, but the price, I paid the same thing for this
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as I did for this. And in here, you can repot two orchids, about five inch pots
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This you can pot a heck of a lot more So take that in consideration Whoa sorry take that in consideration Just a note on this if you want to buy Repot Me I would strongly advise to stay away from Amazon
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And I am an affiliate for Amazon, but the price on Amazon is a lot higher than if you go straight
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to the Repot Me store and buy it there. And I am not affiliate with RepopMe. And so it's a pretty
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big difference in price. I think I paid like $25 for this on Amazon and then I saw the same thing
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on the RepotMe direct website for 19. The next brand I'm going to talk about is Orkiada Bard. Now these
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come in three different sizes as not size of the bag but size of the bark chips. So make sure that
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you're buying which one that you want and I'll list them over here. The three brands are
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classic power and power plus and these are going to be the size of the bark chip
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There is only bark in these. There is nothing else. There's nothing added to it
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There's no sphagnumos, no pearly, no charcoal, anything like that. It is pure bark
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So even though they do have the three sizes, I find those three sizes a little bit too small
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So if you're going to buy just on sizes, make sure you upgrade a little bit
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but the idea is that the classic is for the seedlings. The power is for the in-between phase
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like from two to four years where they're still not adult orchids. And the power plus is for
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adult plants, mature plants that already have strong roots in them. Now, orchiata is excellent for
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pest control. They treat their New Zealand radiatabark with special treatments to control the
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bacteria to control the mold. You will not find bugs in here. You can get it a little bit on the
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moisture side, depending on how long your supplier has had this on the shelf. Now moisture isn't really a
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problem because you can just lay it out in the sun, but you do not have to boil this or soak this
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actually with the repotmy brand before. You also did not have to soak it. It's good to give it a little
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shift, but both these brands so far do not have dust in them. They do not have particles that are
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breaking down. By the way, since I haven't made a video in quite a long time, it would really help
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if you like this video or if you commented or if you shared because YouTube probably thinks I
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gave up. I didn't. Thank you so much for everyone who sent an email, a text
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Instagram, a Pinterest message. I really appreciate it. If I have not written back to you
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right again, I probably lost the email in these months that were kind of hectic and I didn't mean to
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Let's get on to the next bark. The third brand I'm going to talk about is BetterGrow
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Now, BetterGrow has, and listen other brands, please listen. They have a resellable bag
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Isn't I mean, awesome. They did that right. I wish cereal would have resellable bags too
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Look at this. It's resellable. I mean, look at that. I can close the bag again. Awesome. Just right there
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I love them. The other thing about BetterGrow is that they have all kinds of stuff included in their orchid bark
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So they will have charcoal. They'll have purlite, sphagnum moss. But here's the thing
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They have peat moss in here. I do use it for terrariums like in backgrounds because they make an awesome looking background
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But for the inside of my orchid pot I don want peat moss Pete Moss is going to turn into a mud cookie brownie type thing and it awful because it doesn absorb well it does absorb water
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but it just turns into mud and then there's no airflow, there's no circulation inside that pot
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and BetterGrow does use chunky peat moss. There are four types of orchid bark on bed
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better grow. As for for Chiata, there's just one. There's just one that is simple bark. There's one for
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the phalanopsis, which is this one right here. There is one that has an all general orchid
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potting media that has more items in it, which you can see right here. And there's another one for
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dendrobriums. Now the one for dendrobriums is a little harder to find, but you can find it still
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So this one is excellent because of the price. The price, I mean, you can't really be $8 for this
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And it does hold up quite well. The cons of this is the dust
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There is so much dust in here. You will have to sift it
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You'll have to drain it. I recommend soaking it for at least one day for that material can absorb the water
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So it will need a little more extra hand. handling if you can put it that way
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Miracle grow up. With all due respect, stay away from it. This is super cheap
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I think I bought $5 for this whole bag. This is just the bark
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It's the coarse blend, and you can find finer blends. But when I think of coarse blend
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I think of thicker chunks that have more, structure to them that have rougher edge on them because they're for bigger rooted orchids just
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like phalanopsis they're not going to be for your fine little rooted orchids for that choose another
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one probably the orchiata would be the best for your finer root orchids but miracle grow just
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had so much dust in there that it was already broken down also miracle grow please treat your
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orchid bark I mean how do I say this nicely, I have lost count of people saying they open the bag and there's fungus gnats inside the
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bag. It comes all full of moisture. It comes full with a musky, moldy dirt smell. And I like the
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smell of earth. This is not the smell of earth. This is a smell of something that has been in
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a bag for way too long and it really needs a treatment process. So if you're going to
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If this is the only thing that you have to repot with, it's not going to kill your orchid
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but sift it, boil it, put it out in the sun to dry, spray it down with fizaan 20 or any
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fungicide, bacteriocyte or any other product before you use it. Also, on the website for Miracle Grow
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they say they recommend that you repotch your orchid every six to 12 months. Why? Does that mean that
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their potting media only holds up six to 12 months is that it's going to break down in six to 12
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months because no orchid likes to be repotted in six to 12 months even pure sphagnomoths can hold
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the cheap pure sphagnumoths can hold out to a year now if you get the more expensive sphagnum moss
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you can hold out the five years so why does this break down in six to 12 months so yes it's
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cheaper yes it works if that's the only thing that your market has
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Go for it, but treat it. Prepare it. Put it out in the sun Boil it I mean get rid of And open it outside because it probably come with fungus gnats and I mean customer service on Miracle Grow is excellent I will give them 10 for that
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They have answered every single question, but I don't like their answers. I mean, I wish I did
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but I really don't. Their answers kind of leave, you know, because they said that mold won't
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hurt your orchid. Uh, yeah, it will. So treat it, use it. It, it will break down quicker. So keep that
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in mind. And to the last one, my mystery mix. I bought this. It doesn't even have a name brand on it
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I don't even know who makes it. I bought it off Amazon. It just said orchid bark. There was no
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description whatsoever. It was $8 for this. So it is kind of, it is in a resellable bag. I will give
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you that. But as soon as I got it, there is so much moisture in here. And that can be a good thing
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and that can be a bad thing. I mean, moisture means that it was either two things. It was treated
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recently. It was bagged recently. So that means this is fresh. Or that mold is already growing in
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here and the bacteria are already providing gas exchange and that gas exchange is creating
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water droplets and and all the rest. Bark size, it is extremely small. It's already starting to
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break down. You can see a heck of a lot of dust in there. So can you go with these mystery brands
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I mean, I wouldn't just because the same price of a mystery brand, you can buy Miracle Grow
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And if you spend an extra $3, you can buy better growth. It's worth a
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a shot if you want to try it, but I wouldn't, I would not repot an orchid that I had that are
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already expensive and something that is dubious. So stay away from the mystery brands. I mean
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if you are the owner of this brand, I am so sorry, but make your bark chips bigger. Yeah, this is
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is going to degrade and hold a lot of water. So again, if you live in a dry
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place, pick the smaller bark pieces, that's going to hold the moisture a lot longer. And you might
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be wondering, which one do I use? And I really do not like to give my personal opinions about brands
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because my growing conditions are different than yours. I mean, I do have drywall in here and
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carpet and my air conditioner is on or my heater is on all year round. So my conditions are
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extremely dry. They're dry, but I have a heavy hand in watering
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So I have to pick something that works with me, but I will tell you one thing
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If I just had to go with one brand from here on out, or kiata, it holds up to its name
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You do not need to treat it before. It's never, ever come with any kind of mold or bugs or moisture or anything like that
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I am not sponsored by them, so you have my honest opinion here
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and not that everything else was a lie, but this is really honest
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So Orchiaida, go for it. I do have a link in the description, and that yes is an affiliate link because I get an extra cup of coffee if you actually use that link to go over to Amazon
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If none of these brands are in your area and you're wondering what you can buy
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check out this video up here that talks about Orchid Bark. I did it sometime in the past, but you will know what to look
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look for in a good bark and if you want to know what other kinds of potting media to use look
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at this video over here thank you so much for watching and happy cultivating