Orchids in perlite

I spent about four hours yesterday repotting the orchids in the above pictures into perlite, as I indicated in yesterday's post. The task wasn't too hard, but my legs hurt today. I ended up using plastic pots instead of clay pots because I was concerned that salt build up may become an issue. I took the opportunity to divide several of the larger orchids since they had grown pretty large (also, dividing orchids is an insurance against loss of a select plant).

As you can see in the photos, the pots are placed into trays. The trays have a solid bottom and will hold a shallow amount of water. My plan is to water the whole tray and let the the pots sip the water from the bottom. The larger round pot in the top photo has a shallow cup placed at the bottom of the pot to hold the reservoir of water. I'll post updates on this experiment as time goes on to let you know how it is working out.

So let me tell you some things I learned.

1) Perlite is quite easy to use as potting material. It is very light, but when the orchid is potted into the pot and watered, the perlite settles into place and holds the plant down reasonably well.
2) Many of the orchids really badly needed repotting. The coconut husk chips were breaking down horribly. Of course, that means that I have to get to repotting the rest of all my ochids sooner than later.
3) Of the orchids that previously had perlite in their mix, the roots were still very healthy, even though the coconut husk chips were mostly deteriorated. The perlite provide enough air to prevent root rot.
4) I need more pots and perlite.