hello bulbophiles: I am not sure if I can give helpful advice but soil type is not the end all to healthy roots. Maybe more attention should be given to keeping the moisture level and temperature of the soil more constant. Wild fluctuations in either will stress the roots and inhibit their growth. Many times plants are put into black plastic pots and these can bake under a lot of sunlight and also cool off quickly at night. James Frelichowski Ronald Redding <ron_redding@hotmail.com> wrote: Marie-Paule, I am finding that the plants that I have grown from seed, now one and a half years old are starting to take off. I have had a lot of causalities and I have experimented with mixes that include my orchid bark, clivia mix, bromeliad, general bulb, course sand and worsleya mixes. I have found that although they have a similar general appearance and similar looking roots they hate the worsleya mix I use, although worsleya's absolutely thrive in it. They are growing well in a general mix that has at least 80% composted bark which is great as it is much cheaper for me to obtain. I believe they like mostly organic very free draining mixes with plenty of air space and they also will not grow roots into a medium they do not like All this being said I have also found you can have everything right with a pamianthe however when they are young they are still prone to going belly up. I wish you luck and can send you photo's separately if you would like. Kind Regards and Best Wishes Ron Redding Hervey Bay Australia _________________________________________________________________ New year, new job – there's more than 100,00 jobs at SEEK http://a.ninemsn.com.au/b.aspx/… _______________________________________________ pbs mailing list pbs@lists.ibiblio.org http://www.pacificbulbsociety.org/list.php --------------------------------- Love cheap thrills? Enjoy PC-to-Phone calls to 30+ countries for just 2¢/min with Yahoo! Messenger with Voice.