Semi -Hydro Pot Growing

Hi to all, after reading several e-mails I was surprised to find that many of you grow using s/h. I thought I was just one a very few. I would like some feedback on how you folks go about first pot-up in Prime Agra and do you wait until all of the liquid is gone from the bottom of the pot, before watering again? When I get a new plant usually coming in a fir bark or moss mix, I take it out of the pot and carefully wash the roots and prune any dead or plant material. I then place the plant in a gallon of warm water that has 10 drops of Superthrive and a very dilute amount of any general type of fertilizer. I keep it in this solution for about 3 hours. I have used this method for about 3 years and it not only seems to work for orchids but for other types of plants and cuttings. I would like your input on using S/H method. Be well and good growing, Ed

Ed, if you do a search in here on "S/H", there are quite a few posts that might help you out. I did a pictorial thread on S/H repotting here that might help too:

http://www.rv-orchidworks.com/orchid...read.php?t=242

Your method sounds perfectly valid to me--there may be others here who can help you fine tune things.

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Louis J. Aszod

Thanks Louis, I checked out the back posts. I really like your step by step photo of this method. Great Stuff! Ed

Can,t get hold of Prime Agra in the UK(well i can,t find it) but i use LECA.
I water on Wednesdays & Sundays , some plants are thirsty & need it but i do the others while i,m doing them.I don,t think it,ll make much/any difference if you watered every day as once the medium is wet it can,t get any wetter !
I like to think that watering the plants that still have water in the reservoir helps with gas exchange & stops the water getting stagnant.

I was under the impression that PrimeAgra is a European product (maybe Germany?). It certainly is not made in the USA, and I don't think it's Canadian either.

After rinsing off the dust, I soak s/h pellets in a hefty solution of KLN or super-thrive, 2 tablespoons/gallon. I like to soak for at least a few hours, some advocate overnight to get full hydration, but keep in mind that hormone solutions don't maintain their potency much more than overnight.

I didn't want to buy all those custom s/h pots, so I use a modified method in which I punch extra holes near the bottom of the pots and sit them in trays of water. About once a week, most of the water is evaporated, and I wash the trays and water the pots. That way I can easily add more water to the tray during particularly hot or dry weeks.

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Jason

Hi Jason, I get the s/h pots because they are not expensive and I usally wait until the solution is not seen in the bottom of the pots. I get almost everything by internet and phone. I am disabled and don't get around much. The pots sit in large waterproof trays. When I water or fertilize I pour until the solution or water reaches the top of the pot. This helps wash out the old solution and entirely wets the Prime Agra. The water contained in the bottom of the trays raises the humidy slightly around the pots. I found out the hard way not to let the roots of newly potted plants quite go alll the way down to the the solution level. When I want to reuse the Prime Agra, I pick out whatever debris I can find. Then I let the pebbles dry and put them in a 350 F oven for about an hour. I let them cool and then they are ready to reuse. Ed

sometimes the roots will go down into the reservoir and even start to come out of the extra drainage pots. i see this a lot with phrag hybrids, and once in a while a paph will do that...

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Jason

So what is the deal with diatomite? Can anyone explain the preferred use of this for some paph/phrag growers? Thanks!

hmm, with a title like Semi Hydro Pot growing this thread is a little on the boring side.


LOL, just kidding!

LOL! Well, we try to be coy! hahaha!