Water Culture of Pot. Rebecca's Delight 'Moonglow'

[Becky15349]

Hey all!

I have a story to share. On 11/17 of 2008, 2 months ago roughly, I got really annoyed with one of my catts. It probably wasn't the catts fault, let's be honest...but nevertheless, I depotted it, put it into water culture, and never looked back.

I guess it was curiousity that got the best of me...I've seen talk of other people with their plants in water culture on other forums, and I thought to myself, "Sure, I can do this with pothos anyday...but orchids? I dunno..."...but like I said, I was mad at this catt, so I decided it would play guinea pig in my experiement

Before putting it into water, I cut *all* the roots off. I must've been feeling crazy, because I rarely do this. I think they were rotted anyways, so they'd be no use in the water, right?

Well, low and behold, its now January 4th, and this puppy is cranking out water roots like I can't believe...faster than a pothos, faster than my catts in S&H...and its JANUARY!! I really still kinda don't entirely believe it.

So, look and see for yourself, check out these roots, they're quite pretty...all green and luscious as we like our roots to be around here. And the two new growths, which were teeny tiny before, have taken off like crazy!! They are practically jumping out of the vase. Is this to be believed?

My question is, has anyone else ever done water/vase culture? Clint, I think you've mentioned it before, anyone else?

If this is the sort of results I'm going to get regarding rooting, AND if it eventually blooms...well, shoot, everything may go into water!!! Just kidding

~B

[Tmai]

Holy mackeral. Guess its putting out because it was afraid of what you'd do next! Nice experiment there. Good job!

Tami

[bluemoon]

I have a cattleyas I growth in water too the root is cover with algae and the plant doing fine. Orchid growth to adapt to the environment. For instance if you take that orchid and growth it in a dry environment that set of root will die and new set of root will start to growth to adapt to the dry invironment.

[Brutal_Dreamer]

That is cool, Becky. Nice growing! What is next?

Cheers,
BD

[Becky15349]

I put another catt into water last night, it was the yellow husky boy that I posted pics of recently...we'll see how that one does!!
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[Lambert]

Wow that's amazing and you are getting incredible results!
(I also love that you put the tag floating in the vase! )

There is an older post that talks about water culture

http://www.rv-orchidworks.com/orchid...r-culture.html

Make sure you update your thread, I am really curious about it!

[cherublace]

becky you are my orchid hero! that is so cool. i have 10 kids in s/h (thanks to your help) that are in various stages of root growth some are really bursting and growing but i have two out of these 10 that are doing nothing. i moving off my chair to find a vase now.....is your orchid just wedged in there or are you holding it up with sticks???

[Becky15349]

LOL @ the orchid hero comment....truthfully, I just like culture methods that require the least amount of work!!

I actually have this one like "sitting" on a piece of clear scotch tape that I looped inside the vase and is stuck to the sides...its a little tall so it would fall all the way down if the tape wasn't there. I like the clear tape bc its not as visible and it holds really well, and doesn't slip off when you're watering like some other tapes do.

This puppy has 2 new growths, and the larger of the two looks to be about 4-6 months from flowering. I'm hoping it'll flower in the summer, then I can take it to my orchid club meeting and freak everyone out They were REALLY flabbergasted by my plants in SH, so they'll be totally confused by this one growing in water!! (Note: most of the members are over 50 and prefer their traditional bark/chip mixes for growing, but were intrigued by the hydroton

Isn't it fun to break conventions?

PS - I forgot to mention, I read somewhere that the algae in the water is good for gas exchange, since it produces oxygen....not sure if it really helps the roots or not, but it doesn't appear to be causing any problems, so I kinda just leave it be

[Ron-NY]

very interesting...please keep us updated as this goes further.

Catts are amazing. I had one that was not doing well. I pulled it and found that some of the roots looked like they were rotting. I didn't find the time to deal with it so I threw the bare rooted plant into a clay pot and put it on the bench. That was 4 months ago. I decided that now that the holidays are over, I would deal with it. Guess what. It is growing nicely as is and is in bud. So, I let it be. Pics will follow when the buds open.

[GrumpyBear]

i have this one catt that flat out just doesn't like me, that's the only reason i can come up with. it's the one that i decided to dabble in s/h with since it has one foot in the grave anyway and it clearly doesn't have the will to live when it's in bark. results have been moderate at best, i might give this a try next (before it's too late...)