s/h beginners

[RSJ]

Your top stones will probably look dry on the surface within a day of watering. Do not water from the top every day unless your resevoir is running dry every day, or you will drown your arial roots, keep the base of the phal's stem too wet from the stones around it, and inhibit new roots growing since you have just transplanted. PrimeAgra, as recommended by First Ray's, wicks a lot even though you can't see water droplets on the surface of the stones and you do not need to worry about the top stones looking dry. If you remove a stone or two and look down into the pot, you will probably see the stones just under the top looking darker (moist). As long as there is nutrient solution in the resevoir, the stones are continuing to bring moisture up through the root zone.

Keep your newly transplanted phal in a warm and humid environment, and water again when the resevoir is about half-full, and it will do just fine.
RSJ

[hohcs]

hi all,

i just checked the roots and watered yesterday. the stones still sizzle as i water, you do not think it is too dry?

but the roots look fine, still green. in fact i do not see signs of old roots dying but possibly some new roots coming.

but one of the phal has leaves curling up on the edges but i after i watered, it is back to normal today. so it seems there is not enough moisture just through the wicking? or the wicking is really not working? i did check the stones it only feel cool and moist like 4 layers deep. maybe the reservoir is too small? it is about 1 inch, like 3/4 of an inch. my phal has long roots and i need space for roots and stones and the pot is only 6 inches deep. does it matter at all?

maybe the stones are too big. i bought th size firstray recommended though. maybe i should mix some diatomite into it? but it would be too traumatic to unpot and repot this poor phal right now, right?

in this phal, the aerial roots are growing rapidly, like i have not seen before. so maybe it is desperately trying to establish itself? or is it drying up trying hard to look for water?

i think the phals are not going to flower this year after all these trauma! sigh...

i have a small question aside: i bought this neem oil from first ray also but i think because of the freezing weather, it came completely solidfied in a white paste. i have left it at room temperature for more than 2 weeks now but it still have not liquidfy. does it mean it is spoilt now? i wrote to first ray to ask about this but have not heard from him. maybe he is away? if anyone knows what i can do with it apart from throwing it away, i would appreciate a lot.

thanks again for all your advice and interest in my 2 s/h shocked phals.

i really hope s/h works for me. i would like to go completely into s/h.

[Piper]

Hi hohcs,

I have no experience with s/h, but I do use Neem oil. It congeals in cooler temps, but it's no problem. Just fill the sink with hot water and toss in the container. It will liquify.

I fill a spray bottle with 1 TBL of Neem oil to 1 gallon of water, with 1 tsp of dish soap as an emulsifier. It smells a bit when you first spray it on your plants, but the smell fades in a few minutes as it dries.

I wouldn't panic over your phals yet - they're pretty sturdy critters. The s/h gurus will guide you well and hopefully the plants will forgive, forget and thrive!

Good luck,
Julie

[uncasteeb]

The way i decide how high the holes have to be for Phals is to , to try the Phal in the pot & see how deep it sits.I note how much space there is above the level of the bottom leaves.I take the plant out & fill the bottom of the pot with LECA(PrimeAgra in your case) to the same height i,ve just measured & try the plant in.If the plant sits at the right height i mark the pot at the height of the LECA.If not i adjust with a few more or a few less LECA.
When the height is correct i empty the pot & drill/burn the holes in the pot.
This way the roots should sit on the very top of the res.
The roots will soon grow into the res & get adapted.
Repotting the Phals shouldn,t stress it very much , i,ve had a plant in & out of the pot 3 times in a couple of weeks to get it right(this is before i came up with the above method).
As a rule i like the res to be at least 1" deep , prefferably 1 1/2" deep.
Above all else chill out .
If the leaves are pretty stiff then they are getting enough moisture.Watering the plant every 2 days will not do amy harm while the plant is aclimatising.

[hohcs]

hi uncasteeb,

thanks for your reply. may i ask why you use leca instead of prime agra? is it cheaper and works just as well?

the leaves of my phals have gone soft and drooping. the lower 2 leaves are drying out as i can see the veins more prominently now and they are also yellowing. i kind of expect this from what everyone is saying because this is the phal i trimmed the roots leaving only one. and that one roots is still green and healthy from what i can see. i see at the base of th phal, little nodules start to bulge out, perhaps they are going to be new roots. i think the plant just look stressed though i don't see any signs of death yet. in a way i like this dry feel of s/h as it seems much cleaner than growing in bark and peat mix i had before. also there is no smell.

as for height of reservoir, i think this time i might have placed the roots a bit too high. i placed it above the top part of the hole and the water as it turns out to level off at the bottom of the hole as is natural, but i did not think of that earlier.

but if wicking works then it should still be moist enough even if the roots are half an inch above the water mark, right?

hi piper,

thanks for the tip on the neem oil. i shall try and see if it works. i wonder if neem oil has a shelf life and if it goes bad and how would one know.

[uncasteeb]

1/2" above the res will be fine.
It has beem mentioned that root trimming could stree the plant & i guess the leaf problems is due to this.
Give the plant some time to adapt.

[Piper]

I saw one vendor who said it had a shelf life, but I think they were just trying to sell more.

I had a bottle of it that I had for more than seven years and I saw no loss of effectiveness in treating critters. They didn't like and they didn't come back.

Julie

[Jmoney]

people say that all types of pesticides and oils and whatever have a finite shelf life. I'm inclined to agree that they lose their effectiveness over time, although the extent of that loss probably depends on the product, the ambient temperature, exposure to light, yadda yadda.

I tried neem for many years because I can't spray toxic stuff on the windowsill. I found it to be rather useless for even a mild to moderate infestation of scale. They disappeared for a while, possibly due to the fact that the leaves were wiped down with alcohol, but invariably came back. Some individuals tell me that neem works great as a leaf shiner. I'm sure it's fine for a very light infestation, but if you have anything serious, the ridiculously expensive enstar works wonders for scale and mealies.

[hohcs]

is enstar not toxic?

[Jmoney]

it has a hydrocarbon in there that stinks to high hell, but the agent itself is an insect hormone of some sort that short-circuits their normal growth cycle. Rather nontoxic, although they suggest wearing gloves. I spray it in the bathtub and put the plant right back on the windowsill.