Your pictorial is great. A soldering gun is easier than a drill. Thanks.
BiminiBob
Welcome to OrchidTalk Orchid Forums
The Friendliest Orchid Community on the Internet!
OrchidTalk - "Bringing People Together to Grow Orchids Better!"
Let us help you grow your Orchids better; Join our community today.
YES! I want to register an account for free right now!
Register or Login now to remove this advertisement.
Hi
Thanks cindiras for the idea. Hope it will works
Your pictorial is great. A soldering gun is easier than a drill. Thanks.
BiminiBob
This is such great information. I just ordered a bunch of s/h stuff so when my new plants arrive, I'm going to give it a go. I've ordered a compot of Wilsonara Pacific Passage 'Rocket Burst' and there are nine plants in the 3 1/2 inch pot. They're going to have to be repotted. In addition to Prime Agra, I ordered more 3 1/2 inch pots (are those going to be too big?) and some root growth stuff.
Just one question though. I had one plant that was in hydroton, but without a reservoir. The plant kept falling over, so I finally gave up and repotted it in bark (did fine in the bark). So what keeps the plant upright (or whichever direction it wants to go).
Sorry if this is a dumb question.
I want to try s/h but I am agonizing over the medium. The PA seems to be popular but I saw a material called hygrostone. The tests posted seemed to do better than PA and it was physically better suited to holding the plants in place (heavier and more irregular). The only place I could find that sold it is out of business. Does anyone have any idea if it is sold under another brand name?
I also do not understand why most everyone seems to be using clear plastic pots. It would seem to me that all this accomplishes is to cause algae growth inside the pot.
Alternety. The clear plastic pot allows you to see root growth without disturbing the plant. When the roots are covering most of the edges of the pot, you know it is time to pot up one size. I use Prime Agra right now, but constatnly on the look out for a similar product available in my area so I don't have to pay so much shipping!
I grow mostly everything in semi-hydro and I rarely repot. Here's a link to my Ansellia in semi-hydro: http://www.rv-orchidworks.com/orchid...oly-roots.html. The roots were busting out of the pot!
Hello!
I think as long as you can provide good humidity and ventilation to both its foliage and roots, it should do well.
I tried two different methods of growing one of my common Phal. hybrids. Both started with almost all their roots trimmed off and comes with 4 leaves each.
One tied with its roots in a ball of sphagnum moss tied to a fern bark slab.
While the other tied to just a plain fern bark slab.
my growing area is bright and breezy and I water both of them once in the morning and once in the evening.
1 year later today, the one with the Sphagnum moss has 12 leaves and a 18 flower blooms (spiked 3 months ago). While the other struggled with only 4 unhealthy looking leaves and no spike... I guess my area is too windy even though the air is humid all year round.
In this video, you can actually see Phalaenopsis is growing with all their roots exposed on tree branches, but the swampy environment ensures that it get good humidity.
So back to the same point, as long as you can provide good ventilation and humidity to your Phal. I'm sure it will thrive in various kinds of growing media...
I found this thread very informative, since I've been thinking about trying SH. I haven't really understood it, until I read all of the information here. The potting tutorial is great! Thanks. I didn't see anything about how often to fertilize. Would someone speak about that. I apologize, if it was already explained and I missed it.
the same as in bark mix almost. fertilize a teeny, tiny bit every week- once a month flush the pot with clear water. Or my favorite! The lazy way. I use 1/4 teaspoon of time release fertilizer pellots per 'pot' every three months. Heavy feeders get it every two months (cymbidiums) and large pots of say 6 inches get a scant 1/2 teaspoon of pellots.