Water with plain water first before fertilizing?

[SouthPark]

I use relatively weak fertiliser - once a month - and have never flushed my pots. And genuinely - the orchids here just keep growing all the same. But ---- for sure ---- considerations need to be made about frequency and concentration applied.

For some of my pots ----- the pots are quite large - and also deep, and there is a lot of scoria inside the pot, and probably a lot of roots too within. What I don't want to do is to super saturate with a flush --- otherwise it could become watery for a really long time down in the dark depths - which could become an issue too. Probably depends on whether some roots can handle the watery conditions or not ------- ie. even if the pot is very good drainage, the volume of media inside my pots can become an issue ----- water-logging. That's why I usually water a particular way - to avoid water-logging.

As for my other pots - shallower ones ----- pretty sure I could flush those ones with no water-logging issues ----- should be ok to do that.

Also - as for semi-hydro/hydro growing ----- as the roots are already used to watery or lower-oxygen environments --- then flushing is usually definitely ok to do.

[Ray]

Originally Posted by SouthPark

Also - as for semi-hydro/hydro growing ----- as the roots are already used to watery or lower-oxygen environments --- then flushing is usually definitely ok to do.

I would argue that in S/H, the roots that have not reached the reservoir are actually in in a more aerated environment.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by Ray

I would argue that in S/H, the roots that have not reached the reservoir are actually in in a more aerated environment.

I probably wouldn't need to argue with this case - because the flushing method appears to be generally workable - no issues - with your particular semi-hydro setup. That is - with your set-up, the regions that are quite aerated probably doesn't get water-logged in the way that I might get with my scoria - large/deep pot setup.

What is probably very interesting is the state of the various roots in 'semi-hydro'. Such as - whether the ones up the top start off with being not being adapted - maybe - and then become adapted as they grow further down in the deeper depths.

Also would be extremely interesting to eventually find out whether the roots can be half-and-half ---- such as portions closer to the surface aren't as adapted as the connected portions down deep.