Switching over to S/H?

[HiOrcDen]

So, I would just like to get an idea of the possible advantages of switching over to S/H culture, as well as any possible drawbacks.

Can S/H be used for all species?

Does it at all accelerate the growth rate of any species?

I understand that it allows for less frequent watering. However, is there a way to automate watering, in case you want to take a short trip? Can you do this outdoors, if the pots are held stable?

Are there any other advantages, &/or drawbacks?

I will attach a pic... I would like to know,if this is indeed a S/H pot suitable for orchids?

[Subrosa]

You could certainly automate watering with a hose timer and a drip system. If you're going to put SH pots outside, consider the much higher UV levels and their effect upon your pots. Plastic and sunlight is generally not a good combination long term. Because I keep mine outside when temps permit, I use only ceramic and glass containers that I pick up at thrift stores, yard sales, etc and drill them myself for SH use. Glass can be touchy to drill, but most ceramics are pretty easy. In either case do the drilling under a trickle of water to keep the bit and material you're drilling cool.

[HiOrcDen]

Originally Posted by Subrosa

You could certainly automate watering with a hose timer and a drip system. If you're going to put SH pots outside, consider the much higher UV levels and their effect upon your pots. Plastic and sunlight is generally not a good combination long term. Because I keep mine outside when temps permit, I use only ceramic and glass containers that I pick up at thrift stores, yard sales, etc and drill them myself for SH use. Glass can be touchy to drill, but most ceramics are pretty easy. In either case do the drilling under a trickle of water to keep the bit and material you're drilling cool.

Thank you for this! So is the setup something like the pics? Like, do you use the glass or ceramic pots, with holes, within another glass or ceramic, without holes?

[Ray]

1) As the inventor of the technique for orchids, I am convinced that it is possible to grow any plant in S/H culture.

2) I am absolutely certain that 1), above does not mean that any individual can grow anything that way.

“Semi-Hydroponics” is not a complete description of “orchid culture”. There are many, many factors that can determine whether a grower will be successful with a particular plant. Temperature, humidity, light level, and air movement all play significant roles.

I, for example, arguably having more experience with the technique than anyone, cannot grow my phalaenopsis in S/H culture here in NC. The dry, indoor air in winter results in too much evaporative cooling from the moist, open medium, chilling the roots. In my warm, humid greenhouse when I was in PA, I grew them that way.

A few recommendations:

• Go to my website and read all about the various aspects of the technique so you can make some logical choices.
• Analyze your growing conditions and how they may vary with the day and night, as well as seasonally.
• If you do decide to try it out, do so with one plant - a very healthy one that wouldn’t necessarily be the end of the world if you lost it. It might take off like gangbusters, but you never know…
• I recommend against using the pot-in-pot containers unless you have a small collection, lots of time, and are very diligent about sticking to the proper watering technique.

There’s really nothing wrong with that pot-in-pot design, but they can be overfilled, which will suffocate the roots, and they lull people into only topping up the reservoir, which leads to rapid mineral and waste buildup. The proper watering method for those pots would be to left the inner pot, medium, and plant out, dump the reservoir, flush the medium, put it back together, and then add the correct amount of nutrient solution back in.

[Grim Tuesday]

I tried a lot of plants in semi-hydro last year. Everything Ray says is correct. The #1 most important thing when you get advice on growing orchids is to get advice from someone who has the same type of growing conditions as you. If you're growing on the windowsill, outdoors, or in a greenhouse affect whether the advice is applicable to you or not. This is even the case within a single house.

I used to grow in a warm corner of my bathroom with supplemental lights, but I moved last year to a place that had more windowsills so I put more plants there. My experience was that this was generally negative for semihydro as the cool of the windows were not loved by the plants.

I tried a broad spectrum of plants in S/H and under my conditions the success rate by genus was:

Oncidium alliance / Miltoniopsis: ~90% -- these guys love it across the board
Dendrobium alliance - ~60% -- several of these guys like it. The ones who didn't were ones that wanted to be dryer than S/H allowed.
Cattleya alliance - ~50% -- the ones that didn't like it also wanted to be dryer, or had sensitive roots to the salts at the top.
Bulbophylum alliance ~ 30% -- these guys wanted to be warmer than S/H allowed, even on a heating pad I couldn't get them warm enough in my conditions.

I will say, the ones who like it love it. I have a laelia purpurata hybrid and an epidendrum walisi that are going crazy. I also have a echiveria (the succulent!) that dropped into a pot that is doing marvelously.

Quite honestly, if I were going to start again from scratch I would budget $150 for a big bag of NZ spaghnum, three bags of orchiata bark in different chip sizes, buy some clear square pots (clear to see when they need to be watered, square so they pack together nicely on a shelf), and use that setup instead of messing with S/H. And I would simply stick to only acquiring plants that can handle winter down to 50 degs (on the windowsill) and being watered once a week without needing to be put into an always-wet situation. Maybe some day I'll have a greenhouse that can be humid and heated, but for now I'd rather not struggle growing challenging plants but rather just enjoy easy growers that thrive in my conditions!