New to Semi-Hydroponic - Tips needed

[Carlos]

Ok after reading so many great thing about Semi-Hydroponic culture that I decided to make the jump, albeit a small jump .
I have brought what seems to look like a Miltoniopsis Princess Diana (checked the website of the grower and the closest match I found was named that) from homebase retail here in London and as always I repot soon as possible (you can never know what condition they are in).
So this Miltoniopsis was going to be my test experiment and if everything goes great I will make the jump bit by bit with my other orchids.
I have read the excellent information on Rays website and from a few other google sources including this forum but still got a few questions.
I went to my local garden centre and brought Hydroponic clay pellets (LECA I think proper name) specially made for Hydroponic and not the construction. I have washed it, rinsed and rinsed, soaked it in water, and then left it soaking over night in clean water with very diluted fertiliser.

I cleaned as much I possible the plant roots (I am guessing this is to remove any possible material that may decompose) and gently put it in a same size pot it came in with the LECA. Currently using the pot saucer as a reservoir.

Did i miss anything major in this process? also i would like to know how ofter should I water when the plant has not been grown in a Hydroponic environment. Hopefully when I get comfortable with Hydroponic I will slowly be doing the same to my other orchids, so is there any way of maybe getting them ready to make the jump, say water them more ofter a month or 2 before hand?

Ok I know everyone is going to say show as some pictures, so here they are

[nutgirl]

Looks like you did a good job.

The timing of transitioning to S/H is important. You may lose quite a few of the existing roots as the plant adapts, is it actively growing new roots from the base of the psuedobulbs?

Maureen

[cricketerry]

As Maureen is suggesting plants transfer better from one growing medium to another when the roots are actively growing.

I have found that quite often the old roots will die off following the change and you then need the new root growth to sustain the plant.

I would not have gambled with re-potting while the plant was flowering.

[Carlos]

well i had 3 options
1 - do what i did
2 - re-pot to something similar
3 - leave as it was

this orchid was just brought a few days ago and i really didn't know what was in the centre of the medium, previous orchids I brought from retail shop always had weird decomposed medium inside. for example if I didn't re-pot now I think this orchid would have died sooner rather than later. The outside was bark but the inside of the medium was what looked like cotton and I am not taking about a small bit. it was like 80% cotton, 20% bark ????

hydroponic interested me and always what to have a try but never had the heart to do it to my orchids (some have over 3+ years in my hands). lets just say I wasn't attached to this orchid as much, YEAT!!!

do you guys think i should cut the spike? on a side note if the orchid was kept very moist at all times there may be a chance current roots won't rot?

[johnblagg]

I repot if I have no new roots growing into hydrotron in a regular pot and just water normaly ...perhaps a bit heaver than normal but not much more untill new roots start .....usualy do not lose old roots that way and when new do start I start watering more heavy as they do they adjust and when I am comfortable roots are ready to shift to s/h its a easy move

[Carlos]

thax john will try that. I starting to feel bad now . It better not die or else I have to write a very apologetic letter for its funeral

will keep you guys updated on what happens next...

[RosieC]

I looks like you have a new growth on the plant. In my experience new roots on Miltoniopsis grow out of the new growth, so hopefully you will have some on that soon. I repoted mine (a standard repotting) earlier in the year and there was no new roots at the time... but they got going not long afterwards and I can now see masses of new roots through the clear pot.

I like the S/H method using an outer pot or a pot saucer for the resevoir, My Pahls and a Zygo I have growing like that are doing quite well. One advantage of this method is that if you don't have new root growth just yet you could actually use the Lecca as a standard medium with no resevoir until you see new roots. While this is still a change in medium it is less likely for the old root to die.

When you see new roots starting you can start keeping the resevoir full and do the S/H conversion then. This is what John is saying above and I know he's found this a good method in the past. I have a couple of Phals I'm currently trying this with (in Hydroton but as a standard medium until they start new roots when I will start keeping a resevoir in the outer pot like my other S/H plants).