I originally only transitioned nine of my walkerianas into semi-hydro earlier this year. Because those initial trial runs went so well, the remaining six also went into semi-hydro setup sometime during the summer. From the start, I got them growing 4-5” directly under intense LED lights at 16 hours a day. They are just now slowly coming out of their long hours light exposure. This month I am only giving them 15 hrs.
I will tone it down to 14 hrs in November, 13 hrs in December, then 12 hrs in January (let’s see if they will bloom with 12). February will be 11 hours, and they should bloom soon after. Fingers crossed.
Regardless of the outcome in February, by March I will be increasing light exposure again — I have 150 other cattelyas sharing the same grow space, and I am unwilling to sacrifice their optimal growths just so 15 walkerianas can bloom well.
I also have some reservation about my semi-hydro setup for walkerianas, mainly because it’s been less than a year since I’ve transitioned them. Yes, they are growing beautifully. Yes, their bulbs are fat and smooth. And yes, their roots are long and thick, free flowing in water 24/7, with 90% of their original old roots still intact and branching. But, none of them have ever experienced winter cold months with roots submerged in water 24/7 before. No priors. I do not know how they will do in the winter months. Some of them are technically not in semi-hydro anymore but rather full-hydro (water level is high and covers at least 85% of the pots). Lots of roots are floating freely in water (outside of the inner pots). It is almost as if they want to dive for water and don’t want to be confined by clay pebbles and couldn’t careless about lack of air. And while this root growing style of theirs has worked out well during warmer months…. Winter is coming.
I initially was planning to add heat mats for fall and winter months just to be safe, but after Stephen told me walkerianas can withstand the cold, I am now willing to test trial them — no heat mats.
I need to observe that they are capable of making it through all four seasons in this set up - without any setbacks - before I decide to grow them this way forevermore. They still got 3 to 8 months to go before reaching their 1yr anniversary. Fingers crossed. If they can still thrive come winter months, they are probably good to go.
My next target is C.aclandiae. I have started my test trial with a SVO cross (Comets Tail x aclandiae) earlier this summer. The plant has 87% aclandiae lineage. So far so good, roots are floating in water (this one also do not care for clay pebbles, only wants water). If all goes well, by next summer I will be transitioning a pure C. aclandiae into semi hydro.
I will need to find time to type up my “reproduce results” steps on how I transitioned them. Hopefully I will get time to post it tonight or else by tomorrow. Stay tuned.
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Hybrid Mode
