Soonix and Sandy
Although I have been growing in water culture, out of necessity and curiosity, for over 5 years I am always interested in other people's experience since I feel I have a lot to learn. Sharry Baby and Bl.Sunset Glory are some of my "Mermaids" which can be transplanted anytime in my conditions.
First, I grow indoors with a shallow sunroom addition that is part of my study, as you can see in my previous picture. Most important, in the winter I use supplemental light 12=14 hours/day. The humidity is below 40% much of the time, fans going most of the time, temperatures ranging from 67 to 88 (depending on sun light in the N.E. )in the Winter. In the Summer it might briefly reach 99F. If you look at my gallery you can see what I have bloomed in early Spring.
Of course, it is best to transplant anything when it is not in some kind of natural resting period. However, when you have bad roots, on a robust plant and you grow indoors?
My evolving practice, if you are interested:
After I immerse the entire plant in a large container of plant food and KLN for 2 to 4 hours for the "Last Supper" with uppers. I cut off all rotten roots and amputate diseased or senile(obviously non-working root) and parts of otherwise healthy roots that are diseased. All old roots will die anyway which then have to be removed. However, some healthier roots, before their short life in an alien medium, will actually sprout new branches to keep supplying the plant with water and nutrients, if only temporarily(Oh the right genes!). So if I think I have the future time commitment, and really care for the plant, I go for this tedious process. You can see the gouged out parts in this Catt. rhizome in this picture. The new growth also had its root plate rotted and had to put out a feeble new lead under water before any roots were produced (see picture) and all leaves were puckered then plumped up. It actually bloomed great 2 years later in water culture.
If I am pressed for time I just cut off all roots, especially on robust Catts. I did not notice a difference with them except that it is much less work. The goal is to keep rot producing organisms to a minimum so that the plant has an even chance to fight them (similar to what we do to treat infections in mammals).
I now rate plants for resistance to rot, which seem to vary greatly, and probably also influenced by whether they are virussed or not ( just like someone with AIDS succumbs to all kinds of infection others can fight). Many of my novelty oncidium hybrids that did poorly actually showed flagrant signs of virus on new growth eventually, sometimes after 2 years (What a bummer! You probably take a 50/50 chance with these).
If there are two or more healthy robust pseudobulbs to supply the new growth, now I remove the senile backbulbs with black rot on rhizomes immediately. If I feel forced to keep the sick ones, I surgically remove the rotted parts with a razor blade or scalpel, treat with Gentian Violet 1%. If there is no sign of deep rot I just clean with drugstore hydrogen peroxide full strength, change solutions more frequently, and hope for the best. I alway keep a freshly-poured cup of peroxide (as you probably know it turns into water and oxygen quickly in air) with cotton swabs which I keep handy when I groom my orchids, so this is easy. However, lately, I have stayed away from buying such sick plants unless I just feel like experimenting with new treatments. (I even carry a Jeweler's magnifier when I plan to shop.)
Once in the culture medium I try to keep all roots covered with solution, and if necessary, tie the plant on something like plastic spoons and forks and slant as needed to accomplish this. I usually end up keeping a little bit of Onc. pseudobulbs and all Catt. rhizomes submerged.
If I don't see healthy algae growth soon, but instead I see brown deposit on the container, I debreed the rotten stuff, treat for infection again and repeat this until it is eliminated or I give up on the plant. Sometimes this culling is easy because I may end up with 2-3 sections that were no longer attached functionally to the original little pseudobulbs that came with the plant and had to be severed in the original cleaning process.
I assume that some genera make better subjects than other which ones in your experience should we keep away from the water? Would a vanda be a good subject? I already have them in vases and i leave a bit of water in the bottom for humidity and i have a decent amount of algea growing in these vases. Also do you still feed the chids or do they get the nutrients from the algea.
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