What orchids can thrive in water culture?

[DirtyCoconuts]

Originally Posted by WaterWitchin

I have rehabbed orchids by leaving water in a vase, below roots, and soaking two or three times a week for a half hour or so, then pouring water out to back below roots depth. Keeps humidity up. Also have rehabbed orchids by putting a cloche over them and placing on damp sphagnum moss. Same with an old aquarium.

I can't give advice on using FWC to rehab orchids, because I've never done it. If you're going to rehab an orchid, decide ahead of time how you'll grow it once it's rehabbed. Using one way to rehab then potting up in a totally different way just leads to having to rehab over and over again. New roots grow and structure themselves to uptake water, nutrients, etc, based on the environment they're already growing in.

THIS

[Orchidtinkerer]

short term FWC will work, that is why initially people love it.

But I would suggest short term you use semi-hydro. I basically just use a cup, fill it with leca, fill the bottom 2 cm with water, the leca wicks the water and keeps the plant above at the right humidity. Although I am not a fan of using semi-hydro long term either it is a very simple way of getting a plant to establish itself. Keep the bottom topped up as it evaporates.
A plant can take over a year to establish itself if its roots are bad in which case they would need a lot of daily care but with S/H you just need to top up the cup weekly.

Once a plant has established itself I would not carry on using S/H but like I said that can take a year or more in some cases.

[WaterWitchin]

Originally Posted by Orchidtinkerer

short term FWC will work, that is why initially people love it.

But I would suggest short term you use semi-hydro. I basically just use a cup, fill it with leca, fill the bottom 2 cm with water, the leca wicks the water and keeps the plant above at the right humidity. Although I am not a fan of using semi-hydro long term either it is a very simple way of getting a plant to establish itself. Keep the bottom topped up as it evaporates.
A plant can take over a year to establish itself if its roots are bad in which case they would need a lot of daily care but with S/H you just need to top up the cup weekly.

Once a plant has established itself I would not carry on using S/H but like I said that can take a year or more in some cases.

Since I pretty much grow exclusively in SH, I would disagree. Yes, it's a way to rehab, grow, and thrive an orchid, IF the final place for it to grow is SH. Regardless, I would start out the same way until I had a couple of roots coming on, then put into SH. If one intends to move it to a mount or a bark, etc, based medium... not so much.

It's why I suggested other ways of getting the rehab orchids into something like a bark medium or mounted, as I figure OP would choose one or the other. Or stick with FWC. SH is a whole different ballgame. Back to roots conform to their environment.