Blooming Onc. Sweet Sugar in S/H
 

This is the Sweet Sugar I transferred to S/H 7 months ago and I watched them put on a spectacular show with 2 spike. It works like magic!
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http://www.orchidboard.com/community...m/DSC00081.JPG

Thanks for posting photo of this healthy and beautiful plant

Hi, Black Orchid - I think this is the same variety that I have - not sure as it's a NOID (photos below) When I first bought mine, it had a spike that only had about 20 flowers on it. This fall, I couldn't belieive it - it rebloomed with over 100 flowers on a single infloresence!!! If you have any questions about care or cultivation, let me know!

Mine came from the Home Depot "baggie" chids. The root is not fully established but the plant is in good health after 7 months in semi-hydro. The flower is huge, the biggest I've seen in yellow dancing lady. Hopefully it's gonna look like yours someday. Go Sweet Sugar!

It looks like you're taking good care of it. It seems to be one that the larger the whole plant gets, the more flowers it produces. I agree, the largest flower I've seen on a dancing lady - I love this one!

Yours seem to have a deeper yellow than mine does I like it

My success with growing plants using the S/H method has been very poor. I planted twelve plants in S/H in Dec. 07. Ten were Oncidium hybrids and two were Paphs. There are only three healthy plants remaining is S/H. The rest declined so badly that I removed them to save them and re-potted in very loose sphagnum moss. The three remaining plants in S/H are extremely healthy. Two of them are Beallara Tahoma Glacier and the other is Degamorara Wildcat 'Bobcat' The p-bulbs are so fat they are nearing splitting. One has three spikes. All of the others that I moved to sphagnum have recovered and doing fine. One is Oncidium Sweet Sugar 'Excelcior' and it has a branched spike with a two inch lip. I wonder what the reason is that some of the plants thrived and others tried to die on me?

Onc. Sweet Sugar below:

What is a S/H? can somebody explain a little.

There are a number of possibilities, Jerry.

Each orchid has its own set of needed conditions, and "Semi-hydroponics" does not completely define growing conditions.

Probably the most common reason plants fail when transferred to s/h culture is that they are not treated properly in terms of getting them established - timing of repotting being they key, but also including managing the other potential stresses, as well. The plant has to grow new roots to accommodate the new conditions, so it may need to be "babied" while it does. Usually, moving from a very dry set of root conditions to s/h is the most stressful.

Issues with water and feeding can also play a role.

For example, if watered too infrequently, the chemistry in the reservoir can get pretty nasty - that's why filling the pot to the top and letting it flush the pot and reservoir is important, too.

Controlling the water and fertilizer chemistry seems to be a key, as well. Many say that most traditional orchid media have some cation exchange capacity (CEC) - a term more often used with soils that basically describes the fertility of the substrate, and its ability to hold onto nutrients to be "doled out" to the plants. Personally, I doubt that it's significant in most orchid media, but it is essentially absent in LECA. That means that the pH and nutrient contents must be controlled by the applicator, and it probably has to be controlled more closely than is the case with other media.

I'm surprised to hear about the paphs - most of the time they jump for the sky if accidentally dropped on an s/h pot for me. I'd guess that the oncidiinae intergenerics are simply less-stressed than they were previously - possibly the evaporative cooling of the root system - some of those guys get pretty picky about heat.

Thanks Ray for the input. I studied your post and came to the conclusion that I failed with S/H because the timing was not right for the plants that did not respond to the change.

Hi Orquidia
SH is semi hydroponic. Water grown! You need a container with a reservoir. You need to use a free draining medium. Like hydroclay. These need to be soaked before you use them so that you wash away any residues and get the balls really absorbent. then place them into your pot plant the orchid and surround with the hydroclay medium. Give the orchid a good soak then allow to drain. Once you have done this just feed as normal and water when the reservoir looks almost empty.
Hope this helps you.
Hugs Joan :waving

It certainly has explained it to me. I've always wondered but for one reason or another never asked. I doubt I will try this procedure but it is good to know. Sweet Sugar is a beautiful onc. with it's very large "skirt" I have one and really enjoy when it blooms. The ones seen here are beauties. Thanks.

It's very interesting, for some reason, plants that are slow in root production also do poorly in semi-hydroponic for me, as well as plants that grow new root infrequently. I put this Oncidium in S/H when it began putting out new shoots, therefore, I guess it was a little poorly timed because it didn't put out any new root for 4 weeks after being moved. Sometimes even when I put a plant that's growing new root into S/H, the root would just stop growing and start drying out, maybe humidty problem. I have mixed success so far.

Thanks you Ray for the great explanation.

Joansorchid,

Thanks for the great explanation.

Orquidia:waving