Clear glass vase as container?
 

Can I use a clear class container that is sort of like a vase as a s/h pot? It doesn't have drainage holes but i can see where the water line is and easily keep it there. Also instead of the clay pebbles can i use small stone pebbles? It is about 6" tall and 4 inches wide at the widest point, 3" at the bottom and top, how high should the water line be?

I don't think it is a good idea , there would be no way to flush the container to remove Fertiliser salts resulting in root burn that is one of the reasons for the holes near the bottom of the pot , also there would be no air to the root zone and no good way to add fresh water without either removing the plant or making a mess with over flow .
I don't know about the pebbles, maybe Ray will chime in . Gin

Good advice Gin, my only thought would be that s/h is more absorbent to retaining nutrients as well as moisture and with stone it would be to hard of a surface to retain any amount of water, yucky algae is in order and without the retention of nutrients your rooting system on an orchid would be fried.

I don't think it would be a good idea, keep this theory for "lucky bamboo" where you have no worries about a water line other than to fill what has evaporated.

I know of someone who is growing a paph in s/h in a glass candle holder. He uses worm tea instead of fertilizer. I've seen pics of epidendrums growing in vases in just water.

Worm tea or poop:evil:...something of a gross product when walking into the garden center an seeing it all spread out on a shelf...P U

I as well, photography purposes would be my guess...not a natural habitat.

I'm not saying its something that can not be done it just appears to be more work than what it would be worth, just my 2 cents worth.

There was a site ,Vengers Orchids, that had a lot of informatiion on growing orchids in water culture I did a quick search did not find the info. maybe to quick :) Gin

Worm tea actually doesn't have an odor. I've been using it on my orchids. Here's a site that shows the epidendrums in water: Semihydro
The paph in s/h:http://www.orchidgeeks.com/gallery/d...p?imageid=1187

FWIW Mr. Venger's information on orchids and water culture can be found in an old newsletter of an Arizona orchid group. OSA

If you've ever seen worm compost you'd know it's nothing like "poop" in any way, more like dark rich soil. No bad odour at all. Smells like healthy earth, which is what it is.

A glass vase, by itself, isn't all that bad, but the previously-mentioned lack of flushing capability is a serious issue.

I don't think air flow is though, as the amount of air getting in a s/h pot through the holes is insignificant campared to that entering through the pathways between medium particles.

Ordinary pebbles can work, but on;y through capillarity, as there's no absorption whatsoever, meaning that you will need to water VERY often.

Clear Glass Vases are great, because lights goes through, water level can be closely monitored, air circulation should not be a problem if your vases is not extremely narrow at opening or bottle-necked.

Wholesale Glass Vases for Wedding and FLoral useage
The problem is that you have buy case count, but great prices.

I use glass vases
 

I bought a bunch of inexpensive square glass vases at Michaels and Ikea to use as semi-hydroponic pots. I used my dremel and a 1/4" diameter diamond bit to drill two holes each in two of the sides, 1" up from the bottom. It was pretty easy and they look great! All of my orchids look much happier and don't appear to be having any problems (knock wood).

Paph friend I'd be interested to see photos of your plants in vases please,thanks

Okay, here's a couple. Both of these vases were bought at Michaels. As you can see, I was a bit impatient while drilling the holes, so there was a bit of chipping around a few of the holes. It doesn't show since it's on the side.

Just for info, these plants were a bit neglected (my bad) before s/h potting and now they look much better (after 2 weeks). I'm watching the roots to make sure there's enough air movement. I may decide to drill another set of holes halfway up later on. For now, they seem happy.

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/227/shabove.jpg

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/1430/shfront.jpg

http://img129.imageshack.us/img129/4594/shholes.jpg

Those make nice s/h pots! I thought you were supposed to pot paph in the middle of the pot so they can spread in all directions,Paph Feind?

Being a ceramic engineer by education, I'll share a tip on drilling glass: Do it underwater. Not only does the water keep everything cool so thermal shock doesn't crack the glass, there are even effects on a molecular level that help keep the glass intact.

A nifty little demo of that is cutting a glass microscope slip sheet (the VERY thin piece of glass that covers the specimen) with an ordinary pair of scissors (the scissors DO have to be sharp, but it's still a great science demo for school kids).

Haha, I did drill them under water. It's just that I was using a very worn bit and after drilling several vases in a row, I started getting impatient and forcing it. I have ADD :)

My first attempt with S/H was with glasvases.

I did switch over to plastic after just a short while, becourse the temprature in the glasvases becomes too high, too fast in sunny weather.
Somehow, this vases becomes like a magnifier for the sun, and burns/cocking the roots if you let them stand in a sunny place...
I live in Norway, so the sun is not that hot here, as it is several other places.

The other issue i got pretty fast, was algae. This grows faster in glasvases then in plastic, probably due to the temprature as well.

And the third issue, that i never got to since i repotted into plastic, is when its time to repot becourse of the size of the plant/roots. There is no moving in the glas, so the roots growing bigger, may actually break the hole vase. That does not affect the chid, but its still a shame to loose a nice looking glasvase like that...

I did repot into plasticpots, and use the glasvase as an outher pot where i put the water. Like this, the air around the plasticpot inside will cool down the temprature inside, and you dont have to worry about the roots breaking the vase.
Algae is still an issue, but i have desided to just let it stay. It doesent harm the chid, and with the outher glaspot, its not that visible either.
And another good effect, is that is raises the humidity around the chid since the water evaporates both inside the plasticpot as well as in the outher glasvase.

And it still looks nice. ;)

nobbywebfoot
 

I first saw phalaenopsis grown in glass containers in photographs of the interior of a Japanese home. So I tried this myself using what used to be called "goldfish bowls" and washed mixed river gravel graded to the size of about a large broad or fava bean. First I introduce a 1.5 inch layer of gravel to the bottom followed by a thick walled plastic tube (bought from an aquarium supplier) this is cut to reach easily from the bottom to the top edge of the container. Then after gently washing and separating the roots I then insert them into the bowl, up to three plants for these containers, then gently pushing them towards the sides. Though this latter is not important it just gives the roots a little more of the light they seem to crave. Then it is just a matter of slowly introducing the pebbles, about a handful at a time trickled in, then gently tapping whilst rotating the bowl to settle them around the roots. Then I give the bowl it's first flushing by running clean water down through the inserted tube allowing it to overflow for a few minutes, this is then repeated each one to three months, most frequently in warmest conditions. The water is then drained by loosely winding clean cotton fabric or soft plastic sheet aroundthe base of the plants, covering the surface then with spread fingers firmly pressing on the surface invert the container to drain the water. There is one proviso and that is a goldfish bowl filled with pebbles is quite heavy so keep the size of the container down to what you can hold up easily for a few minutes. Misting gives a little moisture to the roots also, but when the quarter inch layer of water in the bottom eventually dries out out completely wait a few days then add some fresh water, without fertiliser, to make up the quarter inch. So far, after about 18 months, these phalaenopsis have flourished without any problems. I intend to try some other suitable orchid species and hope this helps to answer some of the questions.

I switched to water culture recently, and have two orchids in FULL water culture. They do great