Bottom Heat
 

So it's been about two weeks since I repotted my phal into S/H, and though it's too early to say if it's thriving... it definitely isn't dying yet. I potted by accident into a pot that was a bit too big, though I'm hoping that when the plant takes off that roots will fill it up. It's just a little awkward though, seeing a fat 6.5 inch pot on my target bookshelf.

Anyway, I just purchased a bottom heater and I can't wait to see the results from it. When I ordered my s/h kit from Ray's, the average temp in town was 90 degrees... the day I recieved my kit the temp dropped into the 70s/60s. This California weather likes to mock me...

Bwahahaha!!!!

It was a positively balmy 36 degrees and raining when I left for work this morning! :mrgreen: I guess summer's over. Gotta love that Mid-Atlantic weather. :snow:

Let us know how the heater works.

Cheers.
Jim

Don't worry about the big pot. I actually try to put my phals into pots that are at least 75% of the leaf span. They seem to like it, spreading out the submerged roots rather than growing a bunch of aerial roots that meander over the edge of the pot.

The heaters I carry bump up the bottom temp by about 10°-15°F, and that makes a big difference in getting the plants established.

I clipped a bunch of Neomarica gracilis (walking iris - see below) keikis from the mother plant and stuck them - some in S/H others in Ecopots with sphagnum - in a tray with a heat pad, and they went from no roots to established in 2 weeks! Granted, they root faster than orchids, but I always use this technique when repotting, and it helps tremendously.

http://www.bulbsociety.org/GALLERY_O...s/DSCF1704.jpg

I repotted a group of miniature phals into SH and got a heat pad for them. They're really taking off. New roots everywhere.

Maureen

an update:

received my heating pad on wednesday, and then the next morning noticed what looked like a small ball of cotton in my pot. last night i unpotted, removed a root that was on it's way out and was building a serious case of mold, swabbed down the rest with q-tips, and then ran a bleach/water solution through my PA.

on the good side of things, only one of my roots was going bad, and it was one of the older ones of the bunch. the other roots looked okay and one of them even still had it's green nubbin. i realized that i didn't clean my PA well enough, which is why i gave it another soaking and swished it around a bit. a lot of residue came off. Ray recommends at least a 24hr initial soaking, I'd say 48hrs minimum would be ideal. i'm hoping that the bleach/water solution also killed any bacteria remaining.

I repotted, added a teaspoon of KLN and fertilizer (the included one).

So I'm losing a leaf, but i think it's more of age than the switch... or a combination of both.

three weeks and going... I'm optimistic.

Keep us updated!

The darn cobweb mold... a few people seem to be struggling with it at the moment.

For the record i use a shelf system with plants in S/H, and i've noticed that shelves that have lights underneath them (lighting up the plants on a shelf below) seem to get much faster growth and rooting than the bottom-most shelf. I'm convinced this is because the lights themselves act like bottom-heat heating the shelf that they're attached to and the corresponding group of plants on that shelf. Dipping my finger in the water it is often 'warm', and the root growth is nuts.

So i highly recommend bottom heat for root growth, and in fact tomorrow i'm going to go to the shop and buy a heat mat for the lowest shelf so it's not missing out.

yeah, that cobweb mold is super annoying. i rubbed down my other roots with an alcohol/water mix and i hope that was enough to kill whatever was there.

Undergrounder, do you provide bottom heat year round 24/7? or just in the cooler months?

Well the lights are on for 10 hours a day year round so that means i can't avoid the bottom heat year-round. With my mats i think i'll use them year-round just because they do make a difference. Anything growing on a bottom shelf without bottom heat is growing noticeably slower than things on upper shelves so i'm sold.

small Update...

so the leaf that's grown since being planted into S/H is probably the best looking I've ever seen my phal have. While other's usually had a nice green color and a matte finish, this one is large and glossy.

However, I noticed this morning that one of my roots had broken during the recent repotting. How bad is this? One of the roots that was about an inch in length when I potted is growing oh so slowly. I hate having to lose any roots that I don't have to, prematurely...

I'm in NY and have an insulated porch with windows facing north, east, and south. I heat with electric baseboard heaters. I'm switching plants to s/h and I just ordered some heat mats. I usually keep the room heated to 72-74 degrees for 14-16 hours (florescent lights when natural light is gone), 60 degrees at night. Should I adjust temperature when using heat mats? Should the heat mats be on 24/7?