Fungus in Semi Hydro
 

I moved my Orchids to Semi Hydro last week. 1 Dend and 6 Phals. I used Hydroton, I steeped it for three days, changing water every 12-24 hours. Then I boiled it for an hour and then steeped it again in clean water with fertiliser. Put them in clear glass vases (As per article) and watched. Its been about 5 days and they are currently laid out on my chair. Roots bare and heavily sprayed with a fungicide.

I dont know if its the movement to the new medium or its come from the IKEA Orchids I bought two weeks ago. Either way the fluffy white fungus was on one or two roots but on all the sticks that support the plants. I have trimmed back the roots that are squishy or mouldy. I have the Hydroton in a bucket to be boiled again. I have fresh Hydroton ready to plant them again and I am going to give them another spray of the fungicide again tomorrow. I am disposing of the rods and (:((cutting the stems back due to no support at this moment and wanting the plant to concentrate on roots)

Basically long story short, am I missing anything. I know I should expect the roots to die off but is there anything I can do to help the plants? Thanks

Sounds like you are well under way. One thing that could help speed things along is if you could add a liquid rooting hormone such as Superthrive in the water. I'm not sure what is available in Ireland. Here is a like to some very good information on S/H.

All about Semi-Hydroponics

Thanks for the tip. I probably should have started using a rooting hormone last week. I will try a garden centre and then if not there is a place about 2 hours from Dublin that definitely have it.

When you say clear glass vases, do you mean without holes? If so, it sounds more like water culture than semi hydroponic.
Was there new root growth before you started this procedure? Read the articles on First Rays Site...

Warmth is critical - especially with phals and dens, both of which prefer really warm conditions anyway.

I would class it as warm. Its about 8 degrees celcius these days outside and I have the heating going on for half an hour a couple of times a day before I get home to keep them warm. ( I am actually too warm ). There was some new growth but nothing spectacular. I do honestly feel right now I am massacring the orchids because the roots look dreadful. There is fungus which I have hopefully killed. I think it classes as Semi Hydro as I followed the article about semi hydro in vases but now I have them in plastic pots in hydroton with a little water in a bowl to water the roots. The roots arnt sitting in water because in most cases there werent enough roots left after the last round of chopping. I would like to say I moved to hydroton because I was worried I was over watering and also because its very hard to get your hands on decent materials for orchids. Of my nine Phals. 3 are still in bark. 6 moved to hydroton. 4 of those I bought in IKEA 2 weeks ago to experiment with (I think they brought the fungus) and two of my other ones. I have a feeling I am probably going to end up with only three phals after this and 3 bags of hydroton. :biggrin:

Phals hate cold and wet roots.

I would never let a phalaenopsis go any cooler than 15°C, and prefer that limit to be 17°, and when you consider the increased evaporative cooling associated with S/H culture I'd be more comfortable with 20° or 21°.

I honestly havent a clue what temperature it is in the apartment. But its not cold in here. But I take what you are saying. I am going to move them closer to the heating.