SH test appears to be failing with two phals?

[Ray]

There is no plant that "likes" or "dislikes" semi-hydroponics. What grows well for one, may not grow well for another, and the fact that one person is successful with a particular plant doesn't mean everyone will be.

"Semi-Hydroponics" merely describes a watering technique and the use of an inert medium. There are many other parameters - temperature, light, humidity, air movement, water quality and feeding, to name a few - that have a MUCH greater effect on an individual's success than does the plant itself.

[WaterWitchin]

Originally Posted by kvet

It's one of those two, actually it may be the one in #1 and #2, I forget - that was nine months ago. It has two little green leaves. The green nubby you see in the May photo hasn't done anything.

Total time in SH for this one has been about a year now... this lack of anything but stressed-ness just doesn't seem right?

If it's the one I pointed out... first set of pictures, Picture 3, I'm not surprised. As I said, the leaves looked like goners to begin with. How often do you water, what's the temperature range it's been living in, and humidity range?

Yes, it does appear to be moving toward health slowly, but it was not in good shape to begin with. So a year... meh. It was meant to be an experiment... so keep rockin' it unless you've lost patience.

---------- Post added at 10:39 AM ---------- Previous post was at 10:37 AM ----------

Any Ray's on spot. This has much more to do with other cultural factors than your choice of growing medium. The grower's care within that culture is a much more significant factor.

[Ray]

Expanding a bit on my last comment, the important thing is to figure out how the unique properties of the S/H pot - primarily the potential for evaporative cooling - works with the rest of your conditions to meet the needs of the plant.

Maybe I’m wrong, but it looks like that plant never really grew a new root system. The first thing that comes to mind on that is “too cool”. Phals really hate cold, wet roots, and while your temperatures might be acceptable in traditional culture, the evaporative cooling from the open, airy LECA may have pushed it enough lower to discourage growth.

[WaterWitchin]

I'm not sure about that Ray... the "cool" part. My Phals stay outside in fall until it drops into mid 50F's consistently. They've been outside for last two days when that was the high here, and lows in mid-40Fs. And have grown that way for a long time.

I think the Phal in question already had a crappy root system before SH (probably bark mix that had long before broken down) and was trying to support a bunch of leaves that all looked dehydrated. Then got moved to SH with no good roots to even commence the transition. Thus, taking seemingly forever to transition.

[kvet]

Hi, thanks for the continued discussion, and my apologies for making you all state some things that've already been written here.

Reviewing the photos and actual plant carefully, I think it's "Phal #1", which corresponds to pictures 1 and 2 in the original post, and picture 1 in post #14. "Phal #2" sadly did not make it (my first orchid casualty).

Working off Ray's comments about roots, I decided to check.. yup, there's been no growth whatsoever. See attached.. You'll notice a few things:
1. dark roots: this is not rot, just stained from the tea soak I did way back when before I had kelpmax, they are very firm
2. Significantly fewer roots compared to post #14 of this thread - back in December, I followed the suggestions to loosely bag and keep on heating mat for several weeks. That really ended up doing nothing, and when I checked on the roots in March, a bunch of roots had gone squishy so I clipped them off.

Here's my theory why there's been little growth: the roots were not deep enough to get the moister parts of the leca.. they were fairly dry when I pulled them from the media, and just the tips and lower part of the crown had any moisture on them whatsoever. i.e. The plant was getting water flushed over the roots once a week and getting whatever evaporated moisture would come by.

Therefore, either I "plant" it deeper into the leca, or put into orchid bark.

[SouthPark]

kvet ---- just treat the orchid as a factory or system. This one doesn't have a brain or mind as such, so it doesn't actually like or dislike or love or hate something.

It just "requires" conditions that allow the factory or production line to work or operate satisfactorily/properly.

So consider temperature and temperature range for both the leaves and the roots. Ray is right about evaporative cooling. Relatively cold roots due to water evaporating off the roots in the jar can impact negatively the vital activity within root cells ----- leading to roots dying and plant dehydration etc.

[kvet]

Thanks, yes, when I say "like" and "dislike", it's not meant to anthropomorphize the plant, it's just an easy way to state that the plant can grow in its conditions. My vocabulary has grown, so I will use other terminology.

Unlikely that temperature or humidity have been issues, we've had consistent temps ranging ~70-85F since august, and my relative humidity ranges 60-80%. June and July were cool, however, I kept it near the warm window with sunlight, and evenings it went on the heating pad. It's clear by the lack of root growth the plant has not adapted to the leca - the "why" to this is likely either my reasoning (plant not deep enough) or Ray's evaporative cooling.

If I want to keep it in leca, I may try to bury it a little deeper so the roots get more moisture since I don't think I can bend the laws of physics and thermodynamics yet I am leaning towards putting it back in bark.

---------- Post added at 04:49 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:04 PM ----------

As I was digging for a small pot in my gardening supplies, I remembered the two phals' purpose was to experiment with SH. Subsequently, I cleaned up the leca and jar, and put the phal back in, deeper. Let's see what happens over the next few months!

[WaterWitchin]

Exactamente! As I said... So a year... meh. It was meant to be an experiment... so keep rockin' it unless you've lost patience.

I need to take a picture of a plant in SH "rehab." It may be helpful.

[estación seca]

Where do you live? What are your growing temperatures? I'm going to bet it's too cold where you grow them. People often manage to keep Phals alive in typical house temperatures but the plants are not really happy about it.

Also plants with mealy bugs, even invisible, often will not grow - especially if in poor conditions, like too cool.

A Phal put into S/H in a nice warm space will immediately take off growing faster than you have ever seen one grow. If your plants aren't making new roots all the time it's too cool where you're growing them.