Quick Semi- Hydroponic Course

[tmoney]

so sade, you brought up the salt accumulation thing and i have had a question about that. so of the three plants we have in s/h we have basically 3 results. first is a paph lindenii that is doing soooooo much better than the 2 othe culture methods we have tried with it. so that one is a winner so far, finally growing and looking happy. the phal speciosum from the project this year is doing ok....putting on new leaves, looking ok but not bad. third and most troubling is our phal (dorit) braceanna. and this is the salt accumulation thing. all three get exactly the same watering and flushing regimen, but the braceanna get salt buildup on its stalk and the tops of the air roots. it is for sure the slowest growing of the 3 is s/h, even slower than the paph believe it or not. im convinced it is because of salts, but no amount of flushing or gentle scrubbing seems to be able to clear it. anyone had a similar experience, or a hypothesis on why one gets so much salt buildup compared to the others? we have struggled with this particular plant since we got it, so im not averse to trying some extreme things with this plant. tia!

[Ray]

Something **must be** different about the pot, medium, treatment, etc., as I honestly cannot think of any reason the plant plays any role in salt buildup.

Yes, plants do secrete a compensatory ion whenever they take up nutrient ions, but that is universal.

[Shadeflower]

I don't think root salts are the issue.

I get salt buildup I coud scrape off and stick on my egg in the morning

[tmoney]

ha, yeah that is a lot of salt too. i will try and get a pic of it, it’s worse than yours!

and @ray, yeah i would agree that something has to be different about the media or culture. i tried to think back if we reused old leca to plant that thing or how it would be different than the other 2 in s/h. but i can’t think of anything. we have a giant bag of leca we have been working thru, so it’s the same leca, same water schedule, same fertilizer. actually less fertilizer because i skipped a week of ferts due to the salt being so bad. so, yeah, it’s a real puzzler. the only hypothesis i had running is that maybe the plant takes up less nutrients and so it would leave more behind to crystallize? but that seemed unlikely especially compared to a paph. so yeah, i dunno. ill get a pic up

[Ray]

Mineral uptake by plants is microscopic in volume, so different uptake rates would not be discernible.

To gain a pound of mass, a plant only needs about 5 grams of nutrients.

[tmoney]

wow ray, that’s a great little nuggets of knowledge ive never heard put quite that way before. definitely stealing that for my plant bio courses!!

only prob is that you used both imperial and metric in the same sentence

[Ray]

OK then...

In order to gain one kilogram of mass, a plant only requires 10-11 grams of nutrients, but must also absorb and process more than 180 kg of water.

[ozymand1as]

Originally Posted by tmoney

wow ray, that’s a great little nuggets of knowledge ive never heard put quite that way before. definitely stealing that for my plant bio courses!!

only prob is that you used both imperial and metric in the same sentence

No big deal, I'm working on a spacecraft and we swap between SI and US Customary daily.

Does it drive me absolutely crazy and create lots of opportunities for unit system errors? Yep. Are we going to keep doing that kind of thing? Also yep.

[WaterWitchin]

This discussion took a real turn away from Sade's original inquiry about a Quick Semi-Hydro Course in the last 15 or so posts. I moved it here:

A Fertilizer Discussion Reprise

Ya'll can carry on your argument there if you still want. It's not appropriate for someone new to semi-hydro to seek out this thread to learn some simple facts and watch it degrade into a science-guy battle. Carry on there, please. Not here.

[SADE2020]

Originally Posted by Dusty Ol' Man

Since we are discussing this in some detail, I recently had my three catts blown off the table they were sitting on by a freak storm. All three in S/H. They landed on the deck and spilled out of their containers. One of the minis broke in half, leaving me with one set of 4 pbulbs with new roots, and 4 without any roots. After repotting as best I could after gathering up the scattered leca, I gave Ray a call to run my idea by him and get his advice. (Thanks Ray). I made a temporary s/h pot out of an empty water bottle, and filled it loosely with rock wool chunks. Then put the plant into a bucket of kelpmax solution to soak overnight. Next day I filled the pot with the solution and placed the plant on top. This I put in my garage where it is warm and humid and deeply shaded. (One north facing window). Now hoping for the best. I'll report my results in this thread.

@Dusty !! what happen with this recovery ???