Transitioning long/petaled phrags into S/H

[Dekejis]

Hi everyone! I've been a lurker here for a while and I'm going to jump on and join the conversation.

I've got several phrags which are mostly of the long-petaled varieties, and i'm wondering if they can be transitioned over to S/H. I've repotted several of them up already in a mix of hydroton and rockwool cubes and have them sitting in a tray of water with an airstone oxygenating it with my fingers crossed.

So on to my first question - is using the hydroton/rockwool mix likely to be too much moisture for these? I currently grow in my garage and have in the past summered my plants outside - so the humidity varies quite a bit, as does the temps. I'm hoping to eventually set them up in a grow tent, but that's a project for later. I've been reading up on the threads discussing using these two medias in a mix and I'm hoping that this will help with dryness on top - I tried out S/H some years ago without success because I really struggled with the LECA drying out on top and I couldn't keep up with it.

My goal is to come up with an easy to care for setup wherein all my plants are growing in the same conditions and those plants are able to hold their own and tolerate a little more neglect than bark mixes. I am typically SUPER busy, and the idea of S/H has always appealed to me.

I have some straight caudatum plants that I'm also hoping to transition - perhaps a little less rockwool in the mix?

Second question - I've added a layer of rockwool cubes on the top to encourage moisture retention in the mix below and also encourage rooting by retaining humidity at the top - is this a bad idea? Am I discouraging airflow by doing this? Should rockwool not be touching the green parts of the plants?

Any suggestions for making the transition more successful?

**EDIT: Ok, like a twit, I opted to switch a couple of my caudatums over into S/H (using much less rockwool in the mix), and these guys don't have any new roots starting. Should I switch them back over to bark mix and wait?

[estación seca]

I think Phrags do well in S/H. The time to move them is when new roots are forming. I would not rerepot the plants you already moved. I haven't used rock wool so I can't address that.

[Ray]

Roots don't transition; root systems do, by replacing what's there with roots tailored to the new environment.

Transplant "Adaptation"

[Dekejis]

Thanks for the responses. I guess my immediate question is.. for the plants I've already repotted into rockwool/hydroton and are not yet starting new roots, should I treat them like regular mix (i.e. letting dry out for the most part until I water) until I spot new roots starting and THEN treat them like s/h?

[estación seca]

I'm a little unclear. Are they in S/H pots with holes above the bottom and in new media? Or in standard pots? If you've put them into S/H pots I would treat them as S/H and keep moist.

Phrags shouldn't ever dry out, no matter how potted. They grow in streams and ditches, on stream banks in wet soil, or on rocks in streams. Letting them dry out will cause root trouble.

[Dekejis]

They are in standard pots - clear plastic aircone pots that are currently sitting in a tray of water.

Some phrag species - notably caudatum, humboldtii and wascewiczianum (wallisii) tend to resent "wet feet" in conventional culture and are prone to problems if they're grown too wet or their media doesn't have good oxygen exchange. They do, however, still like moisture. I am still hoping they're adaptable over to S/H once the new roots come in adapted to S/H.

I was wondering if I should leave them in the rockwool/hydroton and just grow them "conventionally" until I spot new roots forming and then have the pots sitting in water. i.e. not freak out the existing root system too much until I get new roots forming. I know the old roots will die in S/H, but I have the flexibility to allow these to grow conventionally in the S/H mix until I see new roots.

[Ray]

If they currently have no roots, you should pot them up and treat them in the manner you wish to grow them, long term. That way, as the new roots do emerge, they will "tailor" themselves to that environment.

If you get them rooted in bark first and the move them to S/H conditions, they will have wasted all the resources used to create the first set of roots, and will have to regrow a new set for the new conditions.

[Dekejis]

They currently do have good roots. As I previously mentioned, I've already repotted them yesterday into hydroton and rockwool and they're currently sitting in water. There are just no active growing root tips or new roots starting.

I'm simply asking if it makes sense to keep the old roots going in the short term by not immediately throwing the repotted orchids straight into S/H - I thought that perhaps the repotting might stimulate new roots to start and once they appear, I can put the pots into water and grow as S/H.

[Louis_W]

In my opinion your plants will adapt best to stable conditions so you pick a potting strategy and stick with it. I have had success with the dryer growing phrags in S/H but I had the same problem so I put a little layer of sphagnum on top of the LECA. It helped keep the moisture up

In my experience the 'no wet feet' rule totally gets bent by S/H growing. I have dry growing cattleya growing with their roots submerged in water all the time. The reason they can do that is is because the roots voluntarily grow into the water and as they develop they can adapt to the wet situation. If I had submerged mature roots into water they would have died in a matter of days.

[Dekejis]

Thanks, guys. I did decide to push forward with S/H with the plants i've already potted in Hydroton.

Louis, I did something similar to what you did, but I put a thin layer of small polished pebbles over the hydroton after seeing someone else so something similar in a youtube video. So far, it seems to be working well; I hope this still allows decent airflow into the pot as well.

Originally Posted by estación seca

I'm a little unclear. Are they in S/H pots with holes above the bottom and in new media? Or in standard pots? If you've put them into S/H pots I would treat them as S/H and keep moist.

Phrags shouldn't ever dry out, no matter how potted. They grow in streams and ditches, on stream banks in wet soil, or on rocks in streams. Letting them dry out will cause root trouble.

Originally Posted by Louis_W

In my opinion your plants will adapt best to stable conditions so you pick a potting strategy and stick with it. I have had success with the dryer growing phrags in S/H but I had the same problem so I put a little layer of sphagnum on top of the LECA. It helped keep the moisture up

In my experience the 'no wet feet' rule totally gets bent by S/H growing. I have dry growing cattleya growing with their roots submerged in water all the time. The reason they can do that is is because the roots voluntarily grow into the water and as they develop they can adapt to the wet situation. If I had submerged mature roots into water they would have died in a matter of days.