All new growths are stunted... any ideas?

[wirtlo]

My plants seem to get a lot of new growths that 'stop' growing and stay 'stunted' indefinitely. Not sure this is the right place, but I think it may be related to SH in some way since I didn't have this problem before I grew in SH (back when the problem was keeping roots alive!).

Anyone else have/had this problem?

It is most prominent with:
Brassavola nodosa on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Epidendrium ciliare on Flickr - Photo Sharing!
Cattleya loddigessi on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

The largest growths are the original growths from when I bought the plants. My orchid set up is here: Orchid Growing Area on Flickr - Photo Sharing!. They get weakly weekly fertilizer and watered a once or twice more than that each week (don't have any root rot problems since they dry so quickly). Could it be a fertilizer issue? I use "Grow More" brand 20-20-20 which has the three types of Nitrogen and chelated micronutrients. I add in once a month or so some cal-mag too.

Any leads to the cause of this or suggestions for my pseudo-semihydro set up would be greatly appreciated!

[Sandy4453]

Are you growing these using s/h or just using the LECA to grow these in? How long have they stayed stalled?

When the weather get's cool, I begin cutting back (drastically) with watering and fertilizing until springtime. These can take serious deprivation and I've noticed that the less attention I pay to them, the better they grow...except in hotter weather. I would try cutting back on the watering.

[wirtlo]

Originally Posted by Sandy4453

Are you growing these using s/h or just using the LECA to grow these in? How long have they stayed stalled?

The Epidendrum has been stalled since January - it put out two new growths, they stalled, put out two more, stalled, and then one last one. Then one of them out of the 5 grew an extra inch or so, but that's been it and not sure what inspired that.

The Brassolva nodosa has been doing the same stalling since January too, except there's now ~15 short new growths.

I'm just using LECA - so not actually growing them s/h. Although all of them were in s/h back in spring, switch them in summer.

I definitely will have to cut back on watering - and have been somewhat since the photoperiod is getting much shorter. But this has definitely been on going since before spring. I was shocked to see new growth developing when the previous one hadn't even half-way finished.

[Ray]

I think you're going in the wrong direction.

Using LECA as a medium in such a fast-drying setup leads to at least two problems: one is the obvious case of the plant not getting sufficient moisture to grow properly. The other is the almost immediate buildup of salts in the medium.

In semi-hydroponics, where the medium stays mostly wet - including in the interior of pellets that appear to be dry on the outside - mineral buildup is maintained at a minimum, and is easily flushed at each watering, as all of the evaporation is from the top. In this circumstance, the whole mass of medium dries out quickly, trapping the minerals in the interior of the medium, where they will not easily be removed.

I'd bet that if you watered the dailights out of the plants DAILY, using pure water with about 1/4 teaspoon of that fertilizer per gallon for every other watering, you'd see some fantastic growth.

Nope. That has nothing to do with semi-hydroponics.

[AHAB]

Have you used any pesticides?
If not maybe get your water tested.

[Jorch]

I agree with Ray.

Growing in straight LECA and watering once or twice weekly is definitely not enough moisture for the plant, and as Ray said, salt build up is also a problem. So basically, summer is the growing season, and you reduced the water and nutrient availability to the plants by switching to straight LECA. That's probably why the new growths are all "stunted".

I guess the question is, why did you have problem keeping roots alive before you switch over to s/h? What medium and what condition do you grow your plants in before you decide to make the switch??

[wirtlo]

Thanks Ray and Jorch. I think maybe watering more is a good idea. I've reduced somewhat since days are getting shorter/cooler, but maybe should pick back up. But it has been more than just once a week. "They get weakly weekly fertilizer and watered a once or twice more than that each week..." All of those waterings are a good soak while on other days I'd squirt 'em enough until water started dripping out the other side. Most do have nice roots too.

Do you think daily soaking would be fine (even with shorter days) just as long as things are dry by dark?

To answer the question Jorch, I was loosing roots/plants because my last place was so temperature variable and had bad lighting and it was hard to keep humidity (that place was close to campus and cheap, and actually someone's old, converted attic which explains all the problems... ). So, since moving, to a place with a dreamy south facing window it has been a learning curve with S/H (and now the non-S/H straight hydroton). And I made the transition from bark to S/H just before moving since I couldn't keep things consistently humid. Actually the last couple years has been a giant learning curve for growing orchids --- you should see my pile of 'name tags' from the orchids I've killed. Its probably 30 strong.

[Intruder]

Why do you cultivate in S/H in jars so airy? The substrate dries too fast, the nourishing elements cannot migrate inward the roots. Use jars recommended by Ray or similar.

[Ray]

Also, do not think for a moment that growing in semi-hydro culture is a substitute for decent humidity.

[wirtlo]

Originally Posted by Intruder

Why do you cultivate in S/H in jars so airy? The substrate dries too fast, the nourishing elements cannot migrate inward the roots. Use jars recommended by Ray or similar.

Thanks for the input. I had two reasons:
I lost roots because they were simultaneously too wet (at the bottom) and too dry (at the top) for most plants in the norm s/h containers (still have some phals and dendros in there though), plus my previous growing conditions weren't that great (light, temp, etc).
The other reason is that a lot of my plants are commonly grown mounted -- so I figured growing in hydroton/net pots would retain more water than a piece of wood which would be better than either too wet or too dry (and a better fit for me ). Almost all the plants in the net pots have nice roots growing -- but I guess just not enough water to support the vegetation -- so I'm watering (drenching each one) daily now. I'll try and keep this thread updated with how that works, hopefully with pictures of blooms!