YES -SH for Oncidiums in my conditions

[Pilot]

Originally Posted by Vanda lover

I've grown in s/h before, and the only thing I wasn't sure about is weather the surface was drying out too much. I was constantly misting it, think that not much water was being wicked up properly.
Nancy

I don't mist my plants like this-- its a waste of energy in my opinion. If you keep up with flushing the pot, you may think the top is dry but I assure you, water is being wicked. I should mention that I live in Colorado where seeing humidity levels in the single digits are not uncommon. The roots will search for water, as mine have, and will find that reservoir.

	Mistking Looking for a misting system? Look no further. Automated misting systems from MistKing are used by multitude of plant enthusiasts and are perfect for Orchids. Systems feature run dry pumps, ZipDrip valve, adjustable black nozzles, per second control! Automatically mist one growing shelf or a greenhouse full of Orchids. See MistKing testimonials

[silken]

What I am not clear on with the SH, is do the pots sit in a saucer of water, or what? Not sure how much water they should be in or maybe none at all? I had an oncidium in SH and it looked like it was dying so I removed it. It was sitting in a pan of water about 1/2 deep and was planted in 100% leca balls.

[camille1585]

Originally Posted by silken

What I am not clear on with the SH, is do the pots sit in a saucer of water, or what? Not sure how much water they should be in or maybe none at all? I had an oncidium in SH and it looked like it was dying so I removed it. It was sitting in a pan of water about 1/2 deep and was planted in 100% leca balls.

S/H (in a nutshell )consists in having a reservoir of water that will wick up through the leca. The main way of doing this is using pots that have 2 holes about an inch or so up from the bottom. An alternative wayis to use normal pots, but keep those standing in some water in a decorative pot or a saucer. You can find more info here: Semi-hydroponics

[silken]

Thanks Camille. I maybe should have waited for a while longer before un-potting it from the leica balls as the amount of water sounds like what I was doing. But leaves kept turning yellow and falling off at a faster rate than I thought it should. another thing that may not have went well for S/H in my conditions is that I grow my orchids in a heated greenhouse, but the temps in winter do go down to close to 55F at night and stay at 65F in the day under T5 lights.

[camille1585]

You could also try keeping the pots on a seedling heat mat. While the air around the plant will be cool, the root zone will stay toasty warm.
When you transferred to S/H, did the plant have new growths (so new roots)? It's more likely to be successful if you time it right.

[silken]

I should have tried the seedling mats as I do have some. It was transplanted in Oct. by a friend and a large piece given to me. It had been in 'other potting media' till then. Oct. is likely not the best time to re-pot, but there were new growths, although they are being very slow to push out roots. When I re-potted into bark and shag, I split it and may try the smaller piece again in S/H, but not until it throws out some roots and has had a rest from all the re-potting! Its encouraging to see all the posts from people who do have good results with S/H for oncidium types.

[RosieC]

It's really worth only transfering them when there are new growths which are about to produce new roots. The transfer generally causes the old roots to die so you need new ones growing to replace them.

I found Phals could more easily transfer at any time as they lost less root, but finer rooted orchids, such as my Encyclia cocleata (sure I've spelt that wrong) lost ALL it's old roots and slightly struggled until the new ones really got growing (they were tiny nubs when it was transfered). Now the new roots are spreading through the pot and it seems really happy.

That's where the seedling mats help, because they encorage new root growth, but some orchids only grow new roots on new growth, which is why you have to time the transfer.

[johnblagg]

while I agree with Rosie for the most part, I have moved one plant before it started making new roots since it had already lost all but one. I kept the amount of water in the reservoir pretty low then untill I did see new roots finaly.

It took several months to get new roots on the new leads but not only did well but is in bloom right now.....lol was worries about it surviving the move to s/h but it was not in my opinion going to survive for me in bark and I truly think I would have lost it other wise.Just have to keep the reservoir at a lower level so it is actually dryer to start with and it is more like just hydrotron instead of truly s/h.

[RosieC]

Good point John.

I had a very sick Zygo with no roots. As it already had no roots I just stuck in S/H regardless of any new growth. It's not doing amazingly but it was really sick, but it's growing and has good roots now.

[DelawareJim]

I totally agree with what everyone before has said. However, 'Sharry Baby' is such a vigorous plant, I don't think there is a wrong time for it.

My 20 inch span plant in its 3.5 inch pot kept falling over and the root ball was such a mass of roots and decaying bark, I decided to repot. While planning to put it in S/H in the spring, I got so frustrated with the bloody thing on Thanksgiving weekend, I pulled it out of the pot, cut the entire root ball off, and rubber-banded it on top of a 5.5 inch hydroculture pot of LECA and put it back on its shelf near an east-facing window. Once a week it's gotten a shower, otherwise I just make sure the water gauge stays between "Minimum" and "Optimum".

Last Saturday when I was carrying it to the shower I noticed it's putting out new growths and new roots all over the place.

While I don't recommend such treatment, I think the larger Oncindiums are tough enough to handle it.

Cheers.
Jim