older roots after potting into semi hydroponics

[flyfishdoc]

Now that I have all my orchids in semi hydroponics, some had almost now roots and now have great new roots. Some had older roots and I know some have died, I have trimmed off some of the dead ones at the base of the plant above the LECA. Should I pull my plants out of the medium sometime soon, and trim off the old roots, or let them rot?
This picture is not really clear, but the darker is the threads of some older roots that dried and I have trimmed off

[billc]

I just let them stay there until I get sick of looking at the algae build up. When I take the plant out to get rid of the algae, I clean the PrimeAgra by rinsing well. You can also take care of the dead roots that are still hanging on at the same time.

Bill

[flyfishdoc]

That's good to know. The new oncidium could have a lot of dead roots in a week or 2, not to mention some of the older plants

[TylerK]

So long as you flush your pots regularly, I think it's just fine to let them rot without unpotting the plant. They will eventually disintegrate and will be washed out with the flushing water. Once the plants are repotted in SH, I don't like messing around with mine until the new root system has developed.

Tyler

[johnblagg]

Good question there.I have read that flushing takes care of it but being new to s/h myself and having quite small plants in relativly big s/h containers I take a 5 gal bucket and fill it with water and sort of float the plant out of the pot ,Clean it up and gently replace it in reverse order kind of floating it back in and as the water drains out of the s/h pot add leca and adjust.

I am still overzealous and really want to see the roots and progress....LOL.I just finished cleaning the very last one last night as I finaly found the last clear container I needed for its permenant home and needed to repot it anyways.

[billc]

Hi John, You really want to keep the size of the s/h container only a little larger than the root mass.
1- You less less water/fert.
2- The media stays moist longer(less surface area exposed)
3- You can see the roots.

Bill

[johnblagg]

Well yes but the new roots were already 3 1/2 or 4 inches long and to the edge of the smaller s/h pots.
And the smaller s/h pots were narrow mouthe jars and I went to some with wide mouths so I would not have trouble getting them out in the future.And also gave them room for the new eyes to grow without going outside the pot.

The new pots are just 5 inches deep and about the same wide.

and I have two new eyes in active growth on two out of three plants so I was thinking now would be the best time to repot since I was finishing up on cleaning old dead roots off and had them unpotted anyways.

I have secondary roots coming off the primaries in goodt numbers too so I think they will be filling the new pots very well soon.The root mass on the smallest catt is almost as big as the top growth and still expanding and is all new s/h roots.

I got incredibly lucky in that they all put out new roots within days of my buying them and were ready to go s/h.

[TylerK]

I also thought I read on Ray's website somewhere that it's very difficult to over pot an orchid in s/h. I believe he said something like the following (my paraphrasing of something I remember reading) -

The issue with most organic potting mediums is they stay too wet for too long, and while they're wet air circulation around the roots falls off and you get rot as a result. With s/h everything is supposed to stay evenly moist all the time, but you don't get rot with the s/h roots because the LECA always ensures there's good air flow. The volume of the pot should be far less important than in traditional growing methods.

Tyler

[billc]

Originally Posted by TylerK

I also thought I read on Ray's website somewhere that it's very difficult to over pot an orchid in s/h. I believe he said something like the following (my paraphrasing of something I remember reading) -

The issue with most organic potting mediums is they stay too wet for too long, and while they're wet air circulation around the roots falls off and you get rot as a result. With s/h everything is supposed to stay evenly moist all the time, but you don't get rot with the s/h roots because the LECA always ensures there's good air flow. The volume of the pot should be far less important than in traditional growing methods.

Tyler

Hi Tyler, You're correct in what you are saying. I was suggesting a smaller container to John so he wouldn't have to float the plant out evey time he wanted to see the roots.
I find that here in the Northeast US, the smaller the surface area exposed, the media stays moist longer. If you are growing in a greenhouse or have high humidity, evaporation is probably not an issue. Growing on my windowsill, I pretty much have to water 2 times a week.
Some people put a layer of moss on top, which seems to work, but I think some of that would work it's way down into the media and start clogging up the holes. Or get flushed out and clog up the sink drain, then my wife would kill me.

Bill

Bill

[johnblagg]

Thanks for the input but I dont float them out just to see the roots ....But to check the old roots that did exist previously and trim them off.

This Has been done I only took them out once specificly for that and then again to move to a bigger pot as they had reached the edge of the smaller pots and already started downwards a couple of inches.

They had also initiated active growth on new eyes much sooner than I expected and these new growths would have been to the edge of the pots and the roots would most likely went outside them.

I think they should be fine In the larger pots the new eyes are 2 1/2 inches from the edge so I dont think they are really overpotted.And with two eyes actively growing the roots are going to fill the pots pretty full if they keep going like they have been.

As a matter of fact i just checked and I see new roots almost to the edge of the pot on one today ....been gone two days and had to check while writing this post to see and I will not be doing anything now but waiting and watching since they are now clean of all old roots.