khozmo, I see the same thing as you. My phals in s/h always seem dry on top, compared to pictures I see people posting.
Ted, It's still early and I'm still on my 1st cup of coffee, but I can't quite picture what you're saying about inverting the clay pot in the bottom of the container.
MT-Phal, My phals do great in s/h. The dead roots will wash away in time. The algae look will kind of grow on you after a while.(no pun intended:))

Bill

Hey guys, Sleep got the better of me last night. So let me catch up in the replies.

I have been watering the phals and oncids weekly with a weak fertilizer but I was finding that the new roots were turning black the minute they touched the leca. I think it was due to the salt build up and also they were dry as a bone on top. I have been flushing the media weekly with tap water and every other week if I can with fertilizer to keep the salts down. I also try and mist the top of the leca everyday either in the morning or the evening or both.,

So far all the phals are getting new leaves and the original leaves are dropping so I am on the fence as to how well I am doing. I have been seeing that there are roots pressing up against the side s I am sure the roots deep down are spreading.

The new roots that are sprouting about the leca so far none of the have penetrated the leca. I am wondering if maybe I have to repot them a litte lower in the leca as most of these phals and what not were my first attempts at S/H. I hope that some of these new roots break the surface so that I can get new root growth down there to anchor the plants better. Most of my plants are rescues so they had poor or weak roots to start.

So time will tell the most. I think that the heat and super low humidity are my enemies. I have dug down a little way on the leca and found that it is damp and cool.

Some of my plants have some serious algae growing. I think the ones that do not are the ones that I had to dose with a bit of physan. I do think that I will move towards squater pots vs. tall ones.

Tons of plastic containers can can be made into pots if need be.

Ted please explain the clay pot thing. If it could help keep my leca more wet I all for trying.

khozmo,

I did it originally to extend the amount of PrimeAgra I used. By inverting a terracotta pot in each container I would use 30-60% less of the LECA. It worked well for me and I have had good root penetration. The tops are still on the dry side.

I would think that the inverted clay pot would reduce the wicking, which exacerbates the dry top.

In all cases, we are playing a balancing act between the evaporation rate from the top of the medium and the ability of the medium to replace the moisture through wicking.

Let's use an example in which a pellet is capable of transferring 90% of its moisture to the pellets around it (I really have no idea what the actual percentage is, so don't quote me on this).

• The first transfer out of the reservoir, and the pellets that are 100% saturated wet the next ones to 90%. The layer above that 81%, then 73%, 66%, 59% 53%, and 48% at our theoretical top surface. (Add more layers and it gets lower - hence the difference between tall and squat pots.)

• If evaporation - due to temperature, air movement, and ambient humidity - is fast, the 48% wet top surface will lose most of its moisture, the layer below that (because it is somewhat "protected" by the layer above) will lose a bit less, and so-on down into the pot. As those layers have reduced moisture, they transfer less upward.

• Eventually, a balance is achieved, but if any of the ambient conditions change, a new balance has to be established.

Going back to that first bulleted paragraph, now let's put a pot in the reservoir. While a clay pot does wick water, based purely on surface area, it will not do nearly as much as the pellets it displaced, so your transfer upward is reduced right from the start.