Bottom Heat

[Ray]

I leave them on 24/7 when getting the plants established only. After that, ambient is sufficient in my greenhouse.

I doubt the mats will have any impact on your air temperature, unless you ordered a lot of them! The single-tray size is only 17 watts.

[cdecost]

I'm a newbie. Whats S/H?

[MT-Phal]

Welcome to First Rays LLC

Once in the site, there is a link on the left side for "semi-hydro." It will fill you in on everything you need to know. Basically, it is a way of growing orchids that is arguably the best for your plants and easiest for you.

[MT-Phal]

Update:

So it's been almost a month now, and I think my phal is doing pretty well. One of the thicker roots sort of cracked on my last repotting, but it has yet to die so I'm okay with it.

I've noticed that within the media, I can see two roots which have started to regrow! The bright green tips have me pretty excited and I take it as a very good sign. I've been watering about once or twice a week. Usually, I'll do an initial flush with regular water, then I'll drain the resevoir and water with an added teaspoon of the supplied fertilizer I got from Ray. Maybe once a week, I'll fertilize with a tablespoon of liquid seaweed, or a drop of KLN.

I'll take some photos once new roots have fully established.

[MT-Phal]

UPDATE

So I saw this morning that a little bit of snow mold had grown on one my new root tips. I moved some PA out of the way and used an alcohol dunked q-tip to remove it, and was pretty happy of how easy it was to swab away. Then I realized that this certainly couldn't be the only case of mold. So I unpotted to check on the roots, and sure enough, bits of mold along my root system. I guess my open window isn't enough, and I'll be using my fan more often.

However, my biggest concert is that most of my root system is starting to rot away. Instead of the healthy green, they're turning a brown/black. Those new tips, which last week were green, are now gone. I had to trim a few places where the roots had just turned into mush. Since this didn't happen in the first initial couple of weeks of going into S/H, I was too optimistic of my phals' adaptation. My worry now, is that within the next couple weeks these roots are going to go completely, and then it'll be up to the one... new... growth... to save this plant. I have two more that are slowly poking their way out of the crown, but I'm hoping this guy grows in time and that the consequences aren't too bad.

I've named this root, "Luke Skywalker."

[MT-Phal]

UPDATE
So I've been using hydrogen peroxide in my watering regimen and I have it say that it's come in pretty handy. The mold isn't completely gone but it does seem to be control. I've attached some pictures, including one of "Luke Skywalker." I'm a little concerned because it's green tip has sort of become a nub instead of being pointed, but I think the really cold weather here lately has stunted growth a little.

I'm also a little concerned about that root because last night I repotted and put him completely into the PA. As you can see I put some moss around him to keep him moist, but I've usually had to mist in the beginning and at the end of the day to keep him a lush green. I'm hoping that the root cells will allow him to stay constantly moist and not rot. He's high enough that I'm not too worried.

[Pilot]

Looks like its made some good progress. Those root mind may seem stunted but theyll get going soon...sometimes it just takes a little while for the phal to be sure that it wants to invest the energy. If you keep it warm in the day and above 60F at night itll love the conditions.

[Country Gramma]

The new roots are the ones that are going to be acclimated to the S/H.

From what I understand all the other roots will eventually die and rot away because they were not acclimated to the S/H from the beginning of growth. So just keep the plant stable so the new roots have a chance to grow into the PA.

Hang in there. I just potted some into S/H last week and can't wait to see how it goes.

Karen

[MT-Phal]

Yes, I'm aware that the old roots will rot away; I mentioned that process in my previous posts. I put moss around Skywalker thinking that it could keep him moist with the goal of good growth and better S/H acclimation, but complications came when the temperature dropped in California and because we don't have central heat the temp in my room sometimes hovered around 45 degrees F. That did swiftly slowed down growth. Though it is getting warmer this week, so I'm hoping things pick back up and that such evaporative cooling didn't do too much harm.

[PitcherASAMD]

So I just bought a seedling mat with a temperature controller. What is the optimum temp I should keep the newbie transplanted orchids at? I currently have the heat mat set at 72 degrees. Should I go higher? Or lower? I live in Philadelphia, PA, in an apt and the avg daily temps right now are 60-70 degrees. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

--Katie