Swamp Stick

[orchidlover69]

Does anyone know if the swamp stick is still being marketed? I went to the website and sent and email but received no response. The sister site has a note about going out of business. Your thoughts?

[DelawareJim]

He's out of business.

Cheers.
Jim

[orchidlover69]

Jim,
Do you know of anyone who sells a similar product?
Thanks

[harrywitmore]

Originally Posted by orchidlover69

Jim,
Do you know of anyone who sells a similar product?
Thanks

If I remember correctly very few people had any success with this. It seems like a great idea but from what I heard from people that bought it, it just didn't work well. I just had a friend make me some terracotta pipes to try for small orchids. I may make one of these also to try if the pipes work ok. Find a potter in your area and ask them to make one. It needs to be fired at something like cone 10 to be porous enough to work I think.

If you have a pottery place near you they used to also make terracotta sconces that could be tried.

[orchidlover69]

Originally Posted by harrywitmore

If I remember correctly very few people had any success with this. It seems like a great idea but from what I heard from people that bought it, it just didn't work well. I just had a friend make me some terracotta pipes to try for small orchids. I may make one of these also to try if the pipes work ok. Find a potter in your area and ask them to make one. It needs to be fired at something like cone 10 to be porous enough to work I think.

If you have a pottery place near you they used to also make terracotta sconces that could be tried.

Thanks!

[Ray]

Harry is right.

The trouble with using a clay body to seep water through is getting very fine, very uniform porosity that is appropriate for your conditions. Jesse - after a while - apparently got the uniformity right, but what was a good pore size (=weeping rate) for one, was not necessarily right for another.

Some alternatives to try: Some hardware or construction materials store have unglazed clay sewer pipe available, and all you have to do is glue it to a tray to close the bottom. Likewise, a clay flower pot can be inverted and glued to a tray.

[harrywitmore]

Ray, from what I can tell the clay sewer pipe is near impossible to find depending on what area of the country you are in. That's why a made my own. I did notice that rain water works in them MUCH better than well water. Well water would not hardly weep at all while rainwater seems to weep at about the right rate. I think relative humidity has allot to do with it also. As with anything you have to experiment in your own conditions and not expect to get the same results as others.

[orchidlover69]

Thanks guys. I think I might just abandon the notion, because I don't really wish to sacrifice anything to an experiment at this point. Perhaps as the collection grows and I have some duplicates in the collection. After we close on our new home, I think I will be hitting Ray's store for some S/H.