S/h problems/home growers dicussion

[ScottMcC]

This post is a carryover from slippertalk. Someone was positing that home growers tend to be the ones having problems with s/h culture, and there was a pretty good discussion going on as to why that is, or if that's even true. Overall I think that s/h has made me a much better orchid grower, but as you can see from my post below, copied from slippertalk, I'm not without problems. How much of them are attributable to s/h is hard to say, especially since I would have probably killed these plants long ago if it weren't for s/h.

up until recently, I had zero problems with orchids in s/h. I'm a home grower, and relatively inexperiened (about a year and change), but I like to think of myself as at least relatively intelligent and I'm trying my best to stay informed about the various aspects of orchid culture.

So anyway, last week I noticed that my phrag besseae in s/h was doing poorly. the whole plant had been slowly looking more and more dessicated, and then one of the leaves suddenly dried up completely and turned brown. So I unpotted it to find that 90% of the roots had become black, soggy, and friable, prompting me to trim them and put the plant in sphag n bag (actually wet paper towel and bag, but that's immaterial). Since then, it's been perking up some, but there's no new root growth at all yet so it'll be in the bag a while before I try to repot it.

Then a few days ago I noticed that one of my phal hybrids was a little wobbly in its pot, so I gave it a gentle tug and found that about 90% of its roots were completely gone, so I gave it an analogous treatment. It has some new root growth already though, so it should be able to go back in the pot soon. When I examined the media though, I noticed that it was full of ruddy sediment, and it took significant numbers of flushes to fully clean it out.

Yesterday night, I went around to every plant in s/h and gave it a good wiggle and close inspection. One of my Sharry Baby's had completely overgrown its pot, so I upsized it to the next size up, and when I did so, the pot was completely full of roots, just like the pictures on Ray's website. Two other phal hybrids were wobbling in their pots, and one had similar root loss (although to a lesser extent) but another's root system was in great shape. I repotted both of them in their old pots after thoroughly cleaning the medium.

So anyway, I'm not sure what's going on with these plants. I tend to agree with Ray's conclusion that there's more going on with these plants than just s/h vs bark, and that being a home grower is different than having a greenhouse, and that experience matters a lot, as well as a certain understanding that a certain percentage of plants are going to die, but I also wonder if there's something else going on. Part of me wonders if it's also related to water quality, because I use tap water, and part of me wonders if it's lack of air movement, because I don't always have a fan running. But it could also be related to the terribly fickle weather we've had this spring, as well as to the nature of my windowsills as imperfect culture areas. Anyway, I'll take anyone's suggestions.

EDIT: I should also add that the vast majority of plants I have in s/h are doing great--the ones with problems represent maybe 10% of the collection.

[Pensacola Eric]

Great comments.

I have 70 orchids in s/h (half of those are paphs and 25% are phals) that I have transfered over in the last few months. I currently have 4 that are not doing well (root loss). The other 64 are doing great. I grow my orchids on my patio outside and with rain water I collect with MSU fertilizer. I just think that some plants do not take well to s/h. Either the timing is wrong or it could be genetics of the actual plant itself. However, I believe this is a small percentage. It's weird because I have 20 or so that are smaller in size (probably a year or two from blooming size) and out of those 20, 16 are doing great and 4 had root loss (and they are all phals). These plants are not gone yet but I have soaked them in sugar, KLN and water solution and put them in a ziploc (in their pot with the primeagra) to try to get those roots growing and back to a healthy plant. On my other transfers, about 25% of those are doing tremendous (lots of roots and new growths). The rest are so far probably doing the same as they would in their more traditional orchid mix.

Moral of the story for s/h growers is to be patient, don't expect 100% success and don't expect all of your plants to do better than they would in your previous mix. I will tell you for me that I have taken one of thye unknowns out of the equation and that is when to water. Also repotting is much easier in s/h and you can reuse the media. These should be some of your reasons for transfering to s/h.

[Ray]

Some good comments, Eric.

My comments, also copied from Slippertalk:

A general comment, using semi-hydroponics as an example: attributing failure to s/h is like striking out at baseball, then blaming the bat. That also holds true for lights, potting media, fertilizers, etc.

Conversely, attributing success to s/h all by itself also demonstrates some naivety, as you have apparently not recognized some shortcoming in your culture that it merely may have helped. Again that also holds true for lights, potting media, fertilizers, etc.

Something else to keep in mind: Very often, when someone makes a change in their culture and is successful, the tendency is to credit something specific in that change, rather than looking at the whole picture. Take MSU fertilizer - it's good, but it is just a fertilizer. The "amazing success" some folks have when they switched to it is not due so much to the fertilizer, but because they began feeding their plants in a controlled, regular manner. After a while, they go back to their old, sloppy, every-now-and-then regimen, and the "MSU doesn't work any more."

The same is true with anything - and again using s/h as the example - if the transplantation is well timed, the rest of the growing conditions are right, and all of the method's requirements are met, the likelihood of success with it (or any other method) is quite good. Once the novelty wears off, the level of care given begins to wane a bit, and it's blamed on semi-hydroponics.

Put simply: You've got to look at the whole picture!

[ScottMcC]

Ray, Eric, great comments both. I tend to agree with both of you. And please know that my comments are just a small complaint related to what a few of my plants are doing, not to s/h in general. Overall I think it's a great method and it's definitely helped me overall. My comments are more a means of exploring what I can do differently to help the plants that are struggling, and what I can do to avoid problems in the future.

Anyway, I had been doing the plug the holes, fill to the top, let it drain method, but maybe I'll start doing a more liberal flush and also start watering more frequently--I had been waiting until the reservoir was almost empty. I'll definitely start unpotting plants as soon as they start slacking at all--on all of these plants, I waited until things were already kinda late. I haven't been mixing sugar in. What exactly does that do? Is it an osmotic agent, or can the plant actually utilize it for nutrition?

Anyway, thanks for the help!

[WEA]

This was a question asked from a previous post. I haven't been mixing sugar in. What exactly does that do? Is it an osmotic agent, or can the plant actually utilize it for nutrition?
Sugar was recommended (1 cup/gal.) for use in the presoak before "Sphag & Bag" for plants that have had to have their roots removed because of root rot. How does the plant use sugar without roots? I was not aware that plants could take in sugars through their photosynthetic surfaces. I might understand if sugar were included with the normal S/H repotting presoak, but the S/H presoak does not contain sugar ... right? I guess I've missed something.

[Ray]

If I'm not mistaken, the sugar idea originated with the old Orchid Wrangler, once an importer of a lot of plants that typically came in rootless.

Todd Zimmerman, who is an educator in the field, told me he feels it's a waste, and that pure water is probably the most advantageous soaking solution - maybe with rooting hormone, if you're so inclined.

Back to Scott's comments, for a moment: I believe it is NOT a good idea to wait until the reservoir is nearly empty before watering, and as he has found out, watering more frequently is actually a very good practice.

Between non-uniform nutrient absorption by the plant, evaporation, and the effects of plants' respiratory processes and gas exchange at the roots, the solution in the reservoir can end up a long way from where it was when you watered.

Waiting a long time between waterings lets the plant "sit in its own wastes". Topping up the reservoir only dilutes those wastes, but the quick-fill-and-let-drain watering technique probably is the most effective at eliminating them.