How often water or flush plants in s/h?

[Roger Horman]

I do the following with extremely good results with everything I have tried so far except for some paphs, which need to be watered more often.

My plastic translucent pots are of various sizes but all use the same principles. Thre are two 1/4 to 3/8 inch holes about an inch from the bottom (1 1/2 inch for 10 inch pots, 3/4 inch for 3 inch pots). I use Hydroton since many of the alternatives are just to expensive to purchase around here in the country.

Waterings/fertilizer occur at about weekly intervals, less often in the winter. First I fill the container to the top with plain water and let it drain out to the level of the two holes. About 1/2 hour to an hour later I repeat the process using a weak Cal-Mag Fertilizer solution. This is repeated (about) weekly for three times. The fourth time I use plain water both times. The idea here is to dissolve out most of the salts each time you water and fertilize with the first plain water rinse and to get as much of the salts out as possible the fourth week by doing a double rinse with no fertilizer. For those plants that do not require or which do not tolerate fertilization outside of their active growth period, I taper off the fertilizer to zero.

I have everything from Cattleyas to Phalaenopsis in SH culture and they do very well. Phrags do very well.