We have grown a Phrag. Eric Young in S/H since we got it in 2009 and it has been one of our most reliable bloomers,twice a year for 4 months or so a time and that was with large bark as a medium!
This past Feb. we bought a large bag of Hydrcorn at a local Hydro.store as we usually use orchiata but the shipping cost is so high we were looking for an alternative medium we could source locally and we had a lot of plants to repot.We still ordered a bag of orchiata from Tindara for Phal.s and Cats.
We repotted the Phrag. as well as 2 Cymbidiums,4 Paph.s, a Maxillaria Tenuifolia and 1 Bulbophyllum Madeline Nelson into the hydrocorn and placed the pots into a saucer of water and so far everything has gone great. All the plants have shown fantastic root growth except the bulbo.but that one was in a vanda basket previously so it was quite a change.
We tried to follow Ray's excellent guidelines and as we did it in early spring, just as roots were initiating[as we would anyway] and they had the spring and summer growing season to adapt that may be why almost all are doing fine.We havn't given up on the Bulbo yet, last time we repotted it it sat for a while before doing anything.
As far as more work goes,and we are inside as well, we take a small pail over to the stand on watering day and pour each saucer out before we move them to the sink where we wash each saucer before flushing each plant and returning it to it;s saucer. We then place it back onto the stand. When all the S/H ones are done we pour some fertilizer mix into the pot and top up the saucer with dehumidifier water.This allows us to vary how much food each plant gets according to its culture preferences,ie. the phrag gets a little foo the maxi gets a lot.
Although it is a little more work,emptying and washing saucers, carefully adding food and topping off,we feel the improved root and overall growth is worth it.If we lose the bulbo, well thats still a pretty good success rate 1 out of 8=87.5% worked out.
Over all we would recommend S/H for terrestrial plants at least and maybe we will one day try a few cats.As for the Phrag. it is growing roots better in the hydrocorn than in bark but otherwise growth is still fine and should be flowering again soon after being in flower all summer.
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