New 'Angraecum Leonis' to S/H?

[Dalton]

Hello everyone,

I recently purchased an Angraecum Leonis off of ebay. It came in a 3" pot with LFS on top and some type of bark media under that. The plant looks okay, but the bottom two leaves have yellowed and come off.

Since I have no idea of what the condition of the media is like, should I go ahead and pot it up S/H? I know you're mainly supposed to wait till the plant is healthy and showing new root growth, but I can't see the roots, I've lost two leaves, and for all I know, the media could be totally degraded.

Mostly likely, it lost the other two leaves because of stress. I think it originally came from Malaysia, then shipped from Florida to me. I'm also certain that the growing conditions are drastically different. It went from bright, sunny, humid Malaysia and Florida, to indoors in SC.

I'd heard that S/H was good for Angraecum in general, because they liked to stay damp and didn't like their roots disturbed.

So it's currently in a 3" green plastic pot with holes in the bottom. It's potted in some type of mostly bark media with an inch of LFS on top. I'd like to move it to S/H. I have a container that's approximately the size of what firstrays.com sells. It is a large soup container from an Asian place. I can add the holes myself. I have some brand of LECA I ordered as well as some Seramis I ordered online. It's the smaller seramis.

If anyone can tell me if now is a good time to pot, if this plant does well in this media and this type of container in your experience, and if there are any special considerations in converting it over; that would be great.

I read you're supposed to rinse the media and then soak it over night. I don't have the K-L-N I hear some people add to the overnight soak, but I do have some Superthrive. Thanks for the help.

[WhiteRabbit]

[Dalton]

Thanks.

[Leafmite]

I have this one but I have no idea if it will work. There was a very good site (Angraecum Encyclopedia), now gone, that said the best way to grow them was in a tiny net pot stuffed with NZ Sphagnum moss. I removed the moss last year and now grow them in empty net pots. If you try growing these in S/H, I would be interested in how yours does. I hope someone can give you some good advice. If you don't get it here, try asking here:

Angraecums...: Angraecum leonis

[Dalton]

I'll let you know how it does. I have an angraecum I got from a guy and its in a net pot with sphagnum. It has a lot of roots hanging outside the pot.

With me growing this in my room, a low humidity environment, I worry about potting this way.

[Ray]

I have grown a number of ang's in S/H.

1. "Semi-Hydroponics" does not define orchid culture completely; it is only describing the use of inert media and the mode of water and nutrient delivery. There are many other cultural parameters that has as much, if not greater impact on your success.

2. ANY plant can be grown in S/H culture, but that does not mean that "you" can grow and plant that way. Some say that hard-cane dendrobiums are "ideal starter plants" for S/H, yet I - with more experience with the technique than anyone - cannot grow them that way. I have a customer in Delaware who wins awards for her S/H-grown cacti.

3. Don't forget that the plant will need to replace its entire root system when you move it over, so timing is essential, and the use of root-growth stimulants is a real "plus."

[Dalton]

Thanks Ray. I appreciate the advice. I'm not experienced with angraecums. Can you tell me some of the other parameters that I should be concerned about. Are there certain things that they really can't stand. I understand that they don't like having their roots disturbed. That's why I thought s/h would be ideal for them.

[estación seca]

I moved a healthy A. sesquipedale seedling into S/H and it didn't turn a hair, even though I removed all the old bark from the roots.

You're in a pickle. You need to see the roots. I wouldn't move a sick Angraecum to S/H. I would unpot the plant, and be prepared to repot into fresh bark if the roots don't look good.

If it is growing new roots, go ahead and move it to S/H. Read all of Ray's instructions, including soaking the medium before using it. I recommend you get a kelp product to stimulate root growth.

If the roots aren't growing or don't look good, repot into fresh bark, and begin treating with kelp. When the roots look better, move it to S/H.

[Hansu.nahar]

My Angraecum Lemforde White Beauty is absolutely loving S/H.

I got this plant on 25th May and it came planted in a bad coconut husk media. I removed all of the husk and since the roots were so attached to it, I couldn't save most of them despite all the patience. It had 3 good roots when I transferred it to S/H on 5th June (out of which one root had to be cut in half).

I soaked LECA overnight in a solution of seaweed.

As of today, it lost just one leaf and is already growing a lot of new roots.

I hope you succeed! Good luck!

[Dalton]

Just an update, I put an Angraecum Leonis and paphiopedilum in S/H yesterday (7/24/2016).

I soaked both my leca/hydroton/whatever as well as my seramis (much smaller than I thought it was going to be). I soaked them over night and rinsed them before use.

I burnt three 1/4" holes approximately 1" up from the bottom. I roughly measured by one finger joint. I ended up using a lot more of the leca than I previously anticipated, because the seramis was so small. I watched 'Orchid Girl' on youtube and her seramis was much larger. What I had ranged from small to tiny.

I ended up mixing the two media and used lots of leca to make sure air could get in the media and I used seramis to make sure the water could travel freely in the media. To be honest, I think I'd probably just go with straight leca for most plants I do in the future. I have a Maxileria 'Ben Berliner' that is super small and would probably do well in the seramis, but I think it's choke the roots of most others.

The plants were weakening fast and I don't have an appropriate setup to care for them out of media till they start growing new roots, so I just had to go for it. The paphiopedilum had already lost several leaves and didn't have many to loose. The Angraecum had 10-12 roots. Most were dead. A couple of the dark ones were firm so I left them and it had two good green roots. Hopefully it'll do well.

Just wanted to give an update. I'll try to post monthly progress reports if I can, or if there is any change. I'll also let you know if they don't survive my ineptitude.