I apologize for replying to a 2.75-year-old thread, but I just have to put my
in.
I have 200-225 or so orchids, and I keep most of them indoors, with about 20 outside in the summer, which lasts from roughly 4-1 until 10-15 here, which is New Orleans. It's far more humid outside than it is inside for most of the year, because we have either the A/C or the heater running year-round. As a result, I had to get kind of creative with my S/H setup. My "pots" are made from 16-, 25-, and 32-ounce transparent carry-out containers that I ordered from webstaurantstore.com, with the two holes added using a soldering iron. The particular containers that I found are not as tall as the usual 32-oz "soup containers" that everyone seems to use; rather, they're both around the same height as each other, with the only difference being their diameters. The 50-packs were less than $10 for the 16-oz, and ~$15 for the two larger sizes; the "typical" 32-oz containers (much taller than the diameter, which I also have, but they didn't work as well for me) cost $9 for a sleeve of 50. Anyway, back to my setup: Since I do have to deal with VERY HOT temperatures for the outdoor orchids, and the excessive dryness that the indoor ones faced due to the climate-control, I needed containers that would allow the orchids to reach the reservoir without needing to grow 6" of new roots to do so, and these shorter pots allowed me to put a one-inch reservoir into every container, and the root systems of the respective orchids could be 3" long and reach the top of the reservoir. Having less depth to the "pots" also meant that there was less space between the top of the reservoir and the surface of the LECA.
To put my plan into motion, I ordered a LOT of the Seramis clay pebbles (the larger-sized ones, without the bark that they have when you buy the pre-mixed orchid substrate) from the Orchitop website. As far as I know, this is the only place that the Seramis pebbles can be purchased without being mixed with bark, and that meant ordering and shipping it from Germany. To say that it cost a LOT is an understatement. It took a month to arrive, because it was trapped in customs for 9 days, and when it finally came, the box was destroyed and extremely heavy. They sell it in 2.5L packs, which are 4.95€ each. I ordered 30 of them, because I didn't want to "need" more, and have to pay for shipping twice. I'll just say that it cost 157€ for just shipping. So yes, Ray, perhaps you'd like to become the sole US-provider of Seramis? I know that my setup isn't really "correct" S/H, but I had to make a small adjustment, and now my orchids are doing better than I ever dreamed possible.
All this being said, I'm glad that I did it, and I'll be doing it again this spring, because once my blooms are done and the vegetative growth starts anew, I am going to finish the conversion of ALL of my orchids to S/H. I use a ratio of about 2:1 LECA to Seramis. I also have used around 20 pounds of the "XL LECA" in combination with the Seramis, which I use in anything that likes to have REALLY airy roots, but the majority of my orchids are doing beautifully with the "OG Hydroton". The Seramis does actually hold a pretty large amount of water in it, and this helps keep moisture through the entire pot with absolutely no problems at all, whether I'm using the XL or the regular-sized LECA.
Sorry that this was so long. I think that my results would have been fine with or without the Seramis in my setup, because of my shorter pots. But, adding the Seramis 100% solved my issues with the "dry line" with even my thirstiest orchids. Sorry if that was more like $27.34 in pennies instead of just two!
Linear Mode
