Plant establishment in s/h culture

[Ellen H]

Hello orchid lovers!

I am a novice grower in southeastern Virginia USA and I have about 40 orchids in my collection (variety of phals, paphs, dendrobium, cattleya, neo, oncidium). I'm transitioning all of them to s/h at the proper time for each orchid. I've done extensive research on s/h culture, and plan to mostly follow Ray's advice and methodology. I began transitioning about a month ago.

My setup: Growing in spare bedroom on a 3-tier rack, humidity 50-60%, ceiling fan running on low, temps 70-85 or so at the moment, T5HO lights. The orchids in Hydroton are on heat mats, reduced light, and pots are flushed with water containing Superthrive for a couple weeks, then low dose MSU fertilizer. I flush the pot again when the water is low in the reservoir.

There are a couple of things I'm not sure about:

1. When will I know the orchids are indeed established enough to move out of the shady, heating mat, etc setup and into "regular" grow mode with appropriate light for each plant? I do see new root activity in some of the pots, but how much is enough growth to call it officially "transitioned"?

2. For those plants whose roots need to dry out in between waterings, is it safe for the plants to be wetter in the transition process? And later on, should I let the pot approach dryness before flushing again? Or maybe it doesn't matter?

3. The Hydroton LECA beads seem to be doing an ok job wicking moisture up the pot, but I do notice a dry line near the top where the condensation ends. The beads on top are drier. Is this a problem?

Thanks in advance for any help those of you who have tried s/h culture can give me. I'm sure more questions will pop up as I become more experienced with this.

Ellen