A year in s/h

[PaphLover]

Seedlings bought last year at our orchid show and sale.

Phrag. Carol Kanzer (schlimii x pearcei)

April 2016




April 2017




Phrag. Incan Treasure (kovachii x longifolium)

April 2016




April 2017
(would this be considered "leggy", as in, I'm keeping the phrag. too warm at night? I just learned this term and am curious what it looks like.)

[Optimist]

I have moved most of mine to semi-hydro. One other thing that really matters is water quality. Rain water is awesome.

[alexander_TG]

This might be a silly question, but what exactly is semi hydro?

Sent from my LG-LS997 using Tapatalk

[Ray]

Semi-hydroponics - also known as semi-hydro or just S/H - is a passive hydroponic culture technique using an inert potting medium and a constant water supply.

Read more here.

[RebeccaBC]

You ever decide to divide that first one, you let me know Nice growing!

[Deeplydeepali]

I'm trying out this method on one orchid right now. I like the idea of reusing. I even bought a cheap $1.50 pot for boiling the leca in at daiso. I hope mine will be as successful as yours, paphlover

[snowflake311]

I have been also growing in S/h for a little over a year now. I love it for most of my orchids.

[fooferdoggie]

I have been thinking og using this method but I had a problem of keeping the plants in the media. well my blind wife does she bumps them and they come out. same with bark. but I think if a bungie cord them in with some pantyhose it may work. so how do you feed them right now I have a big container of water with a little fertilizer and seaweed juice in it and dip the plants in it. How will I do it when they are wet all the time use the same method?

[nogreenthumbs]

Originally Posted by fooferdoggie

I have been thinking og using this method but I had a problem of keeping the plants in the media. well my blind wife does she bumps them and they come out. same with bark. but I think if a bungie cord them in with some pantyhose it may work. so how do you feed them right now I have a big container of water with a little fertilizer and seaweed juice in it and dip the plants in it. How will I do it when they are wet all the time use the same method?

I believe the method that Ray uses or used was to dump water into the pot until the pot is full to the brim with water, then let all of the extra water drain out until the water is down at the level of the holes in the pot. I believe this method is what most folks refer to as "flushing".

I assume it could be done with a dip too, but that might not be quite as good if you reuse the same large dipping reservoir for all of the orchids. I'm not sure about that.

[estación seca]

A lot of LECA floats, and will come out of the pot if you dip it.

I pick up the pots, cover the holes with the base of my thumb, and fill the pot to the rim with dilute fertilizer solution. Then I let it drain down. You can also pour water into a standing pot rapidly enough to fill it to the rim, then let it drain.

Ray recommends about 25 ppm nitrogen with almost every watering. This is about 1/8 teaspoon of MSU per gallon / 0.7ml powder per 3.78 liters. Once a month he recommends using pure water to flush out salts.

If you tip over a pot, round clay balls roll everywhere. They are fairly soft, so they break easily underfoot, but a blind person might slip on one.