Thinking of transferring my collection into S/H.

[jdmv8931]

Greetings from California!
So I have been growing orchids about 5 years no. Windowsill grower to be exact and I've had some success re-blooming my plants. Mostly Phals Oncidiums and paphiopedilums rebloom for me. I also have some cattleyas that wont bloom and only sheath for me. But they are healthy for the most part and always grow new canes. I have kept them in mixed midea such as sphag moss, med and fine bark and I want to switch them into S/H.

My first orchid I experimented with was two phals and i put them into s/h and it bloomed for me in 2012 and moved and that orchid got lost in the move and just stopped growing s/h period and went with organic media.

Now the reason why I want to switch to s/h is because in my current location, my plants stay too wet for too long and it attracts bugs,and it smells "moist and moldy" almost in my plant rack although i do have a fan going. Most of my plants have new roots growing, new growths, most phals in spike and well before i go on a "repotting rampage" into s/h with all my plants I want to know exactly what i need to know.
How often do i fertilize? what kind of fertilizer? can i still use the one i currently use? what fertilizers are recommended? what kind of pots can i use?can i still use clay pots and use a decorative container to keep the water in? etc ..
I tend to Overwater and over tend my plants since i work from home a lot so s/h seems more forgiving in that overwatering department. Sorry that I went on a rant here about this. Any help and thoughts will help and be greatly appreciated guys!

Thank You in Advanced .

attached are some pictures of some of my orchids

[estación seca]

Nice plants! There is an entire semi-hydroponics forum here. You can browse it to learn a lot. From the left menu, select Forums, then scroll down until you find it. The inventor of S/H posts here with the username Ray.

I have a lot of plants in S/H.

The time to move a given plant to S/H is when it is just beginning to make new roots. This is because old roots are not adapted to S/H, and usually die quickly after the move. Unless the plant is actively making roots during the move, you may wind up with a plant with no roots. Many will eventually survive and grow, but they may be set back for many months, to over a year.

Also, there is more evaporation from a S/H container, so the root ball tends to be cooler. For this reason it is a good idea to do the move during very warm weather, or use a heat mat under the plants while they are getting established in S/H.

Because of these factors, it is rarely a good idea to move an entire collection to S/H at the same time.

I might suggest you pick one or two plants and move them. Learn how to grow using S/H in your conditions. Then, if you like it, you can move more and more plants to S/H at the appropriate time for them.

Phalaenopsis and Paphiopedilum tend to do very well in S/H. They usually take off and continue growing as though nothing happened. Cattleyas are more tricky. Even if moved while making new roots, I sometimes have them sulk for months after the move.

[LFC25]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Also, there is more evaporation from a S/H container, so the root ball tends to be cooler. For this reason it is a good idea to do the move during very warm weather, or use a heat mat under the plants while they are getting established in S/H.

Sorry to interrupt, how long should plants be placed under the heat mat? Currently, I put them under the mat for 7-8 hours in the nights only.