semihydro vs. no medium

[orchidphile]

I'm wondering if there is someone on the Board who's had extensive experience with both semi-hydroponics and also with full water culture or semi-water culture using no medium at all. Presently, I grow nearly all my orchids in semi-hydro, but I had to switch a vanda to semi-water culture since it hated semi-hydro. It's doing quite well that way.

I can see several advantages to full or semi-water culture: no need to buy and store leca, the ability to see the whole root system better, and no need to drill holes in some of the beautiful glass vases I've acquired and would like to use for orchids.

On the other hand, I can put an orchid in semi-hydro with a few tiny bits of bark still clinging to the roots, and bark bits and rotted roots just break down and flush out with no need to trim. With pure water culture, I'm told you have to be super-careful to clean the roots completely and to trim any that die right away. People also say big plants don't adapt well to pure water culture, whereas I've had no trouble adapting some pretty large plants to semi-hydro.

I have an epidendrum keiki that I can use for experimentation. Does anyone have success with full or semi-water culture, without leca, with epidendrums?

I'd appreciate opinions from people who've really given the methods a decent try and have followed all instructions carefully.