Self-watering pots with leca

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by orchidphile

It's amazing, isn't it? I'm sitting here looking at oncidiums, cattleyas, vandas, phals, etc., etc., all supposedly having different needs and all thriving in my self-watering system. They pretty much all thrived in regular semi-hydro too, except for the vandas.

Absolutely! Absolutely amazing in that once some golden rules of orchid growing are realised (known), then a lot of the issues that a lot of people once had in the past become significantly reduced or even eliminated.

The wicking water system started off with wicking material - microfibre, wipe material, or other material - that goes down into water, which the water runs up the material. It was then connected up to say the base of a pseudobulb or rhizome (or something) of an orchid that had very little roots, or maybe even no roots - and the idea was to keep moist the rhizome area or minimal root area - without rotting. An airy environment with good air movement allowed for this.

The idea of wicking with good aeration to roots is the important thing. So whether the material is a suitable cloth material or LECA etc is just fine - as long as the material can be used to keep wicking the water and good aeration to the roots is maintained, then it should be possible to grow an orchid based around that method. Naturally, some maintenance is required every once in a while, as expected. The maintenance typically or classically requires pot handling, lifting of pot with hands, cleaning things etc.

For your reservoir system, maybe a water level indicator on the side of the reservoir, with a hole/window for topping-up water would be workable.

Just got to watch out for configurations that aren't able to provide adequate aeration to the roots, which also can have other negative spin-off effects such as creating conditions that might eventually produce certain kinds of unwanted fungus/bacteria - or maybe algae too (where algae might not at first appear to be a problem).

[orchidphile]

Originally Posted by SouthPark

Absolutely! Absolutely amazing in that once some golden rules of orchid growing are realised (known), then a lot of the issues that a lot of people once had in the past become significantly reduced or even eliminated.

The wicking water system started off with wicking material - microfibre, wipe material, or other material - that goes down into water, which the water runs up the material. It was then connected up to say the base of a pseudobulb or rhizome (or something) of an orchid that had very little roots, or maybe even no roots - and the idea was to keep moist the rhizome area or minimal root area - without rotting. An airy environment with good air movement allowed for this.

The idea of wicking with good aeration to roots is the important thing. So whether the material is a suitable cloth material or LECA etc is just fine - as long as the material can be used to keep wicking the water and good aeration to the roots is maintained, then it should be possible to grow an orchid based around that method. Naturally, some maintenance is required every once in a while, as expected. The maintenance typically or classically requires pot handling, lifting of pot with hands, cleaning things etc.

For your reservoir system, maybe a water level indicator on the side of the reservoir, with a hole/window for topping-up water would be workable.

Just got to watch out for configurations that aren't able to provide adequate aeration to the roots, which also can have other negative spin-off effects such as creating conditions that might eventually produce certain kinds of unwanted fungus/bacteria - or maybe algae too (where algae might not at first appear to be a problem).

I think you've found the one problem with my system, Southpark. Since I diy-d all my pots, they don't have water indicators and I have to lift all the pots by hand to check the water levels. Somewhere, I read that there's a way to diy indicators, too, but I can't remember where or when. Does anyone know how to do this? (Something involving the use of plastic straws, as I recall.)

The only concern that I have with my system is that if organic material built up in the reservoir and I waited 3 weeks to soak and water it again, I might be in trouble. The water in the reservoirs can get stagnant and it's not a big problem, as long as it's pretty clean, because as soon as it gets wicked into the pots, it gets re-oxygenated. But if a big clump of organic matter were to sit in the stagnant water for weeks, you'd have a perfect setup for the growth of anaerobic bacteria, which would both stink to high heaven and create toxins that could harm my roots--at least that's what I think--not an expert on this stuff.

Fortunately, all that soaking tends to produce very clean reservoirs once the plants are established. I try to dump any reservoir that doesn't look clean and refresh, but so far, I haven't observed any problems with the plants at all, and quite a few having been growing this way for almost a year.

---------- Post added at 11:51 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:48 AM ----------

Originally Posted by Ray

If used with LECA, I'd never worry about it being too wet.

I tried an experiment in which I watered 300 plants (50% each Phalaenopsis Lemforde White Beauty and Oncidium Sharry Baby) every day for 6 months. Not only did I not lose a single one, they were significantly larger than a "control" set that get normal watering frequency.

Very interesting, Ray. I, too, have observed some benefit from watering more frequently. Alas, I'm way too lazy to water every day. In fact, I developed my system because I'm too lazy to water every week.

[SouthPark]

Originally Posted by orchidphile

Somewhere, I read that there's a way to diy indicators, too, but I can't remember where or when. Does anyone know how to do this? (Something involving the use of plastic straws, as I recall.)

I just took a look on the internet and see this click here.

But ----- I totally don't trust the mounting method of this particular device. I seriously doubt the sealing method is great for this particular device. A reliable leak-proof method for coupling this device to the plastic pot would be excellent.