Trying something I've never heard of before.... - Orchid Board

Papillon24601 · #1 03-31-2016, 10:10 PM

Sadly, my browser ate my intro post. I'm a little frustrated, so this post may lack details from it you need. Perhaps tomorrow I will repost. In the meantime... I am trying an experiment that horrified my orchid nursery lady so much I thought she might not sell me my catts after all.

I repotted four NOID phals in a row in an Earthbox Jr in hydroton. It made sense to me as the Earthbox is based on wicking action, and so is semi-hydro. If you are not familiar with the the Jr, it has a reservoir then a plastic divider which has two central divets to let the pellets (soil) dip into the water. Here is my list of questions/request for advice from those with any kind of experience:

1) the last little phal I picked up at the flea market, and had great top roots but not long media roots. I arranged by color and not root length, so it is planted on the end. After a couple days, the others had nice green roots under the crown but this one was starting to desiccate. I've been misting the pellets near the roots, which perked it up. Should I keep that up till its roots are deeper into the media to pull the water, or am I training it to grow the wrong way and messing up its adjustment to semi hydro?

2) I can't dunk the whole thing in Kelpmax. Should I spritz the roots or add it to the reservoir?

3)How long should I use kelpmax on all my orchids I'm converting to s/h? 3 months?

4)what about using kelpmax on the other orchids? Ground orchids repotted or mounted orchids?

I'm still pretty new to orchids, and I appreciate anything you are willing to teach me