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

Papillon24601 · #1 03-31-2016, 11:10 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

WhiteRabbit · #2 04-01-2016, 08:41 PM

estación seca · #3 04-01-2016, 09:14 PM

The Web page holds an open link for writing comments for only so long. Then it shuts the link; if you write for a long time and try to post, your post will be lost. The cure is to write your message in a text editor, then copy the text and paste it into the writing box here on Orchid Board.

I don't know what an Earthbox is. How big is it?

If the LECA layer is too deep, the water won't wick to the top. In this case you'd have to water until your plant grows roots down to the moist area. I don't know how you'd tell when this happened.

Kelpmax is for stimulating root formation. Soak plants in it for a few hours when you remove them from containers for repotting. Treat others once a month with it. In your situation, with plants with limited root systems, I would pour it from the top over the area where the roots are.

A lot of people use Kelpmax every month during the growing season on all their orchids.

Orchid Whisperer · #4 04-01-2016, 10:32 PM

The whole Earthbox idea sounds like a lot of effort to keep from planting and growing them using tried-and-true growing methods.

fishmom · #5 04-01-2016, 11:16 PM

I poked around the Earthbox website and found some pictures. I'm not completely clear about this, but it looks like the grid that separates the water at the bottom from the growth medium will hold the LECA above the water. If true, this means that wicking action will not take place. You will need to keep the root area (LECA) moist until the roots grow down into the water. The roots that are above the grid will have only the water that you give them, if I am right.

Do you have a different understanding of this product?

Papillon24601 · #6 04-02-2016, 08:41 PM

The depth of the Jr is about the same as my other containers, so I think as long as I baby the mini -root until it's roots are long enough, I think it will make it. The Earthbox has two areas where the Leca dips into the water, and I have put my hand in there, the water is wicking up. I did consider leaving out the plastic divider, do you think I should take it out?
Thanks for answering.

fishmom · #7 04-02-2016, 10:12 PM

I think that with 4 plants in the box, you will soon find out if the plants in the areas with the better wicking are growing better. Without knowing how you are handling the issues of refreshing the water and flushing the LECA, it is hard to give an opinion.