Dave asked months ago about what tutorials would be interesting. I have to apologize for myself and others that we still have almost nothing in tutorials posted.
So here is my first and it is an easy way for newbies to raise their collection to a new and impressive level easily.
All orchids can be grown in water. I have used it for years and had good results.
The advantages were obvious. The choices for vases were much more decorative for indoors. Lady Slippers were chosen by me because their desire to be damp all the time and their need for very low light levels. High light level orchids have algae problems and are not as pretty when the algae grows.
The disadvantages were the need to change the water every week and to keep ALL the roots under water to prevent rot (rot requires water and air so without air there is no rot). Additionally fertilizer once a month had a tendency to foul the water.
Now I am using hydroponics to sustain the Slippers.
The stones hold the plant better and does not need the custom holders I was making. The hydroponic action of the stones keeps the roots moist all the time even when the liquid level goes lower.
Keeping liquid in the bottom of the vase is easy to see and it would take over a week to dry out the stones even after the liquid was gone.
I keep saying liquid since I now use Worm Tea diluted 50 to 1 rather than water.
Water has a problem with hydroponics in that evaporation leaves a salt residue on the stones. Over time it requires flushing. Worm Tea has no salts and eliminates the problem. Worm Tea also fertilizes the plant with everything it needs to live.
Anything can be used for a vase. I like these candle votives from Libby glass that I buy cheaply at WalMart. You can use a more decorative item depending on your budget. The first photo is an exxpensive vase my wife did not want me to use. My favorite was when a customer asked me to set one in a vase she had inherited from her grandmother. What a wonderful way to remember her grandmother.
Any hydroponic stone (medium size works best) can be used. The ones in the photo are HydroKorrel from Holland. They are more decorative being round. AliFlor is just as good for the plant but is irregular in shape. Unfortunately, HydroKorrel may not be available anymore at a reasonable price. My last wholesaler has had none for the last 4 months.
Assembling the vase is as simple as can be. Paph have very little root structure. You can see it has only two roots on a flowering plant (but it has thousands of tiny hairs on the sides of the root that do the work).
The plant comes out of the pot easily and I just rinse it under running water to remove all loose bark. I do not try to remove anything that does not come off in the rinse. It will do more harm to the hair roots than leaving it in the vase.
I then hold it in place and pour the stones into the vase. DONE. When potting Paph hydroponically set the plant lower in the stones than you would in a bark mix. Rot is not as serious a problem in hydro, but roots that dry out even for a little time becomes useless.
So try it. It also makes a great gift since it can be given to someone who knows nothing about growing orchids. The only thing necessary is to add Worm Tea as it is used up.
Now the real extra is that since they grow well in total water, I tried filling the vase totally with Worm Tea. I let it evaporate and filled it some times with only an inch and sometimes full. It never made a difference, except, that with a full vase you can go on vacation for three weeks and never have to worry about the orchid. In these vases it uses about an inch of liquid a week.