Unpotting my phals for s•h

[DavidJ]

So I bought 2 phals at home depot yesterday, I got them half price since they had stopped blooming. I cut off the stem and took the sphag medium from the roots and pot. It looks like the root system is pretty healthy. I read on the forum that before switching them into semi hydro, you're suppose to let the roots ait out so they can start finding moisture and grow new roots.
I left my phals un potted last night, I ordered my LECA medium and hoping to get it on the weekends I can finally pot then in!

How long should I leave the roots in Bo medium?
Is it right to even do it this way?
I just don't want the little ones to have shock and stress for too long.
Thnks guys!

[Phalcycle]

Depending on your humidity levels, you can leave the plants with no medium for years, or might not be able to leave them out for a few days. If your air is too dry due to heaters and radiators, then the roots would just shrivel up and die.

[edgy]

You could mist the roots daily if you wanted to. Just don't let them get dried out.

[DavidJ]

Ok I'll mist the roots until I receive my Hydroton medium.
Now after I have the plant in the medium, what do I feed it with and how long do I feed it for?

[edgy]

What I do with the plants that I have in S/H is this.....I drop the pot down into a bucket of water up to the base of the plant. I use Dyna-Gro mixed in the water. I'll let them soak for about an hour. Then I take the plant out and let it drain as much as possible. then I add water to fill the resevoir. I drain the fertilized water so as not to end up with a heavy concentration of fert in the res. I'll repeat this process once amost all the water in the res has evaporated. My containers are clear so I can see the moisture in the pot. I just moved a couple of my Catts to S/H a month ago. They seem to be doing really well. There is new root growth and the plants look healthy. The roots have yet to grow into the resevoir. Ray....another member here on the forum is very knowledgable on the subject. You might want to hit him up. He answered a lot of my questions.

[DavidJ]

Thanks for the tip Edgy. I think I will do that with mines too! Makes more sense to me to do so that way the roots don't get chemical build up.

[Ray]

One should NEVER dunk multiple plants in the same bucket of water, as that is the IDEAL way to share plant pathogens.

Proper watering in S/H culture is to fill the pot rapidly to the top with fertilizer solution, then let it drain down to the holes...DONE.