Decided to Try S/H

[josepi.13]

So I have been researching S/H and a friend of mine had some hydroton he had previously played around with and i got some from him and we potted up my no id paph. I believe we did everything right but i only have one question, with this method how often do I need to water it? I hope someone can let me know about that and I also hope you guys enjoy seeing someone else making the switch. Well, please and thank you.

[NiNiDazzle]

Nice looking paph.

I'm no expert on paphs but I seem to be having amazing luck with them. This was my first year (got my first ones in June) to try out paphs and I grow everything in S/H. I have four spikes going on right now and two that are in bloom.

Anyways, back to your question. Water it when it is almost dry. Fill the container all the way to the top and just let the water flow out through the bottom. It's very important in S/H that you ALWAYS fill to the top and let the water flow out every single time.

Technically, since it is S/H you can't over water. You could water it every single day if you wanted to. Just try to not let it dry out.

[sunshine]

I have one Where is your reservoir? I don't do paphs in s/h but have several onc that are doing great. I use the clear or green pots with the holes in the bottom, roots need to breath, and set it in a bowl of water so that the hydroton will wick up the water. Did you remember to rinse the hydroton to get rid of all the dust?

Here is my Bak. Samuari Warrior in s/h

[josepi.13]

I rinsed the hydraton about 10-15 times and it was pretty darn clean. I used a container that had no holes but put them in the side of it about 1 1/8 inch from the bottom so that creates the resevoir. also i was curious if the fertilizer we use in the greenhouse is suffiecient, it is jacks all purpose 20-5-19(i think) which is soluble and injected into our irrigation lines. it also has some macro and micro nutritents.

[orchids4me]

Personally I'd say use the hydroton as a media is fine. But put some holes in that cup to let it drain out. Most Paphs hate wet feet. They like it moist but no standing water in its roots.
Good luck with this I use hydroton in some of my media's as well to open it up or at the bottom for drainage when using sphag so it doesn't clog up the drainage holes or if a pots just to deep I add some. But just make sure paphs aren't sitting in standing water it needs to drain for them.

[josepi.13]

i thought the whole point of semi hydro was to plant the plant above the sttanding water so it would grow water roots and be fine with it? did i miss something with this idea?

[terra_australis]

As far as I understand it, you're doing everything right as it is.

[syndywindy]

There are some orchids that like to dry out before getting watered again. When growing S/H what water is in the resevoir wicks up through the hydroton so there is almost constant moisture. I tried growing a paph S/H and it promptly rewared me with a quick demise. However, I've had good success with onc's and a few catts. As I have learned more, I no longer am using S/H as a way to grow my plants, although I do use the hydroton as part of my medium. There are many people on the forum who know so much more on the subject than I, Ray being a good source for info. I can only tell you of my experiences.

[Ray]

With the exception of tolumnias, and maybe vandas (although I have customers who are successful with them in S/H culture), I have found no plants that absolutely must dry out between waterings. Some potting media might, but the plants themselves don't, if properly acclimated.

Paphs were my first "guinea pigs" when I was developing the technique, and they took to it so well for me that it encouraged me to try other plants.

They keys to being successful with semi-hydroponics are:

1. Be sure to move plants into it just as new roots are beginning to grow (not new growth on existing roots), so they can tailor themselves to the new conditions, and
2. Make sure that the rest of your growing conditions coupled with the s/h pot environment are appropriate for the plants you are moving over.

Semi-hydroponics is not the "be all, end all", ideal way to grow. It is really nothing more than changing your medium and the water delivery. That change however, also entails different in-pot conditions - air flow, moisture level, evaporation and evaporative cooling to name a few - so if that change does not match well with the rest of your environment and the needs of your plants, it's simply not gonna work.

I would say the best example of that is folks growing phalaenopsis plants in too cool and dry of an environment. Most phals are really "hot growers" that easily tolerate the less-warm conditions we typically have in our homes. Come winter, when the air is a lot drier, and we tend to push the thermostats down (especially at night) to save energy, the evaporative cooling from the pot might push the root zone temperature down to an unacceptable level, stressing and ultimately killing the roots.

[NiNiDazzle]

Originally Posted by josepi.13

i thought the whole point of semi hydro was to plant the plant above the sttanding water so it would grow water roots and be fine with it? did i miss something with this idea?

From what I can see, you are doing S/H correctly. As long as the roots are not in the water when you first transplant, they should do fine. It the roots GROW below the water line, that is perfectly fine. Out of the 20 or so paphs that I have, the healthiest ones are the ones that have grown their roots in the water.

One word of caution. Paphs seem to be extremely sensitive to fertilizer. I was watering weakly/weekly but their newest leaves started to turn brown. I stopped fertilizing it and went to a once a month schedule and now the leaves growing out are green again. I thoroughly water all my paphs with R/O water a minimum of twice a week.

[josepi.13]

Everyone, thanks for your help and advice. I will keep it as is for the time being and see where it goes, i currently have it on a heatmat to encourage root growth. i hope this makes a difference. you guys are helpful and i enjoy being a part of this community. thanks again.

[bumpman]

Thanks everyone for a great discussion of paphs in s/h as I just got two for Xmas and now know how to put them in s/h when the time is right.

[josepi.13]

No one attempted at tackeling the question of the injector fertilizer. its a 21-5-20 jacks all purpose injected fertilizer, we use it on all of our plants. Our plants mainly consist of annuals for our spring plant sale, but would this fertilizer be enough to supplement my orchids?

[Ray]

Assuming it's got a decent supply of trace elements. it's fine.

Orchids are far less demanding of nutrition than are terrestrial plant, so I would shoot for about 100 ppm N with the orchids.

[bumpman]

Since the thread is now discussing fertilizers in s/h, can I throw out what I'm doing for feedback from the masters? For new growth phase I'm using Miracle Gro 30-10-10, for spike phase I'm using Schulz 19-31-17, and for flowering phase I'm using an epi fert 20-10-20; all weekly weakly. Is this feasible or just overkill? Thanks for any feedback!