Semi Hydroponics

[dennis]

here is a good link about growing your orchids in a semi hydroponics enviroment. After doing quite a bit of research on this I decided to give this a try and I have to admit I was amazed at the difference in some of my plants. I now transplant everything into it right after bringing them home or as soon as the flowers have been spent, I have some that are in bud that have been transplanted and never skipped a beat.

http://www.firstrays.com/PDF/No_Longer_a_Killer.pdf

here is a link to Ray Barkalow site called First Ray Orchids
http://www.firstrays.com/

another site on growing in sh
http://www.growinhydro.com/4436.html

and one more selling supplies
http://www.creativehydroponics.com/

alot of rays articles he ask that they not be reposted so I will respect his wishes. He does state that this is not a cure all to growing your orchids you still need to provide proper light, temp, and humidity,but this is a good place to start with the watering problems and what fertilizer to go with as the msu fertilizer is designed for ro or rain water and another for well water (not softened water)

[LeftCoastAngler]

Do you adjust the pH any? or do you use straight tap water with the nutrients?

~LCA.

[eldone]

I have also recently switched most of my orchids over to semi hydroponics and have seen a marked improvement. I have found that some of my very small plants have to be watered more often than when I used an orchid mix. However, I do not have anymore problems with rotting roots and the plants seem to like it.

[janet_a]

i nearly killed 2 phals in SH before i yanked 'em out; one's still in the bag w/sphag. OTOH, my phrag in SH is blooming at the moment with lots of pups, and a sickly sale table sharry baby only picked up after i put it in SH. it's gotten all nice and fat and is growing a new pbulb.

i use aired off tap water with the MSU fert for tap water; about once a month i dump a bunch of plain water thru the pots before topping off with the fertilizer solution. there is some debate about the pH in the reservoir; some folks think it's an issue, others, not. it's probably a YMMV type thing.

oh, also have an AV in SH in a starbucks frap cup. it seems very happy.

[Anton]

A friend of mine, Kevin Western, has been using this method with his Den kingianums with exceptional results.

He showed me seedlings planted at Easter were up to 3 inches high with shiny, dark green foliage, plus older plants which didn't show much sign of growth prior to using SH now with lots of new growth.

I set mine up prior to going on my holiday and worried all the time I was away, even though my daughter checked on them daily. I even set my new Phal pulchra up with SH.

Well all I can say is that the results, even after a week were absolutely astounding. The Phal is very much alive and thriving, my older Dens which weren't showing any activity are now showing small dark buds everywhere, keikis I planted from the Dens are also budding everywhere, but were stagnent prior to my trip.

5 small Dens I got from Keving are looking great, I can post pikkies if required, but didn't think it was warranted in this reply.

[NancyG]

I am thinking of transplanting some of my phals into SH. do you recommend going up and inch in size of pot. My phals are coming out of their current pots with roots all over the place. Will I have to get all those healthy roots hanging over the edge into the new pot? I haven't done that much repotting.

NancyG