Just a quick update on how my plants have progressed in both setups. Hope you enjoy the photos, and feel free to ask anyquestions.

Zygopetalum


Phals


This one has 19 blooms
.

Miltoniopsis


Aliceara


Vandas P. DELIGHT, soaked ever morning then allowed to dry.


Many new roots and growth. I am pleased with progress

Wow! I'm impressed. I have a big bag of hydrotron, so I may just try that. How often do you change the water?

@ctcarol for my plants in the semi hydroponics with lava (or leca) I run fresh water through the pot a few times when the reservoir dries, atm about 1x every 2 -3 weeks. With it getting warmer I expect to water 1x a week or so. There are two holes in the side of the container, aids in circulation, and gives the ability to flush the deposits. Also makes sure you can't over water. You could rinse or water daily of you like. Just don't let the reservoir go dry.

The ones in Full water culture I do a weekly water change

Here's a better picture if the pot that shows how the wicking properties work. The reservoir is filled and it creates an evenly moist environment around the roots but with enough air to not rot roots.

Thanks! I will try it with a couple of small, struggling plants.

Oh, and here's pictures of the ones in bloom to show flower output.

Secondary extended blooms accidently broke the tip

Such a nice eye-ful!!

Now I have a suggestion - how about doing an experiment in parallel? Pick up two cheap, hopefully identical Phals. Grow one the " normal way" and the other one in SH and compare them periodically.
I would be curious how they fare.
I don't know if you see that the healthiest roots are not submerged, but growing happily above the set up?

@Ursula

I think you may be jumping to a biased decision and not looking at the facts. These are all new root growths making their way into the media.

There are roots into the containers also, just a few examples....

I see!

Mdntnmtgmy said:@Ursula

I think you may be jumping to a biased decision and not looking at the facts. These are all new root growths making their way into the media.

There are roots into the containers also, just a few examples....

I would love to see an updated photos of this method. Please share. Thanks

Photos of my orchids in both SH and FWC

Thanks so much for the photos, truly inspiring! I use semi-hydroponics on some other tropicals and they do quite well indeed. But have not been good with the orchids..I guess my timing was off.

Hmm...got to see which one I can torture to try it again..maybe one of my Oncidiums since they are always water hungry anyways.

We've seen that Phals do ok, but in those group shots I only see one other type...somewhat hidden in the crowd.

ctcarol said:We've seen that Phals do ok, but in those group shots I only see one other type...somewhat hidden in the crowd.

There is one miltonia sunset, and some vandas in the back side