Oh sure. The one page article was by T. J. Hartung and it mainly featured four points.
1. The cold, near freezing temperature is no good when it comes to tropical orchid roots. The shock could damage or even kill them!
2. The water provided by the ice cube would not penetrate very far into the media. When you are suppose to water orchids, the water is suppose to flow freely out of the drainage holes thereby assuring that the root system is thoroughly watered! Roots at the bottom 2/3 or 3/4 of the pot would basically never see water leading to die back and a smaller root system.
3. Depending on just what kind of water the ice cubes were made from, you may be introducing dissolved solids and minerals that would be concentrated in the upper level of the media. You might be watering your plants with the same water, unfrozen though, but by the grower watering properly those things would not be allowed to build up to the same levels created by shallow, ice cube watering.
4. The last point he made was, and maybe it is the best point is how exactly do you fertilize your orchids when you use ice cubes. Do you use ice cubes from a cube tray with the fertilizer in the cube? There comes the question of top layer watering AND increased salt buildup from the fertilizer. Plus no fertilizer reaching the deeper roots. Lastly if you use slow release placed on the top on the media how does it get properly dissolved and distributed by this limited water flow???!!!
Excellent article, excellent!!
Great point for me to share Elaine, great point.
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