a little history.... I was asked to work on green wall concepts for a small outfit I have worked for over the last number of years doing odd construction and christmass lighting, long story short I no longer work for Joe or whatever his name is...but I am still into the plants the techniques and the possibilities. I have a hydro background and like perlite or just water and air, so I started these plants out for the summer in a perlite flood and drain ebb/flow table with semps sedum and stepables ...the semps got over run I watered too much and perlite held too much water near the surface though some semps did survive burried for a month or 2 under the other plants getting flooded every 15 min and are still alive LOL some die but some really do sempervivum, I mean live forever. anyhow I just moments ago stood my first "green wall" panel and this is how she looks....
so the nature of the experiment has been changing as I go along but I'm getting back to the root of the experiment which is mainly growing semps in air and water(/nutrient) and of course indoor over winter, so light schedules/intensity come into play. for the time being I am going to run my semps 13-17 hour days...17 right now. some have been at 24 for several weeks and they are fine (not that several weeks matters to these plants) Im just going to run 17 as peak summer growing.
The real issues come with watering and substrate. I've been dealing with lots of chicks and unrooted plants and its a little tricky to manage eveyone in the same flood and drain table.
under the florescent bulbs mostly
The experiment has been progressing nicely....most eveyone seems quite happy, despite my desire to water all the time (I weaning myself off the water) the plants have changed mediums routinely as I find anything organic holds too much water. my latest plantings are larger plants in big limestone chunck. the roots are basically hanging in huge gaping fisures air drying constatly....
last night I really cut to the chase and planted up a semp with roots hanging in air inside a small coffee container. thats where I am heading perhaps with a eek foam sheet over the flood table. roots would hang in air until I decide to water again. which brings us to the current question of how much and when would you water such a plant.
light intensity is great with florescent bulbs just inches overhead, but I can kick it up to hard core If I feel like it with a HPS 1.5 feet overhead. Im hoping the air root method with really get the plants popping. Ideally I will be getting good root hair formation, and huge healthy roots. we will see.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on semp roots in air... how often do I water? every 4 hours while the roots are still damp or every 4 days, long after the roots have completely dried?
ppm are at 150 ish. I feel like I am seeing growth...and happy plants
some unrooted plants I got from north hills nursery sitting in the rooting bed. mainly finely crushed limestone upper , i find lava wicks and holds too much water, I'm moving away from lava.
these are mostly the rooted plants I got from North Hills this mix of lava and pea gravel is ok. the lava scares me as it holds too much water, but i just pull the kids up and prop little rocks around them to keep them high and dry around the base.
Ps... I got testy one night and deleted all my further posts so if you want to catch up to speed I reenter the conversation towards the bottom of page 3.
