LECA & S/H: good or evil?

[Rick]

Thanks for joining the conversation, Ray. Technically, good and evil are just the words we use for things which work and things which don't. Also, it is eye-catching.

Are you also fertilizing with each watering? And if so, how much? Have you experiments with other fertilizing regimes?

The issue of warmth keeps coming up. What seems to be the best temperature range?

I'm still interested in seeing some pictures of healthy plants/roots growing in the stuff. No picture, no sale... at least that's how it seems to work if you want to be believed.

http://www.slippertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=28336&highlight=longifolium&page=8

Here's a few pics from my longifolium in hydroton. Let me know if you want the full size pices emailed to you.

 

[couscous74]

@couscous74: do you imply that you don't always water, but simply let the plants rest in the reservoir? How does your fertilizer regime compare to Ray and Lance's?

I used to fertilize with half strength MSU, about every other watering. But I have to admit that I am not very fastidious about the feeding. Just me being lazy. Sometimes it's just easier to top up the reservoirs with a bit of water, than to do a full flush and feed.

Now that I grow outdoors, I fertilize even less regularly. I expect some natural fertilizing to occur.

 

[gonewild]

I expect some natural fertilizing to occur.

Sh*t happens.

 

[Ray]

Tyrone, 50 ppm N is the delivered concentration.

Most of the photos are not mine, so 1) I do not have higher-res images, and 2) I cannot give you permission to use them. Sorry.

You're stealing my talk? NOOOOOoooo! You should fly me over and send me on a tour - nominal fee per stop, of course.

 

[cnycharles]

plus picking up some disas along the way for your friends back west

 

[TyroneGenade]

You're stealing my talk? NOOOOOoooo! You should fly me over and send me on a tour - nominal fee per stop, of course.

You would have to talk to Faan about that. I would be happy if you gave the talk instead of me.

Thanks for all the fertilizer info. I see that weakly-weekly is as good as very-weakly-daily, but I suppose very-weakly-daily does give faster growth under ideal conditions (whatever they are).

 

[SlipperKing]

pictures

1. The Susan Decker I just posted; a root even growing out of the hole!

Top growth (Eric claims its straggy and badly damaged but I don't see it)

pearcei roots

pearcei top growth; S/H 01/2012 Note it received its award growing this way.

hincksianum

From Dot; Cape Sunset in a Dixie cup!

Cape Sunset's top growth

A small div of a Grande I stuck in a Dixie cup

Top growth; the org single is the yellowed out part

Hanne Popw; recently repotted because it was growing up and out. You can see a fern trying to grow from way down low!

top of H Popow

Mem Dick Clement oldest one in S/H, 11/2010, moss growing out the hole

Top, I nearly lost this plant before I went to S/H

 

[SlipperKing]

Tyronne, I would hope we gave you enough PICs to convince you "Its no big deal, its easy!" I fertilize 50 ppm of N about every 4th watering K-lite. Rain water 95% of the time. Winter temps as low as 50 but normally 52-55

 

[TyroneGenade]

Hi Rick H et al,

I am convinced that this system works very well. For a bad waterer like myself this might be perfect.

Moving on to Disa... I will be trying again with them. I can keep them wet but the issue is keeping them cool. What I willl be trying is potting them in stone inside a hollowed out piece of oasis, so the plant can be wet and cooled by evaporation. It will be interesting to see if this works.

 

[SlipperKing]

I think you're on the right track with S/H type culture. The cooling of the root system is what saved my schlimii/besseae type phrags

 

[cnycharles]

for the disas, could you just make a bench/box that has all of your potted plants, and water running through it? you could continually pump it up into the box and have it run back down after going through the pots/box

 

[The Orchid Boy]

I may try a masdevallia or division of one in s/h because I have a terrible time keeping it cool enough. Does anyone know if I could put the LECA in a clay pot with the masdevallia and sit it in water? Has anyone tried s/h in clay pots? I thought that it may help with extra evaporative cooling of the roots.

 

[Ray]

I may try a masdevallia or division of one in s/h because I have a terrible time keeping it cool enough. Does anyone know if I could put the LECA in a clay pot with the masdevallia and sit it in water? Has anyone tried s/h in clay pots? I thought that it may help with extra evaporative cooling of the roots.

That is actually something I recommend in my talk on the subject to folks trying to "stretch" the temperature range of their growing conditions.

 

[Linus_Cello]

I may try a masdevallia or division of one in s/h because I have a terrible time keeping it cool enough. Does anyone know if I could put the LECA in a clay pot with the masdevallia and sit it in water? Has anyone tried s/h in clay pots? I thought that it may help with extra evaporative cooling of the roots.

This is something that I'm going to try with cyps grown in clay pots to help keep the plant cooler.