Miniature Flow Bench

[silence882]

Hi All,

I thought I'd share my current experiment. It's a miniature flow bench that I made a long time ago to hold some Phrags. I resurrected it this spring and turned it into a tiny fountain in the hopes that it would attract hummingbirds. No luck so far in that regard, but I realized I could throw some Phrags in and see what happens.

It's the lid from a storage tub flipped upside down and sitting on a smaller tub that acts as the reservoir. A small pond pump cycles the water out of small jets in the black tubing on the left. There's a drain tube (hidden) that keeps the water level steady at a bit less than an inch. There are 9 Phrag Rosy Charm in there that I needed to move since my indoor growing space is restricted. 4 of them are in my CHC/perlite/charcoal mix and 5 are in diatomite. I filled it with R/O water and will continue doing so if it ever stops raining around here. It gets direct sun until about 10 AM and is then in bright shade for the rest of the day. If that proves to be too much for the Phrags (if the sun ever comes back out) I'll find it a spot with no direct sun.

If it works I don't know what I'll do with it when winter comes. Maybe bring it inside and place it in a south-facing window.

--Stephen

 

[Migrant13]

Pretty cool set up you have there. How are you going to handle fertilizing? Looks a little precarious with the orchids all on one side but I am sure you have it figured out.

 

[Mikefallen13]

I've been thinking of doing something like this for my phrags, as I've been having trouble keeping them moist. I did a setup for my tropical carnivorous plants very similar to this and it worked great! What type of media are you using?

 

[Justin]

looks great. what do you do with your plants when it storms? just curious as i am going to put some Catts out this year for the first time.

 

[abax]

Well hello soaked Maryland! Ditto for southeastern KY. It's been either raining or cloudy all spring without let up
and I'm sick of it. I like your set up and the plants look
very good. I imagine rain keeps your water level just
right. Well, constantly refreshed anyway.

 

[NYEric]

Looks a little precarious with the orchids all on one side but I am sure you have it figured out.

Good luck.

 

[Ozpaph]

Clever set-up.
I know you are circulating the water (I assume not filtering it) but they are sitting in water all the time. Is that really different to a static 'saucer' system? Its not quite like an ebb-flow system used in hydroponics ie wet-dry-wet-dry.

In winter you could put an aquarium heater in the reservoir to warm it up a bit.

 

[Clark]

I like bottom up watering.

 

[JAB]

How the Fisher's grow their Phrags, and I suppose they have a basic idea of Phrag culture
Nice DIY flood and drain brother!

 

[MaryPientka]

Interesting!

 

[silence882]

Clever set-up.
I know you are circulating the water (I assume not filtering it) but they are sitting in water all the time. Is that really different to a static 'saucer' system? Its not quite like an ebb-flow system used in hydroponics ie wet-dry-wet-dry.

In winter you could put an aquarium heater in the reservoir to warm it up a bit.

The pump's on a timer and only on during the day. At night the water drains back into the reservoir. I could probably set the time to flip on/off several times a day but I'm gonna try this pattern for a while first.

looks great. what do you do with your plants when it storms? just curious as i am going to put some Catts out this year for the first time.

These are sitting on my deck on the sheltered (north) side of my house. I plan to completely ignore them when the summer T-storms hit. I'm using plants I don't mind losing so I'll see what happens.

I've been thinking of doing something like this for my phrags, as I've been having trouble keeping them moist. I did a setup for my tropical carnivorous plants very similar to this and it worked great! What type of media are you using?

Half are in my usual mixture of CHC/perlite/charcoal and half are in straight diatomite.

Pretty cool set up you have there. How are you going to handle fertilizing? Looks a little precarious with the orchids all on one side but I am sure you have it figured out.

Right now it's getting no fertilizer. The last time I put fertilizer in a flow system I burned the leaf tips pretty quickly. There's 30 pounds of water in the reservoir keeping it on its cinder block base. I gave it a good shake and it's solid.

 

[Ozpaph]

great idea with the timer!

 

[silence882]

Quick update. So far the bench is working well. I have been ignoring it aside from topping up the water once or twice a week and once a month cleaning. However, the big test comes tomorrow when triple-digit temps arrive for several days. Two of the plants are in spike right now so it'll be interesting to see how they respond.

 

[NYEric]

Dude!!

 

[silence882]

Dude!!

Science sometimes requires sacrifices to be made.

 

[NYEric]

Goodbye plants! :sob:

 

[silence882]

Final verdict: Flow bench good, Maryland summer heat bad.

It's getting very cool at night here so I'm shutting the experiment down. The plants seemed happy getting water all the time - some grew roots out the bottoms of their pots. I repotted 4 and there were very few dead roots. However it's just too hot here in the summer to put Phrags outside. I didn't lose any but they definitely wilted in the heat. However, 2 did bloom. I've got them all in diatomite now and am going to bring them back inside permanently. I'll stick them in a window and see how they do.

Maybe I can figure out some other experiment to do this winter when the cold and dark push me to the brink of sanity.

 

[Ray]

You might also consider that bottom-only watering, coupled with top-surface evaporation, means that you're concentrating the dissolved minerals and plant wastes in the top third or more of the medium...

 

[NYEric]

Final verdict: Flow bench good, Maryland summer heat bad.

I have trays of circulating water for some of my Phrags. Not as good a system because the water does not change.