Great comments.
I have 70 orchids in s/h (half of those are paphs and 25% are phals) that I have transfered over in the last few months. I currently have 4 that are not doing well (root loss). The other 64 are doing great. I grow my orchids on my patio outside and with rain water I collect with MSU fertilizer. I just think that some plants do not take well to s/h. Either the timing is wrong or it could be genetics of the actual plant itself. However, I believe this is a small percentage. It's weird because I have 20 or so that are smaller in size (probably a year or two from blooming size) and out of those 20, 16 are doing great and 4 had root loss (and they are all phals). These plants are not gone yet but I have soaked them in sugar, KLN and water solution and put them in a ziploc (in their pot with the primeagra) to try to get those roots growing and back to a healthy plant. On my other transfers, about 25% of those are doing tremendous (lots of roots and new growths). The rest are so far probably doing the same as they would in their more traditional orchid mix.
Moral of the story for s/h growers is to be patient, don't expect 100% success and don't expect all of your plants to do better than they would in your previous mix. I will tell you for me that I have taken one of thye unknowns out of the equation and that is when to water. Also repotting is much easier in s/h and you can reuse the media. These should be some of your reasons for transfering to s/h.
|