Wow! Great news! I hope to get over to the hydroponics shop this week and pick up a bag of hydroton.

Nice Josh - I agree, it does look good! I know Ryan just loves growing in this medium and is an avid proponent of it. Now we've got two ;-) Alana

Hi Josh, your plant looks real good in it. Please, can you explain to me how to grow things in hydroton? Do you have to use a cache pot to hold the water or what?

I have a small bag of hydroton but I didn't know how to use it properly. I used it "straight" on one of my orchids and I've found it was "hard" for the orchid to take roots :-(. Maybe because it didn't provide enough moisture???

Thanks for your advise.

Xuan

There are no holes at the bottom of the pot, there is a reservoir of about .5 - 1 inch of water at the bottom. The clay pellets such as Hydroton wick the water and nutrients up from the reservoir. There are two small holes in the pot that control the water, these are placed above where you want the reservoir to end, they drain the water and aid in flushing. It's called Semi-Hydroponics because it's one pot, one plant and one reservoir.

Hopefully Ryan can come through and explain in more detail, I'm not as experienced on this subject!

Josh

Odd, you are intentionally creating a water table......I suppose the nice thing is you can sort of not worry about watering very often.....I try to water once per week 'cause I'm lazy.....how often do you have to water doing this? Could be fun to try on one or two plants :o) Dan

Alana you know it! lol

Xuan, I originally started using hydroton for my phalaenopsis and my success with this method has encouraged me to branch out to using other plants in much the same way. First, you have to clean this stuff well-- get rid of that dust on it. That dust irritates roots, it seems, at least in orchids. And then you have to decide how you'll use the hydroton. I live in a dry environment so I use plastic or glass containers and will drill two wholes, side-by-side, about 1/4 to 1/3 of the pot's height from the bottom, up. This gives you a standing water reservoir for the plant to reach its roots into. This is why it is called semi-hydroponics-- because you are not actively flushing the container with water constantly but periodically instead.

My guess is your plant's failure to do well in hydroton was in fact lack of water. It can dry quickly and that is why you need to flush a new plant daily to help it get going. Once it does, though, you can back off on the watering. For instance, there are times when I can go over a week without watering my semi-hydroponically grown plants, because they have enough water in their reservoir.

I have been growing my orchids this way for a while now and my hippies nearly as long. I've been through a full growing cycle with the hippies plus some and they do exceptionally well. Papilio, in particular, does really well with this method. Mine grows a lot and will drink up her supply of water in a few days!!!

Dan-- I understand and appreciate the volcanic substrates and etc for growing too-- my succulents loooove it and even my Chinese Elms grow really well in it. But like volcanics, hydroton has its place in gardening, too, but not in all areas. You will never see me growing some of my port afras-trained-as-bonsai in hydroton. They stay in the volcanics. However, my orchids, hippies and now, even a hibiscus, really enjoy it and because they're not n specific pots such as bonsai, hydroton does the trick.

I would jump at the chance to grow some of your species in semi-hydro. What amazes me is the versatility of this method. Because this method can keep the plant itself perfectly dry (and free of rot from over-watering etc), I can even plant cacti in this and they grow wonderfully. The roots travel to the reservoir and really, nothing else needs done!

Bulbs are easy to grow this way because they are a storage tank of a plant already. Making the move from one method to s/h is simple. Things like orchids are more difficult because ANY roots not grown in this method can and will likely be lost. There are exceptions. Orchids grown in wet sphag moss don't skip a beat-- the roots are already considered and function as water roots. But those grow in bark etc are ill adapted for s/h. That is why it is advisable that ANY plant, bulb or otherwise, be of very good healthy and in or on the cusp of a new growing cycle (new root buds on orchids, hippies coming out of dormancy etc). Any weak plant or plant not actively growing is a risk but that is not to say it won't work. I've had luck getting several plants in hydroponics that were ailing but it takes time and patience and even MORE time babying the plant and that gets old.

Anyway, I still use soil-- organics. But I only use it in places it makes sense. I use hydroton for probably 70% of my plants-- 10% are in soil and 20% in volcanics.

BTW Dan I can go weeks without watering certain plants-- depends on their growing cycle etc. An orchid charging full steam into blooming will drink up its reservoir in a week. When its neither growing flowers, roots or leaves, it can go a month without a second thought. I should mention, however, I rarely have plants just sitting, not doing anything. S/h seems to keep plants growing all the time-- but i'm not complaining-- I have some enormous phals right now, some bloom with three spikes and dozens of flowers. So I say...let them grow! I'll be by with my watering can soon.

DR

ps. For the technicals, do a search for "First" and "Rays" and "Orchids" and check out his semi-hydroponic section. Apply what he says about orchids to any plant, really-- thats what I did!

Hello Josh -

That's inspiring! Did the bulb have good (by soil-frown standards) roots when you put it into s/h?

Josh and D Ryan, do you think it's key for the roots to be able to grow *into* the reservoir? I've had great experiences growing hoyas in s/h, but I want to keep growing most of my plants in terra cotta pots. I've thought about putting a piece of screen over the drainage hole in a terra cotta pot, filling it with hydroton, placing it in a 1.5"-deep saucer and using the saucer as a reservoir. Do you think it would work with Hippeastrum?

Hi Ryan, Sounds interesting....I should have a go at it with some things this summer to see what happens...I have some 10 year old Hippis that my wife got as presents from kids in her classroom and I do my best to kill them, but they stay alive....never do anything but stay alive, but hey, they are obviously tough little buggers so why not give them a try!! I should say that I never water my Hippis during the summer.....they get rain or they get dry.....in the winter my evergreen ones get watered approx once per month.....hard to believe they stay alive to be honest, but they are tough plants as we all know here on this forum!! I'll have to try and find some pots with no holes....or do as mentioned above and put a tray under the pot to create the water table. Sounds like a fun thing to try :o) Dan

Many thanks, Josh and Ryan. I think I know what to do now :-)

Xuan

I might sound dim but I don't really understand how this works but I really want to as I want to relocate all of my hippis into hydroponics and also my orchids.
But my brain just doesn't get the image, as it only sounds like replacing the soil with these clay balls and putting a saucer to hold water.
But wait doesn't everyone always say not to leave the roots in the water?
Any pictures of how it looks would be so helpful.

Per one of the more recent posts: "ps. For the technicals, do a search for "First" and "Rays" and "Orchids" and check out his semi-hydroponic section. Apply what he says about orchids to any plant, really-- thats what I did!"

It probably has great instructions and photos!

I think the clay balls absorb some water, but the space between them allows the roots plenty of circulating air, so the plant is not sitting in water. And it allows the roots to seek out their own preference…it's not like soils that just stays spongy and damp.
K

I was going to post a link to the page mentioned above, but when I did, I got a warning from Garden Web. I can confirm that there is lots of good information on that page, so by all means do the Google search and read up on semi-hydroponics!
K