Hi Nick. I am new to the orchid forum and find what you say about the sonoma gold very interesting. I am also a crystal/rock/mineral collector who is intrigued by the limestone rock you are speaking of. We live in a limestone area near limestome quarries(1/2 mile away), and would be interested in this for my orchids. Thanks for the info. Think I would also like to get a piece for my collection. Do you know anything about Miltonia orchids, the very large pansy-faced ones? You have so many orchids, I'm sure you have good advice. Thanks. Sandi

I'm in NE Georgia. Our average first frost comes about Oct 15th, so I'm just beginning to arrange the shelving, groom the plants, and think about what groupings will optimize winter care both for them and for me. All the phals and paphs have been moved to the indoor plant light so I can see what's left that needs GH space. I only have an 8 x 10 and I willingly violate every rule I can think of about not overcrowding. Therefore, this year the mostly catts and oncidium alliances have been systemic bug and systemic fungus treated before the move. Scale loves closed in spaces. I have to leave room for the fans. They are critical to orchid health. All the advice to avoid drafts has definitely not been my experience. The more air movement the better - as long as it doesn't come with names like Katrina, or Opal or Ivan. I downsized by about 50 plants. With 150 on the plant lite, about 380 are waiting for GH space. But back to the topic .... with the heat this summer, I was watering daily or every other day. Usually in the winter I water weekly. I'm going to try to move that to every 10 days in the GH. That means doing half the GH about every 5 days so I can keep the humidity up for the other half. I have no foggers or misters. The paphs and phals inside the house have different needs. The paphs demand fertilizer and twice-a-week watering when inside. It's almost like they think the flourescents are brighter than their outdoor shady spot. I tell them that can't be, but their leaves start to yellow until I feed them something... so I go with what works. Three are in bloom and about 5 have low buds. My heat lovers went into the GH first. The Vanda, all seedlings, angraecum, dracula, pleurothallis. Please let me know if any of these need the cold. I have too many to keep up with that very well. I was told my Cirr Elizabeth wasn't blooming for me because she needed to chill. This year she will. I'm keeping out the neo, hybrid minis with s (sophronitis) in their initials, and the paph armeniacum because I've read they need the cooler temps. Every winter the cymbidiums get farmed out to an old school turned office building that has an unheated hallway with windows. The cymbidiums bloom like crazy. I water them lightly weekly and take the bows. The buds always blasted in my 50's-at-night crowded GH. Maybe I'll add to this later as I continue to think thru the process. Sherlene

I went to graduate school in Lafayette. Cat lover, you are right, the pots have a couple of drain holes about 1" up from the bottom 9or you sit a regular pot in a saucer of water. Newbiez8pr was talking about using the screens for regular potting, not SH. Pulling the plant to look at the roots periodically is not the best thing to do, because the roots send root hairs into the micro cracks of the pellets, which allows the root to pull moisture and nutrients from the pellets. Pulling the plant breaks the connections and the plant then must relie on low surface area oncact between the root surface and pellets surface. it is not as bad as pullng a plant from an organic mix because the organic mix is dryer and the plant relies more on the root hair contact. After years and transfering hundreds of plants to SH I now have a five finger rule. No more than five roots (usually only 3-4), each about the length of my finger are left on the plant when it is transfered. The way there is not enough old root left to cause problems when it dies (no stinky rotten stuff), and it is a simple thing to pour in pellets and seat the plant in the pot. You don't have to spend time poking pellets into the roots. The medium is wet enough that this small amount of root is enough to hydrate the plant, and so can put the plant back out into full growing light. I fill the pot about 1/3 full of pellets, put the plant in with roots spread on the top of those pellets, and then pour in more pellets and orient the plant where I want it. My pellet height is about 1" below the rim of the pot. I see lots of pictures of plants with pellets at the lip line of the pot. Its difficult to water this wany and the plants are able to walk out of the pot easily as the grow. Even if you are reluctant to grow orchids in SH, it is the best way to rescue rootless orchids. Fill the pot half full and sit the plant on the pellets and then add another inch of pellets. You should have good roots in a couple of months without the hassle of venting bags full of sphagnum. Roots should grow in a few weeks and then you are free to grow the plant any way you want.

Mike, I tried s/h for two years on phals, catts and oncids. Also some encyclias. I was a newbie and unfortunately took the FAQ and board remarks about how you can't overwater in s/h atface value. I was hoping to avoid problems, but in fact I was mired in them for two years. The encyclias never took to it, just died off steadily that whole summer. The phals did not adapt well to it either, just kept getting smaller and smaller, losing roots again every time they gained some. Two years in a row. Catts did ok in the summer, but lost roots all winter. Oncids, a couple put out huge wonderful root mass in the s/h, but most of them followed the catt pattern of ok in summer, decline in winter. I grow under six 400W HID in a basement light room. Some of the loss problems the first year, I believe were from planting too low trying to get the new roots into the s/h, and other newbie mistakes. The second year convinced me I would never get anywhere losing a whole years growth every winter, and I switched to AG for the catts and oncids. That has worked really well for them, and I have lots of spikes on the oncids this year. Reviving: One benefit I got was that I learned a lot about saving things, so I'll tell you what I found out. 1. Oncids: The best re-rooting of both catts and oncids happened in clay pots with some lava rocks at the bottom, and a thin layer of sphag on top of that. I found some of the catts actually put down roots *from the rhyzome* in this kind of arrangment, even tho I thought most of them only put out new roots from the new pbs. I didn't fill the pots with lava, just a couple of inches on the bottom, then a thin layer of sphag over that. So the plant sat far down inside the pot, and got humidity from the bottom and sides. I do think that helped the new roots form. Since the plant was so low, those rhyzome holders didn't work, and I used various tricks to wedge the plant in to keep it from moving around and dislodging the roots forming. I finally settled on wedging it in with clay pot feet. 2. Catts with a lot of brassavola in them (like Bc Maikai, and B Little Stars) actually re-rooted in the s/h set up if I draped a thin layer of sphag over the pellets near the newer pbs. They pretty quickly put out new roots into the sphag, just scooting along the top and staying in the thin sphag layer. Oncids with a new pb to work from also behave like this. 3. Phals revived in the same sphag/clay/lava rock setting, but I only had two left by the time I hit on that method. They were both tiny scraps with no roots and two leaves about 1" each. Saved them, tho, and they are nice size now growing in pure sphag. Both bloomed last year (one year after revival) 4. I used lots of rooting hormones: 1st, a float in dilute liquid hormone (hormex), then painting of eyes (catts and oncids) or root nubs or area (phals) with clonex gel. That stuff really works, new roots start on many in a month, the rest take 6 weeks or so. The sphag seems to inhibit rot and give the new roots that start a benign environment to spread themselves out in. Also raises the humidity a little in the root area. Once I had a cluster of new roots, the catts and oncids went into Aussie Gold. The phals I left in sphag. I water with a dilute hormex solution for the first 6 weeks to 2 months. Helps them get established. Hope this helps.