0:00
Growing orchids hydroponically or in water as in full water culture or semi-water culture
0:06
is one way that you can grow orchids. So in this video, I'm going to talk about the difference
0:12
between full water culture and semi-water culture. Hi, I'm Amanda Matthews and thank you for watching this video at Orchidary
0:24
So in this vase you can see I have an orchid and it actually has a spike on it. It was having a
0:29
hard time just in sphagnamoss. So I decided to give it a try. Now you can see that the in the
0:36
sphagnam moss it still had good roots which were these older roots which are darker gray
0:42
But since it's been transferred into the waterculture method it's grown one, two, three, four
0:49
five, six, seven and a half new roots just in waterculture. To do full water culture, you're going to want to fill this vase with water just to around here
1:15
And it's going to have water about an inch or less. You don't want a lot of water
1:22
And it's only going to be the bottom roots that are going to be in contact with this water
1:27
The water will evaporate. will hit the sides of the glass and that maintains a good humidity inside the pot. This water will
1:37
sit here for five days. For two days, you drain it out and let it dry. Now this is on the two
1:44
day cycle. I'm going to now fill it up to about here to start my second cycle again. So during the
1:52
week you'll have five days in water and two days of drying out. We always think of water
1:59
as always in water. Well, that's just totally wrong. You need to get that idea out of your head
2:05
and start thinking of water culture that all methods of water culture have a drying out period
2:11
unless you're doing it in leka pebbles. And I'll get to that in another video. So that's full water
2:16
culture Now why don the top root die with this method Because they hardly ever in contact with water Well remember when I said the water will evaporate and hit the sides of the glass So that keeps the roots healthy nice humid
2:33
and allows airflow and light. So this is a perfect method for growing, especially if you're starting
2:41
out. Sometimes it seems scary just to grow orchids in water, but it's not that hard. Actually
2:46
this would be better if I brought my orchid up to about there. What you don't want is to have the
2:52
stem of the orchid in contact with water. You'd never want that. That's just going to provide a fast way
3:00
for the whole orchid to rot quickly. And once you get stem rot, it's hard to cure. For semi-water
3:09
culture, you're going to fill that water up to two-thirds the height of the roots, so about to here
3:15
and you're going to let it sit for two days in water
3:21
That's a long time, but after the second day, you're going to pour that water out
3:26
and you're going to let it dry for five days. Now remember, these are all conditions that are in my environment
3:33
You need to test to see what works in yours, because you can keep this orchid in water longer
3:40
maybe two and a half days, three days, or a shorter period a day and a half
3:46
So it depends really how dry your environment is and how wide the top of your vases
3:53
The wider the vase, the faster it's going to evaporate. If you're just starting out with full water culture
4:00
do not pick an orchid that you're sentimentally attached to because remember, this is a learning process
4:06
Not all orchids will adapt to this. The best time to transfer your orchid to full
4:13
water culture is when you see the new root starting to grow. If your orchid is in spagnum moss or if it's
4:21
in the orchid bark and you want to transfer it, wait till the blooms have fallen off. So like if this
4:27
orchid, if it was in sphagnum moss right now, I leave it alone. Do not touch your orchid when it is
4:33
when the buds are forming and it's starting a new spike because all the energy is going to produce
4:39
this spike It needs energy to produce new roots So it when it when it in the root development phase that when you going to transfer it to water culture Is there a risk of it dying Yes there is I wish I had a different answer and I don
4:55
The secret to a good water culture is cleaning the roots. You have to clean them very, very well
5:04
If you leave any of that moss on here, that's going to decay quickly because the roots are in more contact with water
5:13
both in duration and in frequency. So the sphagnum moss that you leave on here is going to decay quickly
5:20
Orchid bark even more. So really rinse those roots off. The best time actually is right when you get
5:27
this orchid to bring it home, all the roots off, you know, give a quick look over on your orchid
5:33
to see if it has any pest, insects, or any problem areas that you need to deal with. You're also going to
5:40
cut the dead roots off. You cannot have dead roots in here because again, this is going to be a
5:46
higher humidity because look at this pot and then look at this one. So air is going to come through here
5:54
and dry this orchid out extremely fast. I have to water these almost every other day because also
6:02
they're small pot so they will dry out quicker. Another thing about full water culture is the type of
6:08
water you're using. If you're using tap water, please check the pH of that water because that's the
6:15
only thing that this orchid is going to live on water. There's nothing else to actually help it along the
6:21
way. So if your water has an extremely high pH like mine does here in Kansas, it's almost 8.5. Sometimes it got up to
6:30
8.8. So I have to use distilled water and I add fertilizer to that every week
6:38
So when I'm doing water culture, I'm gonna make sure that water is either distilled water
6:44
with fertilizer or reverse osmosis water or rainwater, well water, snow that has melted
6:54
any type of thing that is closer to a pH of neutral
7:01
because orchids actually like a pH that's lower, more acidic around 5.5 to 6.5
7:07
Not all orchids do well in waterculture so you have to test and see which ones will grow in your environment What to expect the first few days after water culture Your orchids going to be in
7:21
shock. It's like moving to a different country, speaking a different language
7:27
eating, changing all your eating habits, everything drastically. So your orchid is changing
7:34
potting media. It's changing from something it's always known. It knows. It knows. how to grow well in this and now it's moving to something else so it's going to go into a period of shock
7:45
if you can and it's going to put that orchid back a little bit so don't expect a beautiful spike the next
7:53
year of course this orchid has only been in water culture for one year and it's already putting out a
8:00
spike so some orchids adapt extremely fast but don't expect it to look great the first few days
8:07
In fact, it won't. You'll probably think, what did I do? I killed my orchid. It's starting to dehydrate. It's starting to look limp. These are normal signs. Now, don't go switching, sphagnum moss, and then the next two months, orchid bark, then the next two months, waterculture, then the next two months, styrofoam peanuts, do not do this. Orchids are slow growers. They take a long time to adapt. So give your orchid time. It will look like it's
8:37
struggling because it is for the first few months. Then it kicks back in and it grows nicer and
8:43
healthier than some of mine are in spagnumus. To keep up the full water culture you will need to
8:51
once in a while clean that vase out. You can always leave a little bit of the, like some of
8:58
bacteria will form on the bottom here. You can leave that because the orchid is actually
9:03
accustomed to that as long as it doesn't turn into a type of algae that will grow and take over
9:09
the pot because that's going to tant that's going to block the light if this video did help you in
9:15
any way or provided information please give it a thumbs up or comment but if this is not your
9:21
favorite potting media i'm doing a series on potting media so this video up here is about
9:27
different types of potting media it's going to be a playlist and this other video is something else
9:33
I hope to see you in the comments below and happy cultivating
