An Illustrated Guide
Semi-hydroponics (or semi-hydro) is something I’ve gotten into within the last couple of years. For someone who enjoys keeping orchids and water-intense plants, I have found this growing method to be more consistent and reliable than using bark or sphagnum substrates.
In this post, I will show you how I convert some newly-purchased young orchids from their original bark medium to a semi-hydro set up. Please note that children can help you with this project, but adult supervision is needed and they should not be handling any sharp instruments.
Materials
Double Cup Method
Here are the things that you will need:
- 2 clean containers, sizes optional, as long as one can fit within another. I simply use plastic drinking cups that I save from Starbucks drinks or other beverages. Not only are you extending their use, but you are saving them from the landfill or being shipped to a third-world country to be “recycled.”
- Mega bulky blanket yarn. I purchased mine from Michael’s.
- LECA (Lightweight Expanded Clay Aggregate). Rinse off your LECA to remove the clay dust.
- X-acto knife or other cutting tool
- Protective gloves (safety first!)
- Decorative cachepot (optional)
- Orchid (or any other plant) with growing medium cleaned off of roots
Once you have all of your items assembled, these are the steps I take to convert my or orchid plants into semihydro.
- Take one of the plastic beverage containers and use the X-acto knife to cut a hole in the bottom wide enough for the yarn to pass through. I find that cutting a square hole is easier than cutting a round one. Wear protective gloves and do not let children handle this part!
- Cut a length of the blanket yarn. I usually use at least 10-12 inches, but you may need more if your cups are bigger. Tip: If you don’t have enough, you can always tie two lengths of yarn together.
- Thread the yarn through the hole cut into the plastic cup. Leave about 3-4 inches coming out of the bottom.
4. Start adding some LECA to the cup, so that around 1/3 of it is full. It does not have to be accurate, a guesstimate is fine.
5. Place your bareroot orchid into the cup partially filled with LECA. You may have to add or subtract some LECA so that your plant doesn’t sit too high or low. Make sure your orchid’s roots all sit below the rim of the cup. I try to match the base of my orchid (where roots meet the stem) to the same height as the rim.
6. Gently spiral the yarn around the roots of the orchid. Keep it loose; there is no need to strangle your plant. You can fill in some LECA as you do that.
7. Pour LECA to fill the entire cup to the rim. Tap the cup against your work surface to help settle the LECA. If your orchid is sitting too low, you can tug it up a little at this stage. However, if your orchid is sitting too high (i.e. the base of your plant is well above the rim), then you have no choice but to pour everything out and restart all over again. It may take a couple of attempts, and there is no shame in that. Better to get it right so you have a thriving plant!
8. Your orchid is now ready to be placed in its reservoir container (your second cup without any holes) or a decorative cachepot. I’m just using another cup for this demonstration, because it will allow you to see the entire setup.
9. Water your orchid from the top, moistening all of the LECA pebbles and the yarn wick. The water will run down, through the hole in the orchid’s container, and into the reservoir. The amount of water you want to keep in the reservoir is completely up to you. Just make sure that the water is not so high that the roots are completely submerged. This can drown your plant or cause root rot.
10. Place your plant labels into the LECA with your orchids. If you have a cachepot or a decorative pot you want to use, you can place your semi-hydro babies right inside. And that’s it! You’re done! Congrats on doing your first semi-hydro conversion!
Alternative Semi-Hydro Setup
Single Cup + 1 Cachepot
This method is essentially like the Double Cup Method. The inner cup holding your plant is placed directly into the cachepot. However, this time, the cachepot will serve as the water reservoir.
Final Thoughts
If you don’t have a decorative cachepot, you can decorate your reservoir cups with pretty paper, painted designs, or fun washi tape. I would recommend doing this before you start your semi-hydro conversion, but there’s no harm in doing it afterwards. Decorating transparent cups like these, while not only making them look good, will prevent the formation of algae by blocking out light.
I hope this blog post will help you embark on your own semi-hydro journey! If you need additional details or have questions, please don’t hesitate to reach out. Are you planning on trying this out yourself? Let me know in the comments!
Always Keep Growing,
Heather (a.k.a. The Botanical Chick)
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