Dani, thank you for the extended time on the clear, close-up shots during your tutorial. Your camera and lighting combination delivers excellent visuals throughout.
Hi Miss Orchid Girl, Ive been loving watching your videos, I work for a company that builds large reef aquariums i would like to mention which may help you out that your TDS meter does not only pick up the salt in your water, it picks all the dissolved material, as TDS means total dissolved solids, if you wanted to pick up just salt from ur water you would need a refractometer, not sure if you know this already, if you did just ignore me haha, hope this helps :)
Hi Danny, thank you for sharing your experience. I think your high TDS measurement with Seramis has only to do with the fact that clay dust is electrically charged. This means only that conductivity will be higher - it does not need to be bad for the plants - in fact this makes clayey soils so fertile: clay minerals are able to retain Calcium and other nutritive ions. So no need to worry about high TDS readings, in my opinion. All the best!
Thanks Danny for all your videos. I get a lot of useful info from you. As per mold and algae issue. I just use the hydroton balls with my orchids. They grow in a terra cotta pots. I don't have a problem the algae on the top of the media, however, I do have some mold issues on the bottom of the pot. specially with the plants that like to be s bit moist. So I just use a spray of hydrogen peroxide every ones in a while. A bit of pain in the ass. But it works for me. ✌️
I get some algae on my seramis plants and also my sphagnum moss plants, especially under artificial light. Regardless, I would say I still prefer using it. I don't want to repot all the time . It takes so much time and really sets some plants back, e.g. bifoliate cattleyas that may have been growing nicely before. I only have LECA and the fine seramis in my organic media line-up now. Growstones were a terrible failure and definitely are not coming near my orchids again! Algae is common in semi-hydro orchids but I haven't had as much as I expected and I like the method. I am also trying a bare-root cattleya in a vase. I don't leave them in water for two days. I just soak the roots every day or two (whenever I do my vanda) and it really seems to love this treatment. It was a temporary thing at first but all the green root tips it started making made me continue as it seems to be doing good like that
Thank you for sharing your experience (and the tips) I wanted to re-pot my orchids tomorrow and to try it with Seramis since I heard that it was really good. So I washed it and there was so, so much dust in just that one small bag that my entire bathtub was brown and red. My orchids (and their roots) thank you too ;)
I was going to suggest a carpet of spaghnum moss for your algae problem... if that gets green, it will look like live moss... if it starts to deteriorate, its easy to remove. Thats how I do mine... but you seem to have figured out a great solution already with Leica. Totally love your wall of green, the addition of the new shelves at the base, just amps up the effect. Also gives an idea how tall those Nellies are!
Hi, Danny. I had several of the same issues which is why I went back to lava rock. Rinsing certainly helped, but I found that, because Seramis is brittle, it will always produce dust when agitated. Once I started noticing algae, as well, I decided I was done. But lava rock isn't perfect, either. I'm currently trying to figure out the best way to water all my orchids without soaking because of time constrains, and because soaking with fertilizer is pretty wasteful. Hopefully I'll get it figured out. As always, thanks for the insight.
Personally, I think the disassembled mini greenhouse shelf looks rather nice with the blooming orchids! 👍Although it does take up some space😐 It would be reasonable why the seramis or leca dust would affect the quantity of salts beacause in the manufacturing process of the media, it can get REALLY dusty so the spray it down water( which is most likely to be tap water) to reduce suffocation and silicosis😷 During the shipping, the media is packed in plastic so water can't evaporate meaning that it has time to absorb nasty salts and minerals. I really hope that this information has helped you someway. By the way, during the tds experiment, I noticed a branch sticking out from the left. Was it a hibiscus 🌺? ............future video?.... THANKS SOOOOO MUCH FOR THIS BEAUTIFUL VIDEO!! I LOOOVE SEING EXPERIMENTAL VIDEOS!!!😋
The inert media I have used without great results, on the other hand, I can tell you that the fiber of the palm tree in particular has given me greater fragrance and greater flowering
Hi Danni, the issue with your tds measurement and seramis could be, because there is added fertilizer in seramis. I'm from germany and they were advertising a few years ago, that the seramis is ready to use and you don't have to bother with fertilizing the first few weeks. At least the small seramis is, I'm not sure about the bigger one from orchitop. In this website ( www.floristik24.ch/seramis-pflanz-granulat-zimmerpflanzen-25l ) they say, that there is added K2O 135mg/l. In another website ( forum.hanfburg.de/fhb/showthread.php?t=277881, a rather strange forum haha ) a person says that seramis is fertilized with N: 7 mg/l, P2O5 : 13 mg/l and K2O : 120 mg/l, but does not say where he gathered the information from. So maybe it is a good idea to ask the seramis-team ( maybe you already did before. Then I'm just wasting your time :) Sorry about that! )
UPDATE: I wrote an email to Seramis yesterday, because I was not sure about the fertilizer thing. They just replied, that the normal Seramis is not fertilized. There is another version of it - the outdoor version - which is fertilized. Hope this helps.
Interesting. I've just taken delivery of a similar medium but it's grey instead. I'm guess I'll have to b careful not to water too much and let it dry out a bit.
Hello! TDS includes more than just salts. It includes anything disolved in water or any micro particles (dust) suspended in water. Sugar water for example doesn't have extra salts, but it would have a high TDS.
I do the leca beads overlay on seramis as well and it works fine to prevent algae formation, it is much better with the leca of ikea, which have a snoother surface than leca beads from other stores
I am also trying to figure out where to buy seramis in the US. I found some online, but the shipping charges are 5 times the cost of the seramis itself
The thing is, that this is not algae. Those are cyanobacteria (aka blue-green algae) and they are everywhere. It is very difficult to get rid of them, so the option you chose is probably the best. Another option would be to use aquarium medication for blue-green algae (never tried this on orchids though). And there's also erythromycin, but I don't know how orchids would react to that. And to add the problem of antimicrobial resistance... yeah, you get the idea. :)
Hello! Thanks for all what you do in benefit for us. Few days ago I saw a video with orchids repoting in leca. Just bought it and repoted with out any preparation... Now I se that it must be reansed and presouked. Should I repot orchids once more in well prepared leca? Thanks for all
Hey Danny! Great video! Could you share where you buy the chunky Seramis from? In Germany Seramis is just a brand dedicated to plant products, and they do manufacture this ceramic media, but only the small one. The big one is mixed with bark chips...
In aquariums, algae is typically a sign that something is out of balance. If there are too many nutrients for the plant to use effectively, algae takes advantage of the excess nutrients and thrives on it. I wonder if the reason some of the orchids have it and others don't is because of the different light and nutrient requirements of each plant.
Hi, in aquariums plants always have access to nutrients since they are always dissolved in water, thus maintaining water parameters and feeding is solely in our hands, from dosing, to co injection, to fish load, plant load, etc. In an orchid pot we deal with air and dryness, which messes up the balance, makes nutrients dry and unavailable, reacts with them and, if oxygen was not enough, there is no way to calculate how much to dose per volume of pot because there are too many variables. Orchid type, age, health, season, media etc, they all influence. Moreover there are no other plants to add to feed on excess :)) I sometimes think aquascaping was much easier than orchid growing, as I at least had close to full control. Not the case with orchids, thus algae are just one of things that result. But that's the fun of the game ;)
Hi Danny!!! Thank you for the extensive video, really helpful! Just one question..last year I switched most of my plants -hoyas/orchids/aroids- to leca+semihydro. This winter I find white, fluffy mold growing on the top layer of leca :/ How do I get rid of it? I feel like if i do nothing about it, it will take its toll on my plants by the time spring comes again.. Have you got any tips or advice? Thank you in advance! XO from Greece
Happy New Year! I use Semi Hydroponic pellets in clear pots with 2 draining holes according to other YOU TUBERS the orchid is not harmed just yukky looking my issue is not on the surface its at the bottom. . They suggested BIO SAFE are you familiar with this product its an algaecide? If I use it can I water the orchid or wait until it clears up it doesn't say , or what do you suggest.?? Thank You love your informative videos:}
Hey Danny! When you cut the "healthy" pseudobulbs from the fusarium infected orchids did they plump up once you put them in water. I had a really severe case and the only pseudobulb which seemed unaffected is not plumping up. Thanks for your help!
I'm curious if the algae was only on the smaller sizes Seramis or does the larger size also get it (the shown examples were both small size hence why I ask). Quite a helpful video Dani.
Hi Danny I can't find your video about new growth on sympodial orchids so i will just post my question here. :) Is it possible to control the sympodial orchids where to initiate thier new growth either on the left side or right side of the bulb? I asked because sometimes they tend to grow in the side where it almost closer to the edge of pot and later will grow out of the pot. thanks
Yeah, don't breathe that dust. That's essentially microscale glass dust. Once it gets into your lungs it doesn't come out. Also those look like salt stress on the tips. They use, I think, calcium carbonate to cause the glass to foam up as it sets. I'm sure the pH is high also.
Stephanie Miller IKEA sells them, but they don't ship online... have to buy in store. although you can find them on Amazon for about three times as much.
The initial expense is higher, but you can reuse seramis. You don't have to re-purchase when you re-pot, except if you are potting into a larger pot obviously, but at least you aren't having to replace the entire amount of medium. Also, you save in water.
My MAJOR problem is the acumumating salts because the roots keep burning. I watered a catasetum without fertilizer with rain water and the roots have gotten brown bloches. Im starting to get worried. Should I rinse the seramis because I have not done it so it might be the problem. I do till get root burn because I used fertilizer. Seramis is a manily love but with some hate relationship 😕😕
Glenda Urmacher My water is room temperatured. And the temperature is 27 degreed celcius. So the problem is propably the dust. And the brown bloch is in the middle of an roots. And its only on the surface.
