I'm not Ron, but I've been unimpressed with orchid growth on them so far. They stay quite wet, and I've actually rotted Lepanthes mounted to them
I've wondered about that since I saw the one guy's setup where he trickles water down the Hygrolon panels - how do they not rot for him? While I'm not sure, I suspect that Utrics in growth mode will not have an issue with the wetness. When I've propagated U. james or campby on slabs, one of the first things they do is send roots down into the water or at least to the bottom of the slab where it will be most wet. Once they have water taken care of, they can proceed to take over the rest of the area. On the
jamesoniana treefern slab that I placed in the auction, the plant grew down to the bottom and then used it's roots like stilts to keep the tubers away from the mostly-constant moisture down there.
Hey Ron, any progress on the synthetic slabs? How are those working for you? I think I have enough to start propagating campbelliana and was wondering if you've had a positive experience thus far
Well, the jury is still out. Nothing really counts until I've gone through a rest period (or 2) since that's when I typically lose a plant. The two campby tubers I placed on the Hygrolon over epiweb slab ended up fading away. However, this has been my experience each time I've tried to propagate with naked tubers -- so I can't really say it was the fault of the Hygrolon slab. I have better luck with roots than I do with tubers. Roots with leaves are better & roots with leaves & tubers are golden. Sadly, the mother plant has been in a very slow growth mode & I've been unable to get another reasonable root or root/tuber combo. The root of the U. jamesoniana that I placed on the Hygrolon over closed-cell foam has taken off & is currently growing like a weed.
Hopefully I can get a campby piece soon for the Hygrolon/epiweb slab (LOL - I should have snatched the long dangling root off the one in the auction)
U. campbelliana slab (formerly) on left, U. jamesoniana on right (generating lots of leaves & new tubers)
In addition, here's a campby on treefern (left) & a young hybrid I made (U. asplundii x U. jamesoniana -- hopefully) - (I also have several growing in LFS)
I previously mentioned that I had some U. humboldtii & U. quelchii stalks coming along. I had some bad news with both. The 2nd humbo flower never fully developed & the 1st fell off before I got decent pics (I took one quick snapshot - see below). The quelchii put up 3 stalks - however the 1st wilted when the buds got a bit over 1 cm. A few days later, the 2nd did the same thing. This has never happened with any other utrics that I can recall - major bummer. However, now that I was resigned to the 3rd also wilting - it didn't (a few pics below).
U. humboldtii (windowsill plant)
U. quelchii
++++++ Sunday edit/add
Took the U. quelchii out for pollination & found another stalk that was buried & unable to get out - LOL
Two more pics in a better light