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Self-watering pots DIY test
I have one Miltoniopsis and one Oncidopsis. I bought both at the orchid show in 2017. The Oip had spider mites and some kind of bacterial infection, it struggled for about two years. The Mps, I can't remember if it was sick or just unhappy. I bought 2 from the same vendor and the other one had orange rot. This one was growing but very slowly and aborted a few growths and one spike.
Anyway, neither of them was doing well in seramis/LECA, they just weren't growing quickly and the Mps just wasn't growing roots. I had a hard time keeping the medium moist enough. Small pots are harder to keep up with. In desperation I put them in sphagnum and they are both doing a lot better. Very well, in fact, but I don't want to keep them in sphagnum because I hate repotting fine-rooted orchids that have been in sphagnum. They are in shallow sphagnum right now, because they had no roots when I potted them, but it's very hard to keep up with watering now, so they need to be repotted.
I really want to avoid putting them in more sphagnum so I am going to try putting them in pure seramis in a self-watering pot. I bought a length of hydroponic wick to test my concept. I took an empty 3" DIY pot, put a wick in it, and filed it with seramis, then I put it on top of a cachepot with some water (works as a small reservoir.) I put it in at 7, by 9 the water was halfway up the seramis, and by midnight it was almost all the way to the top. Some of the top layer was wet so I would call this a success. I hope that this keeps the seramis moist and keeps the plants cool. Mps like to be moist and cool.
I think I will put my M. tenuifolias in a similar setup, to see how they do. Others have done them in SH so it should work.
Anyway, neither of them was doing well in seramis/LECA, they just weren't growing quickly and the Mps just wasn't growing roots. I had a hard time keeping the medium moist enough. Small pots are harder to keep up with. In desperation I put them in sphagnum and they are both doing a lot better. Very well, in fact, but I don't want to keep them in sphagnum because I hate repotting fine-rooted orchids that have been in sphagnum. They are in shallow sphagnum right now, because they had no roots when I potted them, but it's very hard to keep up with watering now, so they need to be repotted.
I really want to avoid putting them in more sphagnum so I am going to try putting them in pure seramis in a self-watering pot. I bought a length of hydroponic wick to test my concept. I took an empty 3" DIY pot, put a wick in it, and filed it with seramis, then I put it on top of a cachepot with some water (works as a small reservoir.) I put it in at 7, by 9 the water was halfway up the seramis, and by midnight it was almost all the way to the top. Some of the top layer was wet so I would call this a success. I hope that this keeps the seramis moist and keeps the plants cool. Mps like to be moist and cool.
I think I will put my M. tenuifolias in a similar setup, to see how they do. Others have done them in SH so it should work.