Orchids & Hydrogel Beads: The Positive and The Negative

Pros and Cons of Hydrogel Beads as an Orchid Potting Medium
Hydrogel beads (or water beads) have been used by florists for a long time to create orchid decorations to maintain the orchid stand in place for days on end. These beads are squishy, hard jelly-like balls, that resemble marbles. When wet, they expand to about a third of their size by retaining water. For a short-term potting medium, hydrogel beads are a life-saver, but not for long periods of time.
There are benefits of using hydrogel beads and also cons, so if you’re thinking about transferring your orchid, let’s looks at what can happen, both good and bad.
Overall, water beads are not good as orchid potting mediums in the long term even if they have a few positive attributes. Since they deprive your orchid of air movement and constantly maintain the roots wet, your orchid will eventually die.
Orchids prefer having moist roots, not soggy, wet ones. This consistent water around the roots that the hydrogel beads provide, induces root rot and will kill your orchid.
Orchids grow naturally attached to tress in the subtropical and tropical rainforest. This affects air circulation, lighting, pH, watering, and pollination-all that hydrogel beads cannot.
If you want the full explanation of this video in writing, go to orchideria.com/hydrogel-for-o...
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DISCLAIMER:
This CZcams Channel is the by-product of extensive research on how to recreate that environment inside my home.
By no means do I consider myself an expert but I'm an avid learner and willing to share the little I know with others. There are thousands of different ways to care for orchids, and the more we share, the more we learn.
What started out as a hobby has now grown into a passion, producing an online resource of quality information on how to connect with nature.
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[@daphneraven6745]

you know it seems to me that they don’t have to be all the way to the top of the container. Just like with Hydroponics.
The roots need to be able to touch the moisture, without being soaked and deprived of airflow.
We wouldn’t want the soil into which we plant something to be soggy like that either.
So maybe it’s just a matter of learning to use it properly.
I’m not much of a flower person, but I do like to grow veggies. Two weeks ago, I thought I’d start some alliums in that particular medium, but not tucked deep down into it.
put a single layer in a Chinese food container, the black plastic ones that get the clear snap on lid, and snagged the cloves and onion sets sort of near the top of the layer, and went away for a week and a half, not sure if I’d come back to something utterly rotten, or if it would work.
I put it in the window, and put a girl light on a timer since we don’t get much light on that side of the house, sometimes, and I came home two shoots that were some 8”/20cm tall.
No, the truth is, once we’re past the risk of frost, because it is only the middle of May, those will go out into the garden. There’s no intention to have them growing in that particular medium for the long term.
But so far, so good .
if you have a plant that needs to be snagged into a pot, it’s not a really difficult thing to get a pool noodle, or a sheet of soft Styrofoam, and cut a circle into which you put one snip, so you have like a doughnut with a cut into one side.
If you’re willing to do that, you can put it around the base of the stem, to hold the orchid or whatever other plant you have, in place.
I’ve done a lot of this. Not necessarily with water beads, but more with hydroponic solution.
Worked like a charm.

[@huan949]

Thank you so much for this video! I was just thinking out how to get light to those roots in the center of a pot and was thinking of those clear beads. Now thanks to your video, I know my orchid won’t appreciate those.

[@Orchideria]

Hi Huan, Thank you for commenting! I appreciate it. 🙏

[@alanaweaver8942]

I’m glad I watched this video before buying them.

[@Orchideria]

Hi Alana, Yeah, I hear you. Iit's such a deception when we find out that they just white.

[@ancientorchids]

4:51 "Is that a root or is that a spike!"....Leave me alone Amanda, I wanna know! 😂. I still can’t tell on some of my plants hahaha...I don’t touch them though, but I am tempted to do EXACTLY how you did there 😂😂😂

[@Orchideria]

Hi Daniel! I laughed so hard at your comment! 🤣😂🤣 Thanks for posting that

[@anniesama5729]

What would you say to mixing those beads in small amount to normal medium as a moisture regulator?

[@CUBETechie]

Can it be used for watering too?

[@JudyMcCreary-y9q]

Like

[@valleriewhite6164]

So what? It’s the aesthetics.

[@Nab_Suid]

Aesthetics doesn't mean to harm orchids anyway.

[@chevvy427]

She says herself that they're beautiful, this video is just addressing how effective they are as a watering solution :^)