Seeing how a lot of people grow their phrags in trays/saucers of water, and I can not have a gazillion trays of water sitting around( I have to run a dehumidifer in the winter) .
It was defeating the dehumidifier to keep trays of water sitting around soooo my ingenious hubby said let's try 'Barko' which is the same principal as Semi Hydro only instead of the hydro-pebbles we use the bark mix we pot our paphs with ,only we put it in a semi-hydro conatiner with the 2 drain holes on the side.
Same principal...and the phrags LOVE it , as you can see from the roots in the picture ! I have phrags in semi hydro-rocks and this ,and I have better root growth with 'BARKO' ...cheaper too !
http://static.flickr.com/72/199885132_eaddbb8674.jpg

Heheheh BARKO, I love it! You are full of great original terms. First the Schnoodle and now this! Thanks for the info! :cool:

Great info! :cool:

I think it is a good idea but my concern with constantly wet organic medium is the breakdown rate is so much faster. I personally like the expanded clay pellets because they never breakdown and it is a breeze to pot up. The roots hold most of the pellets together. The downside of the pellets is that a specimen size Phrag weighs a ton! Make sure that you change the potting mix on yours at least once a year and please keep us informed on how it is going.

I had a couple of phrags in bark doing the S/H method but I found the bark broke down too quickly and the plants suffered. Please keep us posted on how yours do. I would like to try it again but I'm afraid to. I'm interested in seeing how yours do in time.

Grandma

That is great root growth but I, like Ron and Grandma, would be concerned that the bark would break down very quickly in the S/H environment. Please keep us updated.

e-spice

Will do..keep your fingers crossed because I am a chronic underwaterer even with SH...not good for phrags, so I am hoping to do better with this. Time will tell.....