drilling the holes with the plant in the pot lol, enjoying the chaotic energy recently

bro doing all the experiments we’re too scared to do☠️

I would love to see more videos like this. There is so much plant advice being echoed on the internet, but it's rarely put to the test. A good example that I see all the time is that some plants like to be rootbound. I started an experiment almost exactly a year ago with seed grown monsteras and I've found the opposite to be the case. The one that was always in a pot that was deemed 'too big' grew faster and bigger than the ones that were allowed to become rootbound before repotting. It even got a leaf with inner fenestrations within just 10 months after sowing.

Techplant is one of the most underrated channels on KZfaq. Great stuff, keep it up!

I dont care what anyone says. My mom has had an orchid for 2 years now and only puts 3 icecubes every Sunday to water it lol. The plant consistantly has bloomed for the last 2 years. Blooms last for months! Easy peasy 💚

A major point that rarely come up when discussing about watering your orchid with ice cube is that people have different plant goals when they get an phalaenopsis orchid. For some they might be getting one for display, and its ok for the plant to be disposed when the flowers fade, even if the plant itself is perfectly healthy. For those people and for those the plant is highly replaceable, watering with ice cube is perfectly fine. For others they might be getting one to start their orchid collection journey, and would like to use phalaenopsis as a starting point because they are cheaply available and fairly forgiving in terms of care, and they would go on to tackle more challenging orchids after they had more experience, watering with ice cube is not a good advice. Ultimately plant care is a self learn journey where you get to set your goal, and figure out what works best for you.

I was curious exactly how much water the orchids really get. It didn’t seem to get any water. Like it dried up before the orchid could take it up.

I don’t know how easy it would be to test but I’d like to know the truth on using cinnamon on cuttings. I also heard someone say they dip cuttings in black tea. Oh also what about charcoal mixed into our soil, does it actually make a difference?

One time I was in a hardware store looking for LECA since it had a small gardening section. One of the employees started talking to me and asked “do you know how to water orchids?” I said “you just pour water into the pot”, cuz that’s how I water mine. He said “No. You use ice cubes!” In my head I was like…wow. People actually believe that? Didn’t say it out loud of course. I guess the “Just Add Ice” brand or whatever really did succeed in their marketing. Anyway. Thanks for another good video!

love these videos! they're super useful and challenges me to think more critically about these sorts of preconceived notions.

I love the genius person inside you !! Keep it up bruh 😎

Love your channel and all your videos so much! It satisfies my scientific curiosity and makes my heart happy! Hope y’all are doing great and loving extra on that new baby!

Idea for an experiment: What is the best way to convert a new plant from growing in soil til growing in semi-hydroponics? I've been trying a few different methods: 1) removing all soil from the existing roots and just putting it in the semi-hydro. 2&3) chopping off all the roots a basically propagating the whole plant in either semi-hydro of full hydro. I've had varying results with all 3 methods. It may also depend on the type of plant... If anyone has tips/experiences both bad and good I'd love to hear them! (I especially struggle with begonias...)

Love this kind of experiential video. It's always easy to talk about, but hard to try and test it.

I’d be interested in more on orchids and ice cubes. I have lots of phals and I mainly water with ice cubes, and they’re doing really good. 1-4 cubes a week or so, depending on size of pot and how dry it’s gotten, with a soak every couple of months. I don’t notice any damage on the leaves or roots where the ice has sat. Been doing this well over a year. One of them (Home Depot schilleriana hybrid I'd guess) bloomed continuously for a year and a few months and then re-bloomed a month or so after that bloom died- so it's definitely happy. As a Californian, I can’t afford (morally or financially) to run water through each of my 20 pots for 5 minutes each waiting for the bark to absorb the water. Sometimes I soak them all in the same bowl of water, but this seems like a great way to spread pests or pathogens. The ice melts slowly so it seems to saturate things rather than run right through. Also, throwing some ice cubes on each one takes 5 minutes, gathering them all and soaking them, waiting for them to dry, and putting them back would take like an hour and need more cleaning afterwards. Phals are pretty rugged plants. Other orchids might be less forgiving. I have a dendrobium and a maltonia (I think?) that also seem pretty satisfied with this system.

Now I know what to do with the ice cubes that fall on the floor when I'm trying to fill my water bottle.

thank you sir for your service

Very useful information with ice about the flowers my dear friend ❤

Yay to you!❤

I feel like any real damage would be from ice cubes directly touching the roots, this likely wouldnt be testable unless you watered the orchid with ice cubes for a few weeks and see if there is any root death.

Sir, you know my Big Mama Orchid - you called it bush. Which is actually, still a compliment. Anyway, for you and the viewers I crafted this saying: You can grow an Orchid in a pot with I-Pads as long as the moisture is correct.

I thought people were putting ice on their plants to slowly water them. In my mind, it was piling a bunch of ice onto the soil so that it would melt slowly, adding water over time. That would mean your experiment should happen with the plant getting heavily iced sitting where it usually sit. The concern then is that the cold is damaging the plant.

THANK YOU for following up on this, it ended EXACTLY how I knew it would. Sometimes there are those who just like to argue. 🙄 I agree also that the ice cube technique is for those who got one as a gift and don't want to over or under water. It just works. Thanks for proving yet another experiment.

Hey, Tech!! Another entertaining & informative video! I hope you & the family are well, especially with a newborn on the way! I’m having some problems with a couple common calatheas. I accidentally purchased both the ornata & orbifolia blindly a month ago (I know, pray for me) & it’s been a huge learning curve. I’d love to see how they fare in different light conditions, and with filtered vs. distilled water. I’m curious if they adjust better to your home humidity, or if they’d rather an indirect feed of humidity or maybe a cloche. There is a wide variety of tips out there but what I’m gathering is it’s best to leave them alone to adjust… but if you’re down to sacrifice some of your own in the name of PlantTube, I’m sure many would appreciate it!

I wonder if it really would be more detrimental to use an ice cube in those really small orchid plants you see in grocery stores in the spring. Since there’s less substrate to help regulate the temperature.

love the experiments!

Hi, friend! I saw the distilled water jug and I wanted to ask if you water with it regularly. My husband has medical equipment that requires distilled water and I got upset at the number of bottles we were putting into the recycling each week. I looked around and found that countertop distillers were a thing and then dove into reviews to find the best one for our needs. We’ve had ours for about 8 months now and I’m really pleased with it overall. Ours is a one gallon distiller and we use a 5 gallon jug to store the water for med equipment, humidifiers, and making plant nutrient solutions. We have a cheap rechargeable pump topper that fits the top of the 5 gallon jug and use that to fill whatever container we need. 👍 I’d definitely think a countertop distiller company would love some pub in the plant community. 🤔👍

interesting!! thanks for sharing!

Nice experiment 👍

I spose if you put the ice cube onto the substrate and not onto the roots it would be fine. I’m assuming the roots wouldn’t want direct contact with ice. Phil Orchids are crazy hardy

Interesting. Watering with ice just seems gimmicky and lazy to me and most phalaenopsis are cheap and seen as fairly disposable.

Very beautiful flowers my dear friend ❤

What about the ice cube sitting directly on a root? Doing that for every watering will burn the velamen. I think that may be the reason not to do it.

I have only been growing orchids for a couple of years but I am KZfaq educated (which means I have heard all kinds of opinions). I never put an ice cube in my orchid pot even when I knew nothing about orchids. It is ignorant to freeze a tropical plant on a regular basis. Not all orchids are potted the same. If the roots are close to the top ice can do damage to those roots. I think why these big time orchid growers recommend ice cubes is more to keep people from overwatering the plant. Still, two ice cubes would not adequately water a growing orchid over several weeks time.

Can we get a lemon tree update pls?

Next video be like "Using lava soil for my anthuriums"

it would take quite a bit of setup, but if you want to go for the holy grail of plant myths, i feel like you'd have some fun tackling the ol' "do plants purify the air?" question

Freezing ice, popping ice out seems a lot more work than just I dunno running orchids through the tap lol

I'm yet to try a orchid, have to do my research 😂

Can you also please do a test on whether or not hydrogen peroxide is safe or damaging on orchid roots? I know there’s a lot of debate over this. 😂

🤯

Love your videos commenting for the algo lol

Have you tried using the gold fertilizer technique? After my dad got complimented for his healthy looking flowers, he responded awkwardly and changed the subject when they asked what the secret was. When we were alone i asked him what the secret was and he just responded "gold". Would love to hear about your experience, if you have any, and what ratio you use for your gold blend. My dad mixes 1 part gold to 9 parts water.

If you put the cube on roots it will burn them

mrs orchid girl needs to see this

My grandmother always put icecubes in her plants. I think people go a little nuts sometimes babying their plants

I mean, there’s a reason there’s a bunch of old ladies saying they’ve been watering with ice cubes for decades and their orchids are thriving. 🤷‍♀️ Proof is in the pudding as they say.

Free Palestine 🇵🇸

Hahaha brooo stop fidgeting with the thermometers😂 if you want any reliable results, you need to exclude that any changes could happen from your fidgeting lol.