I also saw the other pics. If you zoom in closely, you can see fat aphids. Those white flakes are their exoskeletons they shed when maturing.

Get some neem oil and silicate, that will get rid of them and make the plant more resistant for upcoming generations of the pest.

Jep. I had this one for exactly one year now in semi-hydro.

The old roots rotted off, and new ones from fresh bulbs formed and adapted to the new conditions :) It’s thriving now! ✨

Fungus gnats are, as the name suggests, attracted by fungi.
Soil works by releasing nutrients when it decomposes, mainly by fungi.
Therefore, you have to get rid of soil as a substrate. No soil, no problems.

There are quite a few soil-less media out there.

The most common one is coco coir.
It behaves quite similar to soil, so you don’t have to change anything regarding how you water etc.

You have to pre-treat it sometimes however, or else it might harm your plant. If you don’t wanna do that, get hydroponic grade and not the cheap one.

My substrate of choice is LECA (expaned clay balls). The method is called “semi-hydro”. The inner pot is submerged 1/3 into nutrient solution, and you have a water level indicator that tells you when to water again.

Pon is also popular. It behaves like a mix of the two above.
It’s a mix of zeolith, pumice and lava rock.

The said substrates are all inert however, so they don’t absorb or contain any nutrients. You have to use synthetic, full spectrum fertilizer for hydroponics.

Additional, I have a few carnivorous plants around. Pinguicula are my favourite, since they are super easy to take care of.

Nepenthes are also amazing if you have the light and RO water for them :)

my dirty secret is I always have some gnat infestation

I would say they count more as pets 🥸 They aren’t really that damaging for plants. They are more of a side effect of fungal decomposition, mostly anaerobic conditions due to overwatering, root rot or the wrong substrate.

What substrate do you use? Soil? If so, maybe try another substrate (coco coir, LECA, pon, etc.) and synthetic fertiliser. They are inert and don’t compose, so they don’t attract gnats.

im guessing the boiling water did the trick?

It was mostly out of hate 😤

sucks you lost all your plants, I would have been devistated, im so sorry :(

I’m glad it were just a few, and not much of worth for me.

But I learnt something.

1. Don’t put houseplants outside, especially not onto the ground or when it rains
2. LECA (expanded clay balls) are perfect homes for slugs. It’s constantly moist, and the gaps between the balls are a perfect shelter 🥴

Make sure you don’t bring any pests inside. I did that once and thought it was a good idea.

Spoiler: it wasn’t. Some slugs got into my substrate (expanded clay balls) and ate all roots. I couldn’t get rid of them and then decided to pour boiling water into the pots because the plants were dead anyway 🤷

Great writeup, thanks!

Aren’t you worried about the moisture damaging the wooden frame?

Also, !hydroponics@slrpnk.net would make a great addition!

No change.

EDIT: Fixed! Thanks a lot!

Instead of painting, you could try etching.

I don’t have any particular acid or lye in mind, as I never tried it, but that might be a good option.

I know it works for steel and some other metals like bronze, tin or copper, so maybe it also works for aluminium too?

You could cross-post this to !hydroponics@slrpnk.net if you want :)

I pretty much only find spider mites on already weak and highly stressed plants and only nearby windows.

Do you have them in soil? AFAIK they can only lay their eggs in organic substrates.

Systemic pesticides also do wonders when needed.

Still great to hear experiences from others! ✌️

Some phals need a slight temperature drop or photoperiod shift to bloom. Most supermarket orchids, yours most probably included, are ultra complex hybrids that are everblooming and don’t care much about that. Still, it might help.

The most obvious reason they don’t bloom tho is a lack of sunlight. Blooming costs A LOT of energy and doesn’t give the plant anything back. Give it LOTS of diffused light.

People (most often the seller itself) say they don’t need much light, but that’s total BS. They might survive, but not thrive.

Mine are usually behind a shear curtain (blocks half the light and diffuses it) on a SW window. VERY bright.

IMPORTANT:

• Don’t move them too suddenly when they’ve adapted to dark conditions
• Observe the temperature of the leaves. They can get hot fast. In my climate they don’t burn, but they quickly will when they get direct sun for too long.

They will quickly adapt to the new lighting conditions.

Show me a few pics of yours. Include some pictures of the roots and the leaves please, so I can help you troubleshoot.

Nutrients are usually not the primary issue. But they might. If they are, you’ll (or I) see it by the looks.

Kinda looks like this

Instead of soil (decomposing organic stuff), you use expanded clay balls, pumice, lava rock, or whatever inorganic porous material you prefer. I like LECA by far the most.

The medium is fully inert and can be heat sterilized and reused again indefinitely.

The inner pot is standing a few centimetres deep in nutrient solution (water with fertiliser), with a floating indicator that tells you when the pot is soon empty again. Due to the porous nature of the balls the nutrient solution is wicked up passively and held constantly moist with a lot of air gaps in between.

I only need to water every few weeks usually, need to repot very rarely, don’t have pests and the plants are universally loving it!

Thanks! ❤️

More pics will follow soon!

I have 5 or more orchids right now with a flower spike or buds already forming, that will bloom in less than a few weeks!

Then it needs more light. Flower/ fruit formation requires lots of energy

Android apps run via Waydroid?

You usually can access the settings from the status bar, can’t you?

Do you keep them indoors all the time?

How do you handle the very high sunlight and hibernation requirements?

Switching from a GNOME OS to a KDE OS or vice versa is problematic.

I did that a few times already on different installs and never had any problems, besides the window decorations/ theming being off and needing to set them again. What issues could be expected?

Cool thing is you can rebase anytime to any other flavour you want with one command and keep everything that’s yours!

You can use Ventoy and burn even more isos on it, for example rescue distros, Windows, etc.