Hygrolon

I'd like to know this as well. My guess would be with consistent watering and monitoring it would work.

 

I just received a shipment from Folius.net, I got 2 small mounts and a sheet of the material.
I will be using the material as a wrapping around mire traditional mounting material, I want it to help hold moister during warm season, I have low RH here and I find that watering often and using a mist system helps. This might hold more moister and longer then moss or coco fiber.

I grow several different types of orchids, several outdoors in the Los Angeles Area, I also have a small greenhouse, so I am going to experiment with this product and I will post more treads with pictures.

I am thinking the material could act as a sort of thermal blanket for the plant protecting the plant and root from cold or heat?

 

I would think it would aid more in cooling because of the evaporative effect.

 

Interesting. Please let us know of the tests you are going to conduct, the progress and overall results along the way. I want to learn more about this product and its potential uses!

 

I would tend to agree with Keithrs on the evaporative effect based on my own knowledge, but all is open to experiment. Let us know if this works or what outcomes may come.

 

I'm wondering if Hygrolon holds onto fertilizer salts? Usually with evaporation of fertilizer solution comes high amounts of salt retention.

 

I have orchids on mounts with Hygrolon and I will try to answer some of the concerns above.

For cooling/heating, you get a cooling effect from evaporation. The effect depends on how much water is evaporated and how fast but I see a drop of a few degree Centigrade in my drip wall cabinet when the RH is around 70%.

For fertilizer salts, it hold salts as any material . But I think that the open structure make the salts easy to rince away! This is though a long term issue that need several year to evaluete. I have grown in it for about 6 month and have not seen any problem. No deposits and no detoriating effects of the capability to transport water.

I will try to take some pictures on root growth later today, meanwhile you can look at this old picture of a Bulbophyllum.

/Magnus

 

Here you have some more pictures on orchid roots in Hygrolon. These orchids are mounted on hygrolon glues to Epiweb and I have them in my large orchid cabinet and water them by hand. (Not in the my cabinet with drip wall)


The same Bulbophyllum as above, now with one more growth:


Sophronitis wittigiana (at least bought as such...), the dead roots was like that when mounted.


Dendrobium gregulus:


And Sophronitis cernua with much thicker roots, you can clearly see that the root follows the material and grow in the space between the two hydrofilic cloth.


®

 

And this is a picture of a masdevallia sp. You can see how the roots go straight into the hygrolon witout hesitation. This plant is grown in my "drip wall orchid cabinet". The picture has a ugly color cast but shows the growth habit nicely.

 

Short answer, when I remember...
Long answer, under my condition in a dry appartment far up in the north every second or third day.
I have used Epiweb as my main substrate and transfered the specie that showed the need for more water to hygrolon mounts and continue to water as before (by drenching the mounts when watered). What I can observe is that the hygrolon holds more water long enough for most moved specie to do better.

/M

 

I recently bought a piece of Hygrolon, and acquired some domestically produced samples of similar materials, and did some testing.

After cutting swatches of equal size, I immersed them in RO water for 30 seconds, the suspended them vertically for another 30 (I figure that's probably the most common use orientation, so the best test), and got some interesting results:



The G1 and G4 samples held the most water, but the first was so thin, that in terms of the mass of water held, it's low, so probably would take a lot of watering. I am working with the manufacturer to come up with a brown color version of the G4 fabric (the sample was white), and it may be available in the next few weeks.

Anyone got a suggestion for a brand name?

 

Marni,

I have always had a great deal of respect for you, but your espousal based up incorrect, nonfactual information, makes me reconsider.

The fact is that the Epiweb I sold was purchased from Mikael. Some he supplied from Sweden, and some he arranged to have shipped to me from a factory in the US - the exact same product.

Unfortunately, he became extremely poor at servicing his customers. When that factory shipped me the wrong product, instead of rectifying it, he dumped that on me.

At one point, it took him seven months to fill an order. Later, when he stopped responding to requests for product at all, I offered to purchase it directly from the factory, and pay him his markup, and I never heard a word back from him - for months and months. That struck me as abandonment, so I went ahead with the direct purchases.

A short time later, Mikael changed from the original black material to a brown version, and claimed I was selling "fake" Epiweb. The fact that much of my inventory at the time was stuff he sent me was apparently irrelevant, and hardly "fake".

At that point, I decided to follow suit with the different trade name, and he and I agreed to part company. Same materials, made at the same factory. It is apparently viewed that way - the same - still, as I am exporting the material to Europe, reportedly because he treats his distributors there equally "well". After he and I parted ways, he had a new US distributor that no longer carries his products, for similar reasons. I wish Folius a lot of luck.

I recently purchased an Epiweb "branch" for use in a terrarium, only to discover that it is now sort of an orangy color, and not very natural looking. I suppose that means that the brown Epiweb is now "fake"?

So now, I see Hygrolon as a good idea, just as I did when Mikael came out with Epiweb - and am seeking to improve upon it. I believe that's called "competition". (I also know of a source of the identical "Hygrolon" material for about 5% of the cost, but won't share the information, as that would simply be a way of ruining his market, and I don't like that approach to doing business.) You can call it what you will - and you can call me what you will - but I would ask that you have the decency to know the facts first.

 

OK. You wish to remain defamatory despite reality.

That's an interesting take on "moderator".

 

Gosh!
If you can´t find a name for a generic product you obviously have not the creativity to develope things for yourself!

 

Oh, I should not use "generic" (as in generic medicin) as it is not the same material as Hygrolon!