How would you water sphag in baskets?

[vegetalmatter]

Not trying to overthink it, just want to get a sense of what everyone else would prefer to do

I have all of my phals potted in wood baskets with reasonably packed sphagnum. I go back and forth trying to decide between two watering habits. (I use a pump sprayer, RO water with 25ppm of k-lite every watering)

1. Drench the moss til it's sopping wet and not water again until it's completely dry (about every 2 or 3 days)

2. Spray the surface of the moss lightly and often to maintain even moisture

A list of my phals:

Phal. amboinensis
Phal. cornu-cervi var chattaladae
Phal. gigantea
Phal. bellina
Phal. hieroglyphica
Phal. lindenii
Phal. mariae
Phal. Meen Estrella (tetraspis x cornu-cervi)
Phal. pulchra (a free gift from Mr. Peter Lin of Big Leaf)
Phal. violacea var. alba
Phal. speciosa
Phal. zebrina

Some are larger plants and some are NBS seedlings. I would prefer to treat them all the same. Which of those two methods would you prefer and recommend??

[Mr.Fakename]

I think you can increase the ppm N a bit more, considering Sphagnum retains nutrients.

My Phal get around 250 ppm N every two weeks, they seem to appreciate and don't show fertiliser burns.

The way you water comes really down to personal preference, a dry cycle every 2/3 days seems pretty nice.
I tend to spray the surface daily when humidity is low, it helps with new roots!

[estación seca]

If it's warm enough to dry within 2-3 days I would continue the soaking. If your growing area cools down in winter I wouldn't soak sphagnum then.

[Ray]

Sphagnum in a basket will dry pretty rapidly. In my experience, phals prefer an even level of moisture - neither sopping nor dry.

I disagree with the higher dosage of fertilizer, especially if you’ll be watering every few days. If the medium retains the nutrients well, you want to apply a low concentration.

We must keep in mind, however, that MrFakename’s 250 ppm N every two weeks isn’t really that much different from 25 ppm N every other day.

[Mr.Fakename]

Originally Posted by Ray

If the medium retains the nutrients well, you want to apply a low concentration.

We must keep in mind, however, that MrFakename’s 250 ppm N every two weeks isn’t really that much different from 25 ppm N every other day.

Oh yeah for sure Ray, I also feed them in small quantities but regularly, and didn't say 250 is THE thing to go by.
My thinking is that 25 * 7 = 175 ppm N, and part of that is going to be sequestrated. So increasing a tad could make up for it.

The unknown data is how much the moss absorbs/loses every time it's drenched and how much it gives back when saturated.
It might be interesting checking with a TDS meter.

The wonderful things about Phal is their ability to reuse nutrients from old leaved before clearly suffering from deficiency, so as long as they look healthy, I guess it's not something to be concerned about.

[Roberta]

I have found that my Phal species do much better in baskets than in pots. (Hybrids do fine in pots, they're more domesticated) I grow all of the Phals in the greenhouse, quite humid, so that affects how they react for me. I use sphag in small baskets, small to medium bark in larger ones. This seems to give the effect of similar moisture/drying for all. The roots end up escaping the baskets - the medium gives them the moisture they need, but they can reach out for the air as well. (I do mount a few, but it's harder to maintain moisture on those, and since they tend to grow roots in all directions, the basket approach seems to be preferable) Fertilizer is really light... when I get around to it every couple of weeks, from a pump sprayer so not much then. They (and the other orchids) don't seem to miss it. Maybe they'd be bigger with more but they grow and bloom fine.

[Ray]

Originally Posted by Mr.Fakename

The unknown data is how much the moss absorbs/loses every time it's drenched and how much it gives back when saturated.
It might be interesting checking with a TDS meter.

I agree. "Pieces" of bark, CHC, perlite, and LECA are much more straightforward than strands of something when it comes to imagining a mechanism.