Poll: future culture for Phal taenialis (or honghenensis)

[tmoney]

a few of you commented on my last post about this plant, and i greatly appreciate all the input! but im really torn now on what to do with it. given what i learned from that thread, i think a couple options would suit. we would very much appreciate a letter vote, and if you perhaps care to provide a written justification for your vote, then all the better!

a. traditional bark mix
b. mount
c. semi-hydroponics
d. terrarium plant
e. another option i ain’t thinking of

ill do what the consensus is, unless I disagree 😆🤷🏻*♂️

tl;dr what culture for a deciduous small Phal? many thanks!

ps- the horn is still growing after a couple days, but the cleft in the lip is starting to develop nicely!

[Andrew-L]

C

Reason is bark will decompose. I'm wishing now I wouldn't have repotted mine in a bark/leca mixture and just went full leca after moving my plants outside.

Also Ray mentioned repotting phals semi hydro in a large pot, not a small one. This allowed space for air roots to actually grow into the medium instead of just hanging out in the air, giving the plant more support

[Mr.Fakename]

Like with many orchids, there's no definitive right or wrong.

I got 2 in small bark, 2 in S/H, 1 mounted and 1 in pure living Sphagnum; and they're all doing perfectly fine.

That said, deciduous Phal come from various environments, so doing your homework and understanding what they like is a good idea.
I believe honghenensis is a highland species and doesn't tolerate warm temps. Evaporative cooling of S/H might be the best option.

[WaterWitchin]

Phal taenialis is a cool grower. I'd go with semi-hydro for the evaporative cooling effect, as MrFakeName mentions.

Having said that, and it being a harder plant to source, I would take care to repot to SH at the opportune time as opposed to just moving it over at any time like a hybrid phal.

[Orchidtinkerer]

Fakename has given you the best answer.
The plant will grow in all of those, just depends which suits your time best.
I use pebbles with my warm growers and cool growers and would not say I have ever seen a difference making me think cool growers do better in pebbles than warm growers though so I would never use the argument that pebbles are ideal for cool growers - in fact in a european versus other climate it might even theoretically be detrimental but I have not found this to be the case and my warm growers grow in pebbles just as well as my cool growers because although technically what WW says is correct I think it will apply more in a warm climate where the heat will cause evaporation, in a cool winter climate there will be far less evaporation so the pebbles will not be any colder than the surrounding air it is in.

Even if a warm environment based on my research on temps the evaporative cooling in a very hot environment (30 degrees +) would not be more than 0.2 degrees C

and as a ps moss would cause the same evaporative cooling as clay pebbles would.

So the only argument that could be used is that stones "feel" colder than moss because they can conduct heat better thus can conduct heat away from the roots faster but pebbles are not that conductive to have a noticebale difference and the reason stones conduct heat away from hands is because we have heat to pass on, roots will be the same temp as the surrounding air they are grown in so will have no heat to conduct..

[tmoney]

thanks for the input all!

so two clear for s/h and maybe ill go with that. either way not doing anything till at least it’s done flowering. gives some time to try and find a nice glass to drill on

it is actively growing about 3 new roots, so we need to do a bit more research an figure out when would be best, but really wanna get it out of the nursery mossbark asap

[Andrew-L]

Wear safety glasses while drilling the glass!!! You could try heating with a torch and blowing holes with a straw also

[WaterWitchin]

Originally Posted by tmoney

thanks for the input all!

so two clear for s/h and maybe ill go with that. either way not doing anything till at least it’s done flowering. gives some time to try and find a nice glass to drill on

it is actively growing about 3 new roots, so we need to do a bit more research an figure out when would be best, but really wanna get it out of the nursery mossbark asap

The actively growing roots is best time to move. You've done semi-hydro before it appears?

[tmoney]

Originally Posted by WaterWitchin

The actively growing roots is best time to move. You've done semi-hydro before it appears?

yo ww, i was also thinking that it looked like a good time to move, minus the flowers! and, becuase its now become one of my favorites, i want to find a really nice home for it which i dont have right now. while ive not called it semi-hydro before, i have done similar treatments to other plants in the past so at least im comfortable with the overall mechanics of the system. and i also like the scientific aesthetic of hydroponics, so im leaning towards this...but, we shall see! the girlfriend has veto rights on all my plant decisions, so this is not unilateral! Hahahaha

[WaterWitchin]

And what's the girlfriend's opinion on medium, or when to transfer? Or is more of an esthetics thing?