phal memoria val rettig (blue peloric) care questions

[Nicolasdperez]

I recently purchased a beautiful phal memoria val rettig, however I am having issues finding adequate information regarding the care. I was told it was a sequential bloomer; I have heard that psychopsis, the only other sequential bloomer I know of, can have their stems live for several years and I was wondering if the same is the case for this little phal. Additionally, I was wondering if it is sensitive to repotting and how often it should be fertillized.

[estación seca]

You can look up the ancestry of registered orchid hybrids at OrchidRoots. It used to be called Blue Nanta but now Blue Nanta is expanding into other kinds of plants, and the organization has put all the orchids on the OrchidRoots Web site.

Once you know the ancestral species, you can look them up at the Internet Orchid Species Encyclopedia (IOSPE). There is information there about climate and light level.

Color forms and peloric forms take the same care as normal forms. Realize many orchid names have been changed by taxonomists (scientists who study how organisms are related to each other.) At the time it was registered your plant was called a Doritaenopsis, because some of the ancestors were in genus Doritis. But Doritis is now considered to be Phalaeopsis. OrchidRoots has entries for this plant under both names, but points out it is now a Phal.

Your plant is 75% Phal. pulcherrima (formerly Doritis pulcherrima) and 25% Phal parishii.

This kind of Phal flowers once from a stem, then the stem usually dies. If there are bracts near the base of the stem, from which nothing ever grew, there is a chance another flowering branch will come from under the bract. But this does not always happen, and usually you will need to wait until the next flowering season. I don't remove old flowering stems until they turn brown, for this reason.

There are Phals that flower sequentially for months to years. They produce new buds on the tips of the stems. This is not one of those Phals.

Both parents prefer being warm to hot. I have found Phal. pulcherrima hybrids can take very cool winter temperatures in the house if they are very dry at the roots.

As for repotting and fertilizing, it can be treated like other Phals. They can be repotted at any time of the year. I prefer to wait until it is warm. They do better with regular small amounts of fertilizer whenever it is warm enough for them to grow.

[Nicolasdperez]

Once again, I thank you for all of your thorough answers; this has been very helpful to me. Have a good day

---------- Post added at 07:07 PM ---------- Previous post was at 06:39 PM ----------

After doing some more research on phals, I learned that they are lithophytes. Would this mean that they are a good contender for semi-hydro? It seems like the aeration and water supply would somewhat replicate its natural environment.

[Roberta]

Many people on this forum grow Phals very successfully in semi-hydro. They may grow lithophytically (not really so much growing on rocks as rooting into crevices where there is water and organic matter), or epiphytically. Whichever they do, they need lots of air around the roots - more "humid air" than "wet" . Semi-hydro is a great way to accomplish that. The one caution with regard to that approach is that evaporation of water can lead to too much cooling - they do like warmth. Depending on the temperature of your growing area, seedling heat mats can be useful. So just keep temperature in mind when you're choosing a location and technique.

[Shadeflower]

all orchids are sensitive to repotting and one should expect to lose flowers as a result of doing so - this does not mean all repots will stress a plant to lose flowers but one should expect it.
Switching from bark to hydroponics will further add stress initially. With Orchids nothing should be rushed. Yes it would do fine in hydroponics or semi-hydro but I would give it a couple of months to settle in from the shop first.
The moss and roots look in good shape but you need to be aware of how much water moss can hold. Think of a kitchen sponge, if you take a wet kitchen sponge and squeeze it a lot of water will come out,and it might feel dry but there will still be a lof of water you could squeeze out by squeezing harder.
With moss, if it looks wet, chances are it is holding too much water. If it looks dry it is either holding the right amount or too little.
You want to achieve moisture in the pot but not excessive wetness. That will be your way to success or failure, forget if it grows on trees or rocks, it is growing in moss which is absolutely fine but very hard for someone inexperienced with how much moisture moss holds to keep at the right moisture.
So I would recommend you weigh the whole pot and plant, then let the plant dry and keep track of the weight. Once the plant starts to lose less water every day, ie the weight stays roughly the same for a few days then you top it up again. The moss will look bone dry for a few days and it will be hard to resist watering but if you see some moisture in the bottom of the pot you will be ok. Keep an eye on the leaves they will warn you way before they get thirsty that they want water by going slightly wrinkly but that takes a prolonged period of dryness. So my advice is to learn how much this orchid drinks every week first, get a feel for how it is growing, once you know it is doing ok you can think about moving on the semi hydroponics.

I can't really comment much on semi-hydroponics as I don't use it in the traditional way, but it is a form of hydroponic growing which I am a great fan of as it involves precision growing, everything in hydroponics needs to be controlled from the water hardness, to the ph to the amount of fertilizer in the water. Hydroponic growing depends on these whereas in bark there is much more tolerance for inaccuracies. Get things wrong in hydroponics however and things go downhill fast, that is the one thing I feel a lot of people fail to grasp about hydroponic growing. They see it as an easier way or surefire success but it is far from that if you don't do it precisely right.

[Nicolasdperez]

Thank you for your insight. I will be sure to put it to use.