Phalaenopsis is sending out lots of aerial roots and no flower spikes.

[ccole93]

Hello all! I have a Phalaenopsis that’s doing well, growing new leaves (it has six currently and is growing a seventh) but it’s sending out tons of aerial roots into the ether. I repotted it four months ago or so; maybe it doesn’t like the mix I used? I think the bark is too fine.

[Shadeflower]

nah that looks really good.
I've never had so much root branching, It looks really happy to me.
I'd say you have exactly the right balance with slits on the side and a finer mix.

If you use less ventilation holes you use chunkier bark, with ventilation holes you use a bit of a finer mix like you have.

It still looks very immature by the way so that might explain the lack of flowering. Pot it up sometime next year into a bigger pot, here you can add some chunkier substrate to make a mix.

If you keep using the same small grade as you increase pot size what can happen is that it then retains too much water - a bigger pot will always retain more so for now everything looks really good imo.

[ccole93]

Originally Posted by Shadeflower

nah that looks really good.
I've never had so much root branching, It looks really happy to me.
I'd say you have exactly the right balance with slits on the side and a finer mix.

If you use less ventilation holes you use chunkier bark, with ventilation holes you use a bit of a finer mix like you have.

It still looks very immature by the way so that might explain the lack of flowering. Pot it up sometime next year into a bigger pot, here you can add some chunkier substrate to make a mix.

If you keep using the same small grade as you increase pot size what can happen is that it then retains too much water - a bigger pot will always retain more so for now everything looks really good imo.

Oh fabulous! Thank you! I was like well it seems fine but that’s a lot of air roots LOL. I will remember this for the next repotting!

[Paphluvr]

It's not unusual to have aeriel roots on Phals but that is a bunch. However, they all seem very happy and have healthy root tips. Your mix does look rather fine. Was that a Hyponex mix by any chance?

[ccole93]

Originally Posted by Paphluvr

It's not unusual to have aeriel roots on Phals but that is a bunch. However, they all seem very happy and have healthy root tips. Your mix does look rather fine. Was that a Hyponex mix by any chance?

I got it from rePotme! It was actually their Oncidium mix lol whoops

[Roberta]

Oncidiums need to be much wetter than Phals. So the mix is probably too wet. I would suggest repotting that Phal sooner rather than later - they need "humid air" around their roots, rather than "wet". When the new roots mostly grow as aerial roots, I suspect that they are avoiding the soggy mix. With all that new root growth, you don't need to wait, if you give them a good environment some (those that haven't totally "committed" to being in the air) very likely will start to grow into the medium.

[estación seca]

Was it in flower when you got it? The pink to white flowered Phals with rounded flowers naturally form spikes in early to mid winter. Commercial growers induce flowering at any time of the year by manipulating growing temperatures.

I agree with repotting it into a mix with much larger particle sizes. Use a pot that just fits the roots.

[K-Sci]

Originally Posted by Shadeflower

nah that looks really good.

Like Shadeflower, I don't see a problem. Nothing looks at all unusual.

-Keith

[tmoney]

did you mean to post this in the root porn forum?!

[K-Sci]

Originally Posted by tmoney

did you mean to post this in the root porn forum?!

It would appear to qualify. Those are some very nice roots.

-Keith