How to save my orchid?

[starwave]

This is my first orchid. Liu’s cute, bought from a show around 2.5 years ago.
At the beginning it grew very well in moss. Later I did something wrong and root started to rot. I tried to re-pot a few times and didn’t make it better.
Two weeks ago, I hanged it in my restroom without any medium, spray water a few times every day. Just wanted to see if I could stop the rot.
That space is bright without direct sunshine. Humidiy is 45-55%.
After two weeks, I saw two new roots coming out, one old root having green tip became longer. However, two old leaves fell. Those two leaves had yellow spots before I hanged it.
My question is that: should I pot it now? Or keeps hanging?
I am afraid it is too dry. After water spray, roots became white very quickly. And two leaves falling makes me worried.
On the other hand, new roots coming out seems to be good.
Any suggestion is welcome!

Pictures show two weeks ago and now.

[estación seca]

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

It should survive with just a little care.

Do some reading first. Go to Forums in the left yellow menu. Choose Beginners. Near the top look for the sticky thread The Phal. abuse stops here. Read the first few pages of messages.

Then get your materials together. Many people use medium orchid bark or LECA clay balls from a hydroponics shop. Use a small pot. Pot so the newest, small root at the base of the leaves is just under the surface of the medium when you are done. Some of the roots will be up in the air. This is OK.

Soak the newly repotted plant in a bowl of water for 4-8 hours. Take note how heavy it is. Water again when it feels light. This will probably be every 3-10 days depending on the temperatures.

[starwave]

Originally Posted by estación seca

Welcome to the Orchid Board!

It should survive with just a little care.

Do some reading first. Go to Forums in the left yellow menu. Choose Beginners. Near the top look for the sticky thread The Phal. abuse stops here. Read the first few pages of messages.

Then get your materials together. Many people use medium orchid bark or LECA clay balls from a hydroponics shop. Use a small pot. Pot so the newest, small root at the base of the leaves is just under the surface of the medium when you are done. Some of the roots will be up in the air. This is OK.

Soak the newly repotted plant in a bowl of water for 4-8 hours. Take note how heavy it is. Water again when it feels light. This will probably be every 3-10 days depending on the temperatures.

Thank you for the information!
I did try to read as much as I can. However, information online are sometimes different from each other.
Some articles say soak moss and some say do not, otherwise it’s too much water.
And when to water, how much to water is so tricky.
Before, I water every week. At that time, the outside and top of moss was very very dry. But when I repot it, I found the middle and bottom was still a little wet.

[estación seca]

The thread to which I directed you was written by people who really know what they're doing.

Moss seldom lasts more than 12-18 months when used to pot Phals. They need to be repotted every year when in moss.

When watering Phals in moss, wait until the top of the moss is very dry. Then run water over the top for just 1 second. The goal is to have a lot of air in the medium. Air at the roots is the most important factor when growing most orchids, and especially Phals.

If the moss at the bottom is still somewhat moist when it's time to water, that is OK, because the important thing is to have air at the roots.

[Leisesturm]

Originally Posted by starwave

That space is bright without direct sunshine. Humidiy is 45-55%.

Direct sunshine is not always a bad thing. And 'bright' ... I don't usually think a space is bright enough until police come to investigate.

The dark green, healthy looking leaves on that Phal indicate to me a plant that is not receiving enough light. The leaves would be at least a shade lighter green with better light. When a plant is just breaking even with its energy reserves you can extend its life indefinitely, with great care and attention paid to what it is potted in, and how it is watered. It will live, but it will never re-bloom like that.

When the lighting is excellent, you don't have to care what it is potted in. Could be Sphag, Coir, Bark, whatever ... pure water! When an orchid is receiving all the light it wants, you can't drown it. Or do anything else to upset it. It becomes superhuman ... superplantian or whatever. Root rot runs away and hides. All there is to do is fertilize.

IME it is impossible to provide adequate light, even to a Phal, and keep it out of 'some' direct sun for an hour or more each day. It won't burn. The sun won't be on it long enough. It needs that SUN though.

I'd better go now or I might mention plant lights <running, ducking>

[Dimples]

Losing a couple of lower leaves when the plant is in that type of condition is normal. The plant is doing a few things: scavenging mobile nutrients from the leaves to use in the new growth, and reducing the water needs of the plant while it is in a stressful state, and possibly eliminating the older leaves that are net-energy users.

If the yellowing and leaf loss on a plant in distress continues after the first few leaves drop, that's when you should start to be concerned that something else may be going on.

[estación seca]

I've heard three professional growers say that extensive research shows hybrid Phals produce the most and the biggest flowers at no more than 1,000 foot candles of light, with a 10-12 hour day length. Increasing this to no more than 1,200 fc for 6 weeks in late fall may trigger budding, but after the 6 weeks they should be returned to 1,000 fc to improve flower count and size.

People have trouble flowering them in northern climates not because the light intensity is too low, but because the day length in fall and winter is too short. Phals in habitat are almost all deep shade plants.

[Roberta]

I also found, in my own experience, that it is not intensity, but duration of light that needs to be increased... the species ancestors of Phals come from near the equator. They grow in shade, but get light for 12 hours per day all year around. I went from almost zero reblooming to about 80% (in a room that got maybe 4-5 hours of good eastern light then very indirect light the rest of the day) by adding supplemental light 12 hours a day. (I used fluorescents because that what was available at the time, now LEDs are much more efficient ) If just supplementing daylight (as opposed to providing ALL of the light in an enclosed area) the type of light is really not that important... no need for fancy grow lights, anything "full spectrum" will do the job.

[Leisesturm]

Originally Posted by estación seca

I've heard three professional growers say that extensive research shows hybrid Phals produce the most and the biggest flowers at no more than 1,000 foot candles of light, with a 10-12 hour day length. Increasing this to no more than 1,200 fc for 6 weeks in late fall may trigger budding, but after the 6 weeks they should be returned to 1,000 fc to improve flower count and size.

People have trouble flowering them in northern climates not because the light intensity is too low, but because the day length in fall and winter is too short. Phals in habitat are almost all deep shade plants.

You are, of course, absolutely right. But I don't mean the o.p. should give the 'sun' all day. They can't The physical structure of the garden space will determine the light duration. Chances are good they can't even manage a full two hours of it. For the rest of the day light levels may we'll be below 250fc. Quite bright appearing, but nowhere close to 1000fc. That blip of real sunlight is all the meaningful light the Phal is going to get for the day.

Until you live in the NE where even in smaller cities the air is so bad it cuts 30% off the theoretical maximum light levels, its hard to understand the need to 'push' plants a little. Lots of us NE growers protected Phal's into the compost heap. We didn't even think about growing anything else. Unless I way miss my guess there is little chance of the o.p. overlighting that Phal. All they can do is get it to baseline. I'm new here and absolutely want to make friends and have an orchid good time. And help those in trouble with struggling Phal's and not disagree about anything.

[starwave]

Yes. I think my previous problem was that root didn’t get enough air.
Run water for 1 second? How to control the amount of water then?
Before, when I pour the water on top of the moss, it seems to go directly out from bottom, to the plate under. After a minute, all water will be sucked back.


Sorry, I wanted to quote the previous one but didn’t know how to do that.

---------- Post added at 07:04 PM ---------- Previous post was at 07:01 PM ----------

Originally Posted by Leisesturm

Direct sunshine is not always a bad thing. And 'bright' ... I don't usually think a space is bright enough until police come to investigate.

The dark green, healthy looking leaves on that Phal indicate to me a plant that is not receiving enough light. The leaves would be at least a shade lighter green with better light. When a plant is just breaking even with its energy reserves you can extend its life indefinitely, with great care and attention paid to what it is potted in, and how it is watered. It will live, but it will never re-bloom like that.

When the lighting is excellent, you don't have to care what it is potted in. Could be Sphag, Coir, Bark, whatever ... pure water! When an orchid is receiving all the light it wants, you can't drown it. Or do anything else to upset it. It becomes superhuman ... superplantian or whatever. Root rot runs away and hides. All there is to do is fertilize.

IME it is impossible to provide adequate light, even to a Phal, and keep it out of 'some' direct sun for an hour or more each day. It won't burn. The sun won't be on it long enough. It needs that SUN though.

I'd better go now or I might mention plant lights <running, ducking>

It was in a darker place. I just moved it to the current room two weeks ago because it’s brighter. Well , not as bright as outdoors but the brightest in my place because it has skylight.