Questions about growing medium for phals

[Windy]

Originally Posted by Orchid126

Mounting orchids requires daily or twice a day watering, depending on what your climate is. If you are not prepared to give the orchids that much attention, then putting them in pots would be better. For phals, in my climate here in New Jersey I put the phals in a mixture of two thirds small bark, one third sphagnum moss and a handful of perlite. This allows me to water the phals once a week to ten days.

You can start with a medium and then observe how the plants do, and then you can tweak it to suit your watering habits.

Thank you for this comment. I breathed a sigh of relief. My very first orchid was a phal I bought on sale ($2.50). It came with moss but I repotted keeping the moss but added bark. I only water it when the moss is totally dry about once a week.

It's too much of a chore for me to have to water daily, plus we travel on occasion and have no one to turn to for daily watering.

As a newbie to orchids, your post was a reprieve for me.

[Orchid126]

It can go a little longer, but it's good if the fine bark mix is replaced once a year, and that's fine with phals as they respond well to be repotted. If you use a lot of nitrogen, you may have to smell the medium, and if it smells sour, then replace it. I don't use a lot of nitrogen, despite what they claim about bark using up nitrogen and stealing it from the roots. A grower in Hawaii says that when growing on a windowsill high nitrogen is not needed, and I found this to be true.

[Sandy4453]

You should never let your Phals dry out and, you should never allow them to remain wet for too long without providing consistent ventilation, however you decide to grow them...pots, mounted, etc. I've got Phals growing in sphag. with sponge rock (never gets compacted) and others in fir bark mix (with sphag., sponge rock and CHC). Here in Fla., I water them every 4-6 days, both drying at about the same rate. During the warmer months, my Phals love and grow best in the straight sphag BUT, when the cooler weather starts, they get moved into a drier mix, with bark added. Watering is less frequent in cooler weather, at about 8-10 days (without any sphag., I suspect it would be more frequent). You have to pay close attention when using spagh. in the cooler months and taking into account is where you keep them during this time (in/outside, under lights). There are just so many things to consider when deciding a medium to use but probably, the safest bet is bark mix (w/charcoal, sponge rock), a little sphag. around the root ball and 25% (or more) CHC. And whatever medium you decide to use, it's a good idea to replace it with new stuff, yearly.

[Sui Orchids]

hi, my first attempt to post here. regarding what media would you use for phals, i would not recommend any particular media since every gardener has a varied number of media used to suit their growing environments.

i have two ways of planting my phals, mounted and the others are in pots. my mounted phals are planted on a slab of tree fern 6inx6in,the slab is prepared by soaking it with water,physan 20 (disinfectant),superthrive and a little of seaweed fertilizer.it is then covered with local materials like coco fiber strands and fern fibers.The phal seedling is then mounted and the roots are covered by another layer of fern fiber ,these are tied by strings and hanged. Per observation, my mounted phals are exceptionally healthy, leaves are about a foot long,nice healthy green,5 inches wide, roots very thick. my potted phals are either in terracotta pots or clear plastic pots.My potted phals have coco husk chips with strands of fern fiber and tree fern bits to grow in. Phals in pots are healthy too but non compared to size with my mounted phals.

[ohanahana]

Originally Posted by Sui Orchids

Phals in pots are healthy too but non compared to size with my mounted phals.

i wonder why that is?? is it because of the seaweed with which you prepped the mount? do you use seaweed on the potted ones?

[trdyl]

I grow all my orchids incluing phals in in Semi-Hydroponic Culture.

All about Semi-Hydroponics

[josterha]

711,

Hi. Be careful of general watering advice. I find that the watering needed depends a lot on your particular environment and potting media. I grow about 30 phals currently and have them in various media. Some are in pure sphag; some in a mix of fine fir bark, chopped sphag and charcoal; some in larger chunks of fir bark with no other additives. All seem to do well provided that they are given water at the right times. The more pourous your media, the more often you will need to water. I have lost many orchids due to over-watering, so now I am more careful and won't water if the top of the mixture is moist (if your in sphag, the top should be a little crunchy). I generally water those in pure moss every 7-10 days. The ones in course bark I may water every four days or so. If you keep high enough humidty (I'd say 60% or over) roots will absorb a lot of their moisture needs directly from the air and will be happier. That's how they do it in the wild. I've never seen a plastic pot in a tree : )

Good luck!

John

[PleuroPal]

King,

How do you water your mounted phals? I'm guessing with a spray bottle? Do you give them a full soak now and then in order to get the mount nice and wet - as in total immersion?

[RosieC]

I don't know what King does with mounted Phals and I only have one... but I dunk the entire thing mount and all in water every day... sometimes in the summer it needs misting on top of that later in the day, in the winter sometimes it only gets done every other day.

I found that just using a spray bottle did not keep mine wet enough.

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[ohanahana]

Rosie--silly question from me, i think, but what about water in the crown? and would it be horrible to soak more than one plant at a time??