Phal post-mortem...

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by Nic100

I think I'll save the whisky for me!
About the sphag - I'll admit it had me worried all along, but I know a lot of people grow successfully in it and Mum was an anxious first-time-chid-owner so I thought I'd save repotting till the flowers faded... it was a tough call!

Well...certain things are tough calls. Decisions and making a choice takes practice, it's a learning process. Things don't always just happen in a blink of an eye.

What are difficult decisions and may take time to come to a conclusion as to what a proper course of action would be, will eventually become easier and faster the more we encounter them and the more we're willing to take a course of action; whatever that may be.

That's just life.

[Undergrounder]

Originally Posted by Nic100

I love your optimism!!

... the attached pic is of aforementioned back yard, complete with my friends, Jen and Debs, who might let me mount an orchid on them, but I'm not hopeful.

Well you might not like my pessimism but I think you'll have more luck convincing one of your friends to walk around with your Phal. root ball mounted to their head than you will being able to save it

But if you can, it just might work... I've never lost an orchid that i was able to mount on to one of my friends.

Drastic death like that (as opposed to slow, leaf at a time death) can only be due to the crown rotting, or getting infected by a bacteria. And plants that are unhappy in the first place, or recently repotted into new media are susceptible to that kind of thing. Repotting it deep in the media might not have helped, but judging by the amount of healthy roots left it was always going to be a struggle to keep it going anyway.

[Nic100]

Thanks Undergrounder. If mounting an orchid on a friend (or chimney-breast, car, the neighbours dog) will save it from 'drastic-death-syndrome' then I'll give it a go.

I don't have huge expectations, but miracles happen and maybe it's my week... who knows!

[Undergrounder]

good luck!

P.S. What is the Phal. in your picture? I have one that came named as Phal. Sogo Tris '#2' but it flowered peloric and looks just like yours so it can't be what it said it was.

[Nic100]

Mine is a NoID from the local supermarket, but I think it's pretty special (of course). One of the flowers bloomed with a quadrupal (pic below if I manage it). But I think it's what a Phal. Sogo Tris would look like if it was peloric! Does it flower peloric everytime? I read that they can flower true next time around?

[Dorothy]

By the title of this thread .. I thought we were going to see photos of an orchid autopsy!



Don't give up the ship ... I'm sure you will do what is necessary to revive it!

[Nic100]

Originally Posted by Dorothy

By the title of this thread .. I thought we were going to see photos of an orchid autopsy!



Don't give up the ship ... I'm sure you will do what is necessary to revive it!

That would be gruesome, but somewhat appropriate with Halloween approaching!

Thanks though, and I'll do my best!

[Grandma M]

Try your best. Go out and buy her a new one, in bloom, to keep her happy until this one revives.

Marilyn

[Undergrounder]

Originally Posted by Nic100

Mine is a NoID from the local supermarket, but I think it's pretty special (of course). One of the flowers bloomed with a quadrupal (pic below if I manage it). But I think it's what a Phal. Sogo Tris would look like if it was peloric! Does it flower peloric everytime? I read that they can flower true next time around?

I'm not sure, i got a flask of these and the first one flowered peloric, so it will be interesting to see whether all the others do too.

With the current Phal though, before you put too much effort or spend any money trying to get this guy to survive, i should explain the problem. You want it to grow new leaves, right? Well new leaves need to be made of something, they don't just spring out of nowhere. And the stuff they're made of is created by plants solely through the process of photosynthesis. And with no leaves your orchids can't photosynthesise and so it can't grow new leaves... that's the chicken and egg reason why Phals always die when the leaves fall off. Only certain Phal. species can survive without leaves (they photosynthesise through their roots), but sadly yours isn't one of them.

[Nic100]

That's a pretty clear explaination, and if that's the case then so be it. Besides, this phal corpse is a bit creepy, with it's roots half hanging off, and all rotten in the centre! It's like the bride of phalkinstein!

I might get Mum a plastic one, pot it in bark and hope she doesn't notice. A friend of mine had a plastic one in her bathroom for a year and a half before finding out it was fake... she even watered it a 'few times'.

Marilyn - I'm kidding, I'll get her a real one! She's getting me a Cym for my birthday, so we can pick her out a new Phal at the same time!