Phal from Home Depot, is it healthy?

[directorstef]

Hi all, this is my first post. I stumbled across the forum Googling a solution to a possible problem.

I love orchids and never had them before, only other plants. So when I went into Home Depot and I saw all the pretty orchids, they captured me and I couldn't leave without one.

...Ok, I did. I went home and did tons of research before I bought one, then went and brought it home. It seemed to be the best one they had. It had the nicest leaves and blooms.



So here are some pictures. From what I understand it seems to be potted pretty correctly. I'm not a fan of sphag with anything, but this is all that it has right now. It is in a clear pot with drainage holes in the bottom, inside of a ceramic pot. It has 6 leaves that seem to be in really excellent shape. They're stiff, a nice green color, and about 8-10" long. Only one is not as stiff as the others. It's one of the leaves at the base of the plant. I wouldn't even consider it droopy, it's just not as stiff as the rest.





The only thing that concerns me is the bud I took a picture of. There's another bud that looks like it (in the first picture). All the buds are a darkish purple/green, except for 2 which are looking like a shriveled pink. Are the buds dying? Or about to bloom? I really have no clue. And also I wanted to know if the roots looked alright and if it really is potted correctly for the most part. If it is not, do I have to wait until fall to repot it? I don't want to annoy it. I love this plant.



Lastly, this little guy. My boyfriend picked it up for me at Walgreens. It's in a 2.5" pot and I had to cut one dead leaf and one dead bud off. It's in a clay pot and it looks like its sitting in a container within the clay pot, but its jammed in there so I cant get it out. I'm not sure what type of "soil" its in. It looks like a mix of sphag and bark but it is really hard to tell. It has a few roots on the surface that look green like my large orchid. What do I do with this one? I don't want to find it dead in 2 weeks.

Thanks everyone! Sorry for the long post...I just wanted to be as helpful as possible to help you give me the best advice that you can.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Hi, directorstef. Welcome to the OB.

First, Phal:

1. No moss. Get rid of it, it'll cause problems real quick.

2. What you're seeing with the bud is called bud blast.

I think this is due to stress of some kind. What kind of stress, I'm not 100% sure without more information. But one factor may be the fact that it's being grown very wet with the moss around the roots. The stress may be even from the lack of proper air circulation around the roots because of how compacted the moss appears to be. The moss also appears to be fairly old and a bit broken down.

Moss, btw, is very acidic (usually pH 3 - 4, sometimes as low as 2), and may be too acidic for the liking of the Phal.

Phals usually grow on trees that are devoid of moss, or have very little of it.

The natural habitat of an evergreen Phal are tropical Asian swamp forests. The trees are usually partially submerged in the swamp water.

Sometimes, the trees are near rivers or streams.

Here's a link to a pic of a Phal in the wild:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarawaklens/4097399362/

The person who posted this pic has a whole host of pics of Phals in the wild. I highly suggest checking them out to have an understanding of what a wild Phal experiences. I encourage you to think out of the box, I'm not sending you the link to show you pretty pictures.

3. The roots look okay, they could look better than that. Just hurry and change it out of that moss before you lose most of it.

A healthy root will have a shiny white velamen layer of tissue surrounding the green fleshy roots, with a green or reddish brown (or sometimes yellow or orange) growing root tip. Like so:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cameliatwu/3841041080/

4. Everything else looks good.

Second Phal:

1. Don't know what to tell you because I can't see the roots.

Flowers are not the best indicators of plant health. They're the flower's reproductive organs (genitalia).

2. Wet roots are reasonably more pliable than dry ones.

Soak the plant thoroughly then try and slowly wiggle it out of the pot.

It most likely needs to be repotted (potted up or down is up to how many roots are on it).

Please also indicate environmental parameters of your growing area, such as:

1. Lighting.
2. Temperature.
3. Relative humidity (RH), or humidity for short.
4. What kind of water you're using (RO/DI, distilled, filtered, rain water, tap).
5. How is air circulation being provided?

Any further questions, please ask. There are alot of people here on the OB who can help.

No question is a stupid question.

[directorstef]

Thank you so much for the link. I've been trying to find decent pictures of wild orchids for awhile and I couldn't find any. Because I like trying to understand how things grow so I can try and mimic the environment they like.

For the larger orchid's repot, can I put it in the same container and pot it is in now? Or get a larger pot?
Also, instead of the moss what should I use? When I bought it, I bought a phal orchid mix (because, like I said, I hate sphagnum moss) by Better-Gro, and it contains Canadian chunk peat, western fir bark, hardwood charcoal and sponge rock. If that's not a good thing to pot it in either, what do you recommend?

Also, repotting it now won't aggravate it too much? Because it will be done tomorrow if that's what I need to do.

Both orchids are next to a north-east facing window so they get plenty of light but nothing direct. The temperature stays around 72 Fahrenheit, and neither are on a humidity tray. For now I just sprayed them once or twice a day with water from a spray bottle because that's what I've done with my other humidity-liking plants and it's all I knew to do for now until I made a tray or found out if I needed one or not.

So for both the spraying and the watering I use tap water, but it's from a well. It's the same water I use for my other plants so I assumed it would be suitable for the phal as well.

Air circulation? I'm not really sure what I need to do for that. The other windows in my house have been open lately, but not the one where the orchids are near. I'm not even sure if that's what you meant but I guess that's all the info I can provide in terms of that.

As for the little guy, I'll dig him out tomorrow and update on his root status with pictures.

What do you mean when you say "potted up or down"?

I really love plants, and I'm willing to do whatever it takes to take care of these properly. So anything that I need to be doing, or anything I need to be corrected on, nobody be afraid to shout it out because I'm really open to criticism and advice. I hope you know what I'm talking about when I say these orchids mean everything to me. For some reason they captured my heart I really don't want to subject them to improper care.

[Connie Star]

Welcome, Stef, to OB and to the wonderful world of orchid growing. You will find great advice here, and King's is among the best.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

1. I don't recommend misting the leaves of your Phal.

Why?

A.) Some water droplets may dribble into the crown and rot the crown out (that's very, very bad).

What to do then?

Notice in the pics of the wild Phals, how they're positioned on the trees.

The crown is perpendicular to the tree trunk or branch, with the leaf tips pointing downwards. This growth orientation prevents water from getting trapped in the crown, thus preventing crown rot.

I recommend positioning the plant in as close a manner as what I described and to what you see in the pics.

B.) That's not the kind of humidity it likes.

What is?

Water that evaporates. Like from a humidifier or from a large humidity tray.

But what about simulating dew droplets by misting?

Well...inside the house, trying to simulate dew drops just won't work. Air usually dries the dew drops off before they can cause the plants harm in the wild. In the home, that's not happenin'.

2. The Better-Gro Mix sounds okay except for those Canadian peat chunks. If you can pick out the peat chunks, and if the bark is medium to large grade, you're golden.

3. "Potting up" is moving a pot size (or a few pot sizes) up. "Potting down" is moving a pot size (or several pot sizes) down.

4. 72 F is generally fine. Just be within the range of 60 F to 95 F.

To ensure that your plant blooms again, I'd make sure there's at least a 10 degree F difference between night and day.

Seasonal differences in temperature is fine, just be within range.

5. Open windows are good. No chilly drafts. Chilly drafts and AC air directly on it, bad!

6. Your larger Phal can be given a 1/2 inch pot size larger. A pot size that's 1" larger than the one you have now is absolute tops.

I recommend the 1/2" larger pot first. If you're having a hard time fitting the roots in, then move to the pot that's 1" larger.

A clear plastic pot more closely simulates what the roots experience in the wild. If you notice the roots in the pics of the wild Phals, they're pretty exposed and nothing really covers it up. This allows the roots to photosynthesize.

Well, if placed in a clear plastic pot with the roots hugging the inside lining of the clear plastic pot, the roots get exposed to the light and are able to photosynthesize (extra bonus for the plant).

It's not mandatory to keep your orchid in a clear plastic pot. The roots will adjust. The roots just won't perform photosynthesis. They'll shift to a different role, (I'm not sure what that's called yet).

7. I recommend repotting asap. The longer you wait, the more you give the roots the chance to die off.

Better to save the plant and see blooms later, than see blooms now and lose the plant.

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[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by Connie Star

Welcome, Stef, to OB and to the wonderful world of orchid growing. You will find great advice here, and King's is among the best.

You're too kind.

Thank you.

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

I forgot to mention...

Trying to find pictures or photos of orchids in the wild are generally, still fairly difficult.

Although, just in the past year or two, they're slowly coming out of the wood work.

It helps tremendously to know the wild habitats of the orchids you're growing. A detailed description of the habitat that goes along with the pictures, just seals the deal.

Knowing how the plant behaves and it's growth habits are of great importance too.

[johnblagg]

king has good advice and has lots of good info....

But everyone has to find what works in their situation so no on medium is always right for you I agree with king totaly on no moss ....BUt their are otheres that love growing in moss so we all have to find our best medium that works for each of us.

I my self use rice hulls and get tremendous results.Bark is always a dismal failure for me.

AS for spraying leaves for me that one is in the air as to wheater or not you should since I myself do and I have never had a case of rot of any kind ...but You must keep in mind my phals live in a house with wood heat in winter so it is very dry and they dont sit wet very long and I usually have to spray a second time in 10 or 15 mins.....I am realy not trying to wet leaves as much as the areial roots my phals have everywhere and it is a fertilizer mix not just plain water.

summer sees them sitting outide under a big cypress tree and LOL there is a roostin colony of black birds in spring so the get covered in bird lime at times and need washed a few times but man do they like it .

here is a link to a picture of my biggest phal at the moment ...all of the air roots are from this winter inside and the pot has just as many in the rice hulls.

http://www.orchidboard.com/community...-phal-now.html

as far as is the one from home depo being healthy ....looks very nice to me and I see lots with bud blast at hd thats just from the stress of being shipped ect .....all of my phals are Hd plants and so far I have only lost one over the years and that was my fault not a bad plant the roots on yours look very healthy in that clear pot

[dounoharm]

this thread should reserved for reference for all new phal growers, king put out some really good info!!! good going king and john!

[directorstef]

Excellent, thank you for the info. You've all been very helpful (and thanks for the warm welcome!)

When I came home today one of the shriveled buds had fallen off. Should I cut off the other or just let it do its thing?

I'm going to repot it today, so that will be done. I'm not really concerned with the blooms; yeah, they're really pretty, but my priority is giving this plant a nice place to live. On that note, once it stops blooming, I'm cutting the spike, right? How short?

And fertilizer. The mix I have says it feeds phals for up to 3 months, so do I need to fertilize now, or no because of the mix? I did not buy any yet (I only bought the plant on Sunday). What is a good fertilizer and how often should I fertilize?

My house temp does drop during the night. I do not think as much as 10 degrees, I'd say max 5. And there is no AC or drafts in the room, so I seem to be good with that.

And just a question about the sphagnum moss. I see it everywhere for phals. When I bought the mix that I did, next to it there were 2 kinds of sphag and one mixed with other stuff all specifically for phals and not just general orchids. Why is so much out there if it is bad? I even saw it on online stores. I'm just curious. But this works out better for me, because I really don't like how it retains water, and cosmetically I don't like the way that it looks. And I just never had good experiences with it.

I cant thank you all enough for your kind help and thorough advice. I really appreciate it!