Mini Phal battle

[Orch]

Soon, I plan to attack at least 1 of my 3 mini phals. I purchased them all at same time last summer and they seem unhappy. First time repotting these. They're all in tightly packed sphag.

My question - What do I do about their long aerials, though? They're bigger than the plant itself.

MiniPhal 1 - spike bloomed again already, currently in pretty bloom. Easily pops out of pot, sphag ball and all. Leaves are dry and wilty, spike is big and beautiful with 6-7 blooms. I'll probably let this one finish, or at least wait for some decent potting medium to find me. It has 6 long (1') aerial roots that seem to be reaching for kitchen sink.

MiniPhal 2 - No signs of life in spike, leaves are driest of the three, no signs of growth. It has 10 longer (1-1.5') aerial roots that also seem to be reaching for kitchen sink. I will have to break the outside pot to reach the inner plastic pot on this one.

MiniPhal 3 - Spike is forking into another spike that will bloom I think. Small aerials. Leaves are somewhat vertical. Seems to be OK, I might leave this one alone.

[beanluc]

Don't cut the aerials off.

Before un-potting any of them, and certainly before pulling all that wet sphag off them, water the plants well so that the roots can get soft. If they're all dried out when you start attacking them, then they could crack and break off.

The aerials also should be wetted. A spray bottle can help with this, or, you could just immerse the whole plant in water in order to soak the aerials, AS LONG AS YOU DRY THE LEAF CROTCHES AND CROWN when you're done. Don't let water collect and stand in the crown cavity or the leaf crotches where they attach to the stem.

The soft, damp aerials can be tucked into the medium of the new pot, for a little extra support, and they can be left above the medium too - after all, they're up in the air for a reason. I usually do half and half.

[beanluc]

By the way welcome to Orchidboard

[Lana]

Welcome to the board! I suggest you repot your phals as soon as you can. The dry and wilty leaves mean that your plants probably don't have any live roots left in the pot, and can't pull any water or nutrients to the leaves. Some dying orchids can bloom beautifully even when they are already on their way out, so don't wait for the blooms to finish. Pull the plants from their pots and check roots. If there is a problem (and I suspect there is), repot immediately. Phals usually don't mind their roots disturbed, but even if they drop their blooms, it makes sense to save the plants themselves, so they can reward you with flowers in the next flowering season, than to loose your orchids all together.

[quiltergal]

I agree with Lana 100%. If the leaves are wrinkly and wilted looking that's a really bad sign. You need to see what's going on inside the pot ASAP. Better to lose the flowers than the whole plant.

[Orch]

Mini Phal 2 is the worst one, so it was the first to come out. I didn't have to break it's pot, but it's the one with the very long aerials. I cleaned out all the gunk and it the roots are mostly white and green. Only snipped off a couple, but it did seem very potbound, so I guess that's the reason for the long aerials.

Mini Phal 3 was just like 2, but with short aerials... Or, so I thought. The orchids are in a small plastic pot wedged into a small clay pot. This baby had a long root that went through the bottom holes of the plastic and up between the very tight plastic and clay. Once above the pot, it had the aerial appearance. I had to break the clay and cut the plastic pot to get it out. The root had grown out of the plastic, then forked into the bottom of the clay under the plastic, so I couldn't slide it back through the hole! And, it was a dang healthy root too, go figure.

My son commented that it's amazing what plants have to do to live with me.

So, I cleaned off both plants. Since I don't have any potting medium yet, I threw them both in a plastic cereal container stuffed with leftover crappy sphag. They're not tightly packed. In that container, I was able to put the really long aerials of #2 pointing downward without breaking. So, they're covered in loose sphag now. I'm hoping this helps convert the aerials into something less dry and fragile. All in all, though, the lower roots were fine.

Since both of them looked OK, I'm not going to repot #1 right now. It's leaves are dry, but not desperate. I'm sure it's just potbound and not getting enough water. It's sphag was bone dry today even though I watered it about 3 days ago. I think the water probably left the tiny holes, hit the clay and then evaporated through the clay pot.

I hate sphag. I think I'm allergic to it. Is that even possible?