The Phal abuse ends here.

[CasKinka]

Originally Posted by King_of_orchid_growing:)

Try mounting a Phal that's known to be fairly easy to grow first. A species to try out would be Phal schilleriana. Another would be Phal philippinensis. Yet another may be Phal stuartiana. Another possibility would be Phal equestris.

The species of Phals that need copious amounts of moisture through rain and humidity are usually much more difficult to grow mounted.

Doritis pulcherrhima are lithophytes in the wild, so mounted culture should work well for these too.

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Hi Philip,

I guess I am just asking why, more than anything. It looks really cool, it seems to be more inline with it's natural habitat and yet you so rarely see it, at least here in MA.

Is there truly more care required? Could it be potentially harmful for the plant? Is there more that can go wrong?

I actually have a Phal Stuartiana but I am a little afraid to experiment because it's roots are so healthy now I don't want to kill it.

[Im Just Saying]

Originally Posted by Miadunn

Hi guys! I have 3 Phals that I recently repotted and they seem to be doing worse. The leaves are all very droopy which I thought indicated that it wasn't getting enough water but then looking at the roots they are all mushy/rotted. I also noticed shortly after potting that the roots had some white mold on them. So I put a box fan on them and wiped the roots with alcohol. That seemed to eliminate the mold. I am holding off on my watering until they are completely dry in hopes of saving them. I am just very frustrated because to me the signs are confusing what I thought was correct:leaves look underwatered/roots look overwatered...

I just repotted these a month ago and they had some green roots but now them seem to all be gone. Should I pull them out of the pot and do some more surgery? Can these survive with little to no roots? I have been watering with a Superthrive/Physan mixture but don't have any KLN...

Also, another idea I had read on here is to take them out of their medium and mist them daily until new roots form. Ideas?

Please help me save these!!!! I am getting so frustrated and discouraged.

If your roots are rotted you will have to take them back out and trim off the bad roots (rotted/mushy not firm/green or tan). You don't need superthrive and KLN they are both rooting hormones too much of the stuff can mutate your next set of blooms. In regards to your question about surviving with little roots I have a rescue phal that had very few roots after trimming off the dried/rotted ones. As of now it is not potted and is resting on a makeshift humidity tray. After a 15 minute soak in superthrive and misting the roots and underside of the leaves twice daily for the last two weeks it is now throwing out new root nubbins like crazy. So don't give up hope just yet!

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[RosieC]

Originally Posted by CasKinka

I'm just curious-

If the most common way to kill an orchid is by over watering, why isn't it more common to mount orchids or use other methods to grow them outside of a pot?

They are much easier to not kill that way... but for most growers the problem is that you can't them sit them on the windowledge easily (most mounts hang).

For me my mounts are limited because I started getting water stains on the walls or windowledges when mounts dripped following the daily watering. I water then rush out to work and I don't have time to wait until they fully dry so the result is that the only real way to grow mounts is to grow them on my bathroom (tiled) windowledge or outside/greenhouse in the summer (but I can't keep phals warm enough outside or in the greenhouse over the winter).

There are solutions such has having mounts with a drip tray bases that can stand, but I've not managed to find suitable materials for this so far.

The other issue is of course the daily watering. Most people just don't want to spend that much time on their plants.

I actually don't have any mounted phals but I do love growing my other mounted orchids... it's just having the places suitable to grow them that stops me buying more.

[CasKinka]

Originally Posted by RosieC

They are much easier to not kill that way... but for most growers the problem is that you can't them sit them on the windowledge easily (most mounts hang).

For me my mounts are limited because I started getting water stains on the walls or windowledges when mounts dripped following the daily watering. I water then rush out to work and I don't have time to wait until they fully dry so the result is that the only real way to grow mounts is to grow them on my bathroom (tiled) windowledge or outside/greenhouse in the summer (but I can't keep phals warm enough outside or in the greenhouse over the winter).

There are solutions such has having mounts with a drip tray bases that can stand, but I've not managed to find suitable materials for this so far.

The other issue is of course the daily watering. Most people just don't want to spend that much time on their plants.

I actually don't have any mounted phals but I do love growing my other mounted orchids... it's just having the places suitable to grow them that stops me buying more.

Hi Rosie,

Thanks so much for your reply! I have been curious about this for awhile now.

Like most orchid newbies, I have had orchids suffer from root rot on more than one occasion and this seemed like such a logical method of prevention- I was wondering why I didn't see it more often.

Now that I have heard about the care required, I can see why people may shy away from this method.

I still might try it though

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by CasKinka

Hi Philip,

I guess I am just asking why, more than anything. It looks really cool, it seems to be more inline with it's natural habitat and yet you so rarely see it, at least here in MA.

Is there truly more care required? Could it be potentially harmful for the plant? Is there more that can go wrong?

I actually have a Phal Stuartiana but I am a little afraid to experiment because it's roots are so healthy now I don't want to kill it.

I've had Phal x leucorrhoda grown mounted for several years already and it is still very much alive.

This method does require you to water the orchid more frequently, and it can be difficult to figure out how to accommodate space for such a method of culture, but it can work out just fine for a good number of Phalaenopsis when done correctly.

Yes, it can also be difficult to accommodate for the water dripping off the mounts as well, but it can still be done, just be creative.

[RosieC]

Originally Posted by CasKinka

Now that I have heard about the care required, I can see why people may shy away from this method.

I still might try it though

Do give it a go. It's a fun way of growing and I find I feel safer about not rotting them Just don't rush out an convert them all to that method until you've tried one or two.

[Miadunn]

Originally Posted by Im Just Saying

In regards to your question about surviving with little roots I have a rescue phal that had very few roots after trimming off the dried/rotted ones. As of now it is not potted and is resting on a makeshift humidity tray. After a 15 minute soak in superthrive and misting the roots and underside of the leaves twice daily for the last two weeks it is now throwing out new root nubbins like crazy. So don't give up hope just yet!

Thanks so much for your response! I pulled all of them out of their pots and trimmed all the dead roots, which was ALL of them. No viable roots to be seen. So I tried the Sphag and Bag method found on another member's site. It doesn't seem to be working though...All the leaves fell off one of my plants so I think I might try to change the environment. Maybe I'll try misting the underside of the leaves like you said...For the Home Depot ones I am just going to try to return them b/c it's just shy of a month since I got them and I feel like that was a waste of $$$$!!! Has anyone returned there? I couldn't find anything on their website...

Thanks for the encouragement though!!! I think I need to start healthy before trying to rescue since I don't have much experience!

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[Gage]

Originally Posted by Miadunn

Thanks so much for your response! I pulled all of them out of their pots and trimmed all the dead roots, which was ALL of them. No viable roots to be seen. So I tried the Sphag and Bag method found on another member's site. It doesn't seem to be working though...All the leaves fell off one of my plants so I think I might try to change the environment. Maybe I'll try misting the underside of the leaves like you said...For the Home Depot ones I am just going to try to return them b/c it's just shy of a month since I got them and I feel like that was a waste of $$$$!!! Has anyone returned there? I couldn't find anything on their website...

Thanks for the encouragement though!!! I think I need to start healthy before trying to rescue since I don't have much experience!

Home Depot takes returns on plants within a year if you have the receipt, Lowe's may be the same but I'm not sure. I agree that starting with healthy plants in the beginning is wise.

	Mistking Looking for a misting system? Look no further. Automated misting systems from MistKing are used by multitude of plant enthusiasts and are perfect for Orchids. Systems feature run dry pumps, ZipDrip valve, adjustable black nozzles, per second control! Automatically mist one growing shelf or a greenhouse full of Orchids. See MistKing testimonials

[meghan]

Hi, I'm sorry if this has been asked before but I was curious about roots?

I just brought home a Phal that my cousin had for many months. It looks pretty healthy considering it was in this strange plastic sleeve sitting in a terracotta pot. Both only had one central drainage hole and was sitting in water. The roots look really good considering how tightly packed in sphagnum it was packed. It has a root as long as the spike!
Now some of the roots that were exposed on top are very very dark green on the topside, it almost looks black really but it's not mushy and the rest of it is healthy as well.
There are some black spots on some roots but overall they are green and light yellow-white.
Is the dark green something I should worry about or is it fine to leave it?

Thanks for any help!

[RosieC]

I don't think the dark is something to worry about if they are not mushy. I've noticed on some of these ones sold in plastic sleeves that the top roots are very dark green. Those have seemed to me to be the ones that do best on these, as the ones in the pot can often start rotting due to lack of oxygen.

If you've not yet repotted I would repot, but it's the ones in the pot that you need to do that for, not the dark ones at the top.