Will phal leaves "replump?"

[Phal in love]

....This is not my experience but I do know of a gardener/scientist that is working in Ecuador who has cut the end of a phal leaf, under water, and the plant's response was to have the leaf plump up a bit. He says the plant did survive and he's done this several times. Never tried it myself but you would have to be diligent in keeping the plant and water free of bacterial growth.


Hey Pilot,

I hope you got some sleep

Can you describe this more? Do you mean that the leaf is submerged in water for a long time? Or put a leaf in water to root like you would other house plants?

Thanks!

[Pilot]

Originally Posted by Phal in love

....This is not my experience but I do know of a gardener/scientist that is working in Ecuador who has cut the end of a phal leaf, under water, and the plant's response was to have the leaf plump up a bit. He says the plant did survive and he's done this several times. Never tried it myself but you would have to be diligent in keeping the plant and water free of bacterial growth.


Hey Pilot,

I hope you got some sleep

Can you describe this more? Do you mean that the leaf is submerged in water for a long time? Or put a leaf in water to root like you would other house plants?

Thanks!

I did sleep finally but not enough-- will take a nap before work once the baby goes down for her nap. Some weeks are just....ug.

Sorry I was not more informative. What this man did was he took a limp leaf, still attached to the plant, and took the tip and submerged the the tip and cut it off. He did this under water because the plant's natural tendency is to suck up whatever is outside the cut-- so in this case, it would be water. The cut tip remained in water for however long he felt it needed to fill up again-- which supposedly it did. So most of the leaf is out of water and only the cut end is submerged.

I have never seen this for myself or tried it myself-- but I have no reason not to believe him. He's doing research in south america and is studying the plants/orchids etc in a highland nature preserve there-- volcanoes and all! He frequents the forums at Big Leaf Orchids, though I cannot remember his name right now.

Hope this is more clear.

BTW-- I have a solarium and that is where I keep my phals. People might say your plants get too much light but I find that mine do extremely well on the Northern areas of my solarium all year round. My warm growers live in the western part of the room and love it. As for direct sun-- no they should have too much but mine get some every day with no ill effect. Allow the plant to adapt to your conditions and it'll do well. Just don't be prone to making too many changes thinking it's helping. Be consistent and let the plants be, you'll be surprised how much our TLC is really just a pain-in-the-rear to these plants.