Some species Phal questions

[The Mutant]

Hi again friendly people!

At the end of next week (probably, hopefully) I'll have some species Phals arriving at home so I was wondering if there is anything in particular that I should think about?

I have a:

Phal. stuartiana

Phal. stuartiana var. nobilis

Phal. philippinensis

arriving, where only the stuartiana is a bloom-sized specimen. The other two are young plants where the philippinensis will apparently reach blooming size in a year and the stuartiana var. nobilis in about two years. It also says that the nobilis is only suited for experienced orchid growers, probably due to them being so small. Since I am everything but an experienced grower some advice would be very appreciated.

I read in some thread here that the stuartiana doesn't like to have its roots standing in moist compost and I think I recall that this member had mounted his/her stuartiana because of this. I had planned to have it in a pot, but maybe this is not such a good idea?

Some advice and tips about how to care for these species properly would be highly appreciated.

[camille1585]

It's not so much that the stuartiana is small, it's that it's not well established yet. Schwerter gets their orchids bareroot from Taiwan. The roots can get a bit beat up, so it's a bit more stress to get over when they get potted up again.
o Phal likes staying wet too long, and stuartiana does very well potted in general, just make sure it's nearly dry before watering again. Also don't forget that different things work well in different conditions/watering habits. So maybe for the person that mounted their's, mounting was worked best for them.

[The Mutant]

Okay, thanks Camille, I'll keep that in mind. So a little bit of Superthrive for the nobilis might not be a bad idea until it's established then.

Of what you have written I conclude that these particular species are "just" like the ordinary Phals I have? If that's the case I can relax a bit.

[camille1585]

stuartiana should not be a difficult one to grow, it should do fine in standard Phal conditions. I know nothing about the other one though!

[camille1585]

The advantage of growing stuartiana mounted though is that you have a much higher chance of getting root keikis!