Mount or Re-pot?

[SamiSmith]

Hi all! I got my first orchid back in February. It had already begun to bloom. It is a beautiful noid phal that I have been doing my best to keep happy. So far I seem to be doing well by her. Recently her blooms have began to fade, but I have new root and leaf growth! From what I have read, I think this is a normal growing cycle for this girl so I have decided to go ahead and re-pot after the final bloom falls. I've seen some info on mounting orchids and I would like to try it, but I would love some opinions on this vs simply re-potting this type of orchid. I have not examined her roots, she seems to be healthy and I was afraid to mess with her until I learned more. She is currently in a 6" clear pot, 100% sphag moss meduim but from what I see she has lots of nice roots and some aerials as well. Her ninth leaf is growing well, and I am under the impression she is several years old. Do you think a plant that established to pot culture would adjust comfortably to a mount, and what is the prefered method of mounting this type of orchid? Any and all advice would be much appreciated!

[tucker85]

My recommendation would be to repot. Phals can be grown on mounts but they require a lot of attention because they don’t have psuedobulbs to store water. You need to water a mounted phal almost every day, sometimes even more than once a day. A phal is much easier to care for in a pot.

[Bud]

I agree with Tucker. I would repot it in a Phalaenopsis media mix; but since you are comfortable with growing it on sphag moss then by all means repot it on fresh moss.
Mounting your plant might make it sulk since it is a new kind of environment that you are asking it to get used to. Altho most Phals are found in situ in the forests mounted on trees; but I would not advice it for indoors environment.

[SamiSmith]

Thank you for the advice. I think I will stick to repotting the phal. I would like to change the medium a bit because the possibility of root rot scares me. I do enjoy the look of the mounted plants, are there any you all would suggest growing this way in the home. I live in southern Georgia, where we have high humidity throughout the year, hot summers and mild winters. What are some species, other than phals, that would thrive well in my environment? Thanks again!