How dry do you go with your phals?

[stylingpat]

I've been getting root rot issues when repotting my phals so I might have to do a test and see how dry I can take my phal in sphag. How far have you safely gone? For right now I'm going to wait till the roots get completely silver like aerial roots before watering again.

[Call_Me_Bob]

Bone dry. With my Phals in moss I don't water until the thing is completely dry all the way to the center. They might like to be watered a little sooner than I do it, but sometimes I don't get around to it.

[Ordphien]

Same... bone dry.

Sometimes a few days after or before that point.

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[james mickelso]

Those that are still growing in sphagnum moss I let get completely dry. The pot is feather light before I water them again. Those in lava cinder or bark are dry in a couple days and if I am out watering anything I will water them again.

[KellyKhaos]

Once they skewer test dry in the center, I tend to wait 24 hours then collect all that need watering & head to the sink.

[stylingpat]

Fantastic! Can you root rot a phal in all bark if it has proper air movement? I have a nodosa in all bark and from the way its been with watering I'd imagine it would be very difficult to root rot that plant because of the nature of all bark/charcoal

[King_of_orchid_growing:)]

Originally Posted by stylingpat

Fantastic! Can you root rot a phal in all bark if it has proper air movement? I have a nodosa in all bark and from the way its been with watering I'd imagine it would be very difficult to root rot that plant because of the nature of all bark/charcoal

The odds of the plant contracting root rot is significantly less, and it can sometimes be a lot less stress on me when they are grown in bark. It can still get root rot if you start watering too often though.

[WhiteRabbit]

Due to my problems root rotting Phals (both in bark and sphagnum), I let mine get completely dry before watering, but not allow them to remain dry - watered as soon as they became completely dry. After doing ok that way, but sometimes having some slightly dehydrated looking foliage, I now water when they are NEARLY dry (using a skewer to check)

Judging by root color is a good way to go.

[stylingpat]

Are there any rules to observe when switching from all sphag to bark or vice versa?

Also I seem to get rot when I repot. I wait till the plant needs to be watered, then I water to soften the roots, then repot in rung out damp sphag and still get rot! Any advice?

Also after your plant has been hit with bad root rot, what steps do I need to do to get it back on its feet again?

One of my favorite plants got hit with bad rot after I repotted when it was done flowering. All sphag into all sphag. All I did was remove mix, let the roots air dry to silver and repotted into all sphag again.

[james mickelso]

Root rot commences when water sits on an organic surface at cool temps for too long. When you water before you repot, the water gets into the roots and takes with it the ever present bacteria/fungus that inhabit the media through the normal cracking of that root material. Velamin. I like to repot when my orchids are dry. I even cut roots that are too long for the pot that I'm putting it into. I let that dry for a few hours and the water I use to water them after I repot them has a bactericide/fungicide in it. Here is one I repotted yesterday that came in moss and went into bark. You can repot into any media from any media without problems. Some say to soak bark overnight but I have found that not to be necessary. I prefer a mix of medium coarse bark/sponge rock/charcoal in my normal mix. This allows for excellent drainage and drying of the media quickly. I can then water more often without the associated root rot problems. I also use lava cinder with my normal mix or by itself. I also repotted a couple small masdies yesterday into moss. I pulled them out of 1.5 inch plastic pots and dropped them into 4 inch clay pots. This way the clay pots will help even out the moisture in the moss throughout the pot. Here are some pics of the operation repotting the phal. It was a rescue and has been growing here for awhile. Pic 1 is what I started with. In pic 3 you might be able to see the original small round sphagnum plug that this phal was dropped onto after being grown in a community pot. These small seedling phals are placed onto a 1.5 inch plug of spag, grown in hothouse conditions intil they are ready to be put into a 4 inch pot and more spag is then stuffed around them. This is why they come to us growing in a dense pot of spag. But if you take them out of the pot and start to carefully pull out the spag you'll find that most of the roots just grow down and around the sides of the pot making pulling the moss out easy once you get through the outer layers. Pic 5 is the amount of roots I cut off so I could put it back into the original clear plastic pot. Doesn't hurt the phal at all. I dabbed a little cinnamon onto each cut end as precaution against fungus/bacteria entering there. Pic 7 is the phal fitting snuggly into the pot. Pic 8 is potting mix mounded up on top of the roots. I mound the mix up onto the top of the roots, tap it onto the bench to settle it around the roots, mound some more up and tap that down into the root mass and keep doing this until the pot is filled. I wait a couple hours sometimes and sometimes just water it right after I get it all nice and snug. I put a fungicide/bacteriacide into the water I'm watering it with and then place in normal phal light in the GH. Very seldom do I have any problems with them.