Given young new Phal. free with purchase

[lotis146]

SO as I was saying in my Wils. 'Peach Cobbler' post, seller (ebay) gave me this little Phal. Brother Lawrence x Yellow Brite Lites free in the package. While I was checking it out (which medium is moss, doesn't appear to be sphagnum well to me looks kinda different and dry) I noticed sticky edges on the underside of a couple of the lower leaves and even a little bit on the bigger one. Majority of the sticky was concentrated to the edges and tip of the undersides. My little knowledge tells me that sticky stuff is bug poo, or at least bug secretions of some sort. I used alcohol to clean it off and it took a little scrub of the q-tip and a few goes. On the lower leaf that had the most there were VERY small (2) pimples if you will. I didn't notice any obvious bugs though I know that doesn't mean much.

Is this a concern as I think it is? And what do you think of it? Repot? Very nice gesture, but not if the plant has any pests! If it weren't for the sticky stuff then I thought the little guy was pretty good.

Thanks so much as always everyone!

[Daethen]

First of all, that does not look like a "LITTLE" phal. It does look very healthy. It sounds more like what we call "happy sap". If it is, it is a really good thing and would taste sweet.

[RandomGemini]

I wouldn't call it little either. I have a several "little" phals. They're about the size of a teacup.

Does sound like it could be happy sap.

[lotis146]

Thanks RandomGemini & Daethen!

I meant little as in young, not mini, sorry for that. It's already bigger than my mini. I thought it looked pretty good then the "sap" confused me.

SOOOOO, could my premature "cleaning off" of the "happy sap" be a problem for it? Now I feel silly, aw geez...

[RandomGemini]

It looks to be blooming size to me, the pot it's in seems to be a 3 inch pot. I believe this means the plant is at least 3 to 4 years old. I believe that phals take about this long to get to an age where they will flower. Now, it may never have bloomed before, that's not unlikely, but if you give it good culture, it should bloom this season.

I have a young phalaenopsis bellina var. coerulea that is in a 2 inch pot. When I bought it, it only had two leaves and they were just about the same size as a fifty cent piece and I don't expect it to bloom this year.

Edited to add: I just looked at the pics again. Actually that pot is smaller than it appears in the photos, isn't it? There's nothing in there to give me a good sense of the scale. It might be in the same size pot as my bellina, but wow those leaves! Impressive if the pot is small.

[LovePhals]

I have been looking for one of those. That phal looks really healthy and you should be feeling pretty lucky to get it as a freebie!

[lotis146]

Originally Posted by RandomGemini

It looks to be blooming size to me, the pot it's in seems to be a 3 inch pot. I believe this means the plant is at least 3 to 4 years old. I believe that phals take about this long to get to an age where they will flower. Now, it may never have bloomed before, that's not unlikely, but if you give it good culture, it should bloom this season.

I have a young phalaenopsis bellina var. coerulea that is in a 2 inch pot. When I bought it, it only had two leaves and they were just about the same size as a fifty cent piece and I don't expect it to bloom this year.

Edited to add: I just looked at the pics again. Actually that pot is smaller than it appears in the photos, isn't it? There's nothing in there to give me a good sense of the scale. It might be in the same size pot as my bellina, but wow those leaves! Impressive if the pot is small.

You're right, I sure didn't give any thing for purposes of scale! Sorry about that. The pot it's in is pretty small, cute really. I'm going to repot it tomorrow. I was pretty surprised to find it in the package and so happy! This Phal is a little bit smaller than my 1.5 yr old keikis. I'll add a new pic with something to scale.

Originally Posted by LovePhals

I have been looking for one of those. That phal looks really healthy and you should be feeling pretty lucky to get it as a freebie!

Yes I feel super lucky! I looked it up and it's a very pretty flower.

The ebay seller's name is radar_contact_lost
radar_contact_lost | eBay

Just saw that he's doing a little spring cleaning if you will of his green house, doing some culling.

Thanks and best to you all!

[lotis146]

[Daethen]

Ok, smaller than I thought but still nice sized.

[Leafmite]

Looks really healthy, too! Nice root system!