Phals repotted from moss (dense nasty big box store moss) ......

[james mickelso]

......back into moss. "SAY IT AIN"T SO!!!!". Yes Henrietta, you can repot phals back into moss, not loose their flowers, and let them go bone dry (5 days between waterings) without loosing anything. My conditions: 55 at night/90 day time temps. 30-60% humidity. Small clay pots with sphagnum moss. The same moss I pulled off these when I repotted them. The caveat? It is very loosely packed around the roots. Lots of air movement through the media. I think these were repotted about 2 months ago. I showed a couple repots here. Anyway, I have some in LECA or moss or lava cinder or bark. The point I am making here is that you don't have to keep phals wet or even damp....all the time. These have each put out new leaves and roots. Two even have the stump of a new flower spike showing. Remember that orchids are slow growing. And that over watering stunts them. Also the last pics are a phal I got two years ago with leaves so limp I felt sure they would soon fall off. They didn't but never regained any turgidity at all. The phal has since put out three keikis and the central growth is still putting out a new leaf. Anyway here are some pics to look at.