Trying to recover a phal

[jaylla]

I have a phal I've been trying to recover over the past year. I repotted it about 8 months ago into a semihydroponic culture. At that time, most of the roots were rotten. It has grown about 7 aerial roots since then.

I decided to pull it out today to see how the roots were looking and there is only one thick root down there. The roots in the medium haven't been growing much it seems, just the aerial roots.

So can I just plant all the aerial roots that have grown? All the aerial roots look healthy and are about 3-4 inches long each.

[AnonYMouse]

I may be wrong but I believe putting aerial roots in S/H will only rot them. My understanding is that existing roots are adapted to the environment in which they grow and will not adapt to a new environment. Therefore, only a root that grows into an S/H environment will succeed.

I couldn't grow Phals in S/H so I drained them and l now grow a few conventionally in LECA (no reservoir).

Perhaps a better option would be to mount it. Seems the roots are looking for something to grab onto.

[dangerouseddy]

might not be warm enough for semi hydro, you could try putting it on an heat mat.

[jaylla]

Okay. I thought I read somewhere that you could plant the aerial roots. Maybe not.

The window they are in is very warm now. It might have gotten cold over the winter though. Not sure.

I have another phal sitting right next to it planted exactly the same way and it's doing great. All the roots are green. It didn't make that many aerial roots but the roots underneath have grown a lot.