Three year old noid phalaenopsis hasn't bloomed

[tarev]

I grow some of my Phals in ceramic containers with side holes and drainage holes at the bottom. The rim of this containers is about 7 inches and depth of 7 inches. It may look big, but I have learned now that Phals are okay with it. What matters most to these plants is getting the proper watering/moisture, allowing the roots to dry out, good overall air circulation and just some bright light. I draw the white curtains in the afternoon since they are by my west facing window. Especially during summer time, needs air! We often get so engrossed with watering, we forget the air circulation. Those roots are quite fat, needs to dry out fast. Oh they will escape the side holes for sure, but I just let it. I have experimented moving it to a mix of clay rocks, lava rocks and some hygrolon, it works quite good. Typically we repot when the media starts to deteriorate so it suffocates the roots.

In my experiment, since my media will not decompose it just allows the roots to roam and grow as it pleases. After all in nature they are found hanging on tree branches. Adjusting watering frequency is important, about once a week during warmer months, and longer interval during colder months. I always run the ceiling fan after watering them or if weather permits it, opening up the window to allow cool air in. I do not even need to bring them out to encourage a spike in fall.It will do it on its own. I do not spray mist the leaves, it is okay with it, besides our water is hard water. If I have rain water on hand, maybe I will but otherwise, just watering direct on the root zone area.

I just make sure to lean the plant a bit to the side, it likes it that way, allowing the other end to raise a bit, pot up the roots but allow it to lean a bit. It may make aerial roots, or it may continue on making new and longer roots, escaping on any hole if it can. It shows me just how much air it likes

Attaching some photos so you can see how it is:
Early April 2015


Latter half of April 2015


Currently, in June 2015

[daisyd681]

So, if I understand you, you're saying the size of the pot doesn't matter? The plant will take the space it needs by escaping the pot.

Here's the one I've had for three years. It has 8 leaves and a new one coming (not sure why I thought it had 11). It came out of a 4" pot and is going into a 5" when my bark gets here. Do you think it will get much bigger?

Here's the new one. It's currently in a 5" clear pot inside a Terra cotta for stability. It has 7 leaves and big white flowers.



Last night hubs brought home this adorable guy for my birthday. He's a brancher! Potted in moss so I'll have to repot when he's done flowering. The pot is 2" and he has 6 leaves (one on bottom is tiny and hiding in the pic). Any thoughts on how big it might get?

I know they grow slow, I'm just wondering if I have the space for more when I'm tempted at the store, or if I should stop now and find other things for my windowsill.

[Raqsharqi]

I don't see any photos. What I'm saying is that phals get repotted so often that you fit the pot to the orchid you have, not the orchid you want it to grow up to be. If it really is a large orchid like tarev's, then you need a large pot. If it is a miniature phal, you need a small one. If it needs more room, it will grow out of the pot. If you over pot it, though, it could rot because there will be more media than the orchid roots can handle.

[daisyd681]

Okay. I guess I don't have enough posts yet for pics. Is there no way to tell how big an orchid is going to get? That's the basic answer I'm looking for. I'm just trying to figure out if I'm going to have room in a few years, or if I can buy small ones that will always fit on the windowsill. I just need to know how to figure out how big they'll be.

---------- Post added at 11:46 AM ---------- Previous post was at 11:37 AM ----------

I have no intention of over potting. I'm wondering what the other end of the spectrum is. How far can I under pot without hurting the plant? Can I trim a few roots to keep it smaller? They seems to deal with root loss on a minimal scale pretty well.

[silken]

Tips for posting Photos You can post photos after 5 posts so they should work.

If you have lots of healthy roots, you can trim them to fit a certain size pot. But it is really just a temporary fix since those trimmed roots may all branch out and create even more root. To me, the plant grew the roots for a reason, so I never get rid of them. Your Phals have a lot of leaves and likely need those roots to support them.

There are lots of smaller variety of Phals and by buying a small one in bloom, you pretty well know it will stay reasonably small. It had to be somewhat mature to bloom. They can still grow but you will know it won't be a giant one. Since Phals typically only have one growth, they usually don't really change in size. They just keep growing new leaves and losing the older bottom ones. At times, over the years, you maybe have to trim the old stem (and maybe some roots) off the very bottom as the stem elongates so it can sit back down in the pot with the crown just above the media. Unless you are buying species where size is a known thing, getting all the pretty hybrid Phals is a gamble size wise except for generalizing by what you see when you buy it. Ones like Phal Sogo Gotris, Timothy Chrisopher, Jiaho's Pink Girl and many other are pretty miniature.

[daisyd681]

Thank you! I figured it out so they should be showing up now.

That makes sense with the branching on the roots. I did notice that several had done that when I repotted the one. I saw a video where someone had one that wouldn't come out of the pot so he worked all the media out slowly and replaced it without taking the plant out. I suppose I could do that if they start getting too big.
I've been resisting buying more since I hadn't gotten the first one to rebloom but now that I know how to care for them it's gotten much harder to refrain. I just don't want to end up with more plant than I can care for.